We thought about different colors over the past few months but never nailed anything down. I didn't really think Matthew would want to go for a bright or bold color, and I didn't really want anything too crazy either. We both wanted something simple and classy. I threw out the option of painting our door black. I looked at tons of black front doors and loved the simplicity of the color, and most wreaths would go with the color black...gotta think about these kinds of things! ;) Well Matthew wasn't too keen on the color black and knew that I liked some other colors as well so we kept looking at colors. Well when Blair posted the color that they painted their front door I loved it. Pretty, bright and classy! I casually showed Matthew the color one night after dinner, not thinking too much of it, and he loved it, and said that was the color for our front door. I'll admit, I was a little shocked, but excited he liked the color too and that we both agreed on it, so that was our color! We decided to paint our door over Labor Day Weekend.
We knew that taking our front door off would let in a lot of heat, obviously, so we started around 8 that morning in an attempt to try and beat the heat. Thankfully it was very sunny that morning so I painted in the open sun to dry the door quickly, and it worked! We decided to paint both sides of our door, and we are SO happy with it. We love being able to see the color on the inside as well. That pop of color in our entryway is so fun. After painting both sides, in total, we probably had our front door off for about 2 hours, not too bad!
Last year on Labor Day Weekend we gave our dining room table a makeover and this year we painted our front door...my inner Joanna Gaines is liking this tradition ;)
Before I stared painting I wiped down the entire door, both sides, with a damp rag. After it dried I sanded both sides lightly. I used a sanding sponge similar to these. I then wiped off both sides with a damp rag again, and then let it dry completely before I started painting.
I was very nervous for some reason when it came time to paint our door, I guess because I knew if I messed it up and it didn't turn out well then it would be the first thing everyone saw until we got a new front door...so just a little pressure! I looked up a ton of tutorials and YouTube videos, but really it wasn't hard at all. Once I got to painting it just kinda flowed and worked out great.
I will say, one thing I learned, is to use a small roller on the detailed areas. I started out using a brush, but decided the small roller worked better. I used a small roller from Lowe's like this one. I used a regular sized roller on the rest of the door, and I think that helped with making sure it was all even and smooth looking! I did two coats on each side and I think that was plenty.
I painted all sides of the door, except the top, since no one will see that area anyways! I used the small roller for the sides as well. Worked like a charm!
I know you can tape off your hardware (door handles) and such but since I despise taping anything we just took off our door handles until the paint was completely dry. It didn't take long and I didn't have to be extra careful in those area.
Our front door color is Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue, and we could not be happier with it!
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