Updating an Exterior Door

Our new green front door just makes me smile!

Below are a few tips I picked up on Updating an Exterior Door.

I've been excited to show you guys our new front door! In a couple of weeks, I'll be posting about our spring front porch in its entirety...but I just couldn't wait to show you all some {close up} door photos below!

This new green just makes me so happy! Although I spilled 3/4 of a gallon of it on my entryway floor {of course I did}, the paint job itself was a rather simple one.  

Hello...is it me you're looking for?

Thanks to my friend Sean, over at Snackfixation, for reminding me that this truly is a tribute to Lionel. He quickly pointed this out on my Instagram photo of the above.

As you can see from above, we were in need of some TLC. Obviously. My wreaths and door buckets had banged a bunch of scuff marks all over that door. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but, I love how adding color can take things to a whole new level.

Below are a few quick tips if you're ever thinking of painting an exterior door. I'm headed for my back door next...maybe green, too? Or yellow? Or blue? Decisions...

First, completely clean your door. Even with a storm door, our front door still needed a good scrub. Be mindful to get into all of the little crevices. You can even use a cotton swab to really get into all of the nooks and crannies.
I used my Shaklee Basic H cleaner {in degreasing strength} to attack this. It's a great natural and organic cleaner that really works. The bottle of concentrate that I have has lasted for well over a year. You can pick some up here.

Give your door a light sanding. If there are multiple layers of paint, you may have to do a lot more than this {stripping, cleaning, sanding, etc.}, but I only had one layer of white that was very easy to cover. 

I opted not to prime because the texture on my door is rather "toothy" and gripped pretty well. If you aren't sure, it's not a bad thing to prime anyway.  Avalanche Contractor says, "Typically, primer is used to paint over porous materials, such as concretes and certain types of wood. Most professionals opt to use a primer when they know that the material is not water resistant and will be exposed to the elements".

After sanding, wipe down completely with a tack cloth to remove all sawdust and debris.

Tape off everything you don't want to paint. Normally, I would have wanted to remove and replace hardware...and painted while hardware was removed. But, I'm having a hardware finish identity crisis currently. For the last few years, I was going to replace all the hardware with oil rubbed bronze. I started on a few pieces last fall. And then it all of a sudden seemed like brass is making this huge comeback. So, now, I just don't know what to do. Half of my house has oil-rubbed bronze and the rest is brass. And I don't know which to replace. A crisis. Clearly.

Once you start painting, be sure to go with the grain. My door has two main grain directions...on the cross bars and the side ones. And then the recessed pieces were mostly vertical. But, be sure to just stay with that grain and it should go on smoothly.

My door took a full four coats of paint. I used very light coats to prevent too much build up. 

And the Lionel Richie tribute went on B-E-A-utifully. I just cut this on my Silhouette in gold vinyl. Because I have a crush on the gold/green combo.

I had an old door bucket that had been in my garage for quite a while. It was white, but I thought the yellow would be super fun on the green. I popped some hydrangeas in it and I'm really loving how it turned out!

So what do you think?

What's your favorite front door color?

{i linky-party here}

and at Coastal Charm and Savvy Southern Style

Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:

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