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Let’s make over my front door together on a budget, less than $100!
During this time of social distancing I have been trying to keep myself busy. From working with the kids on their school, watching a lot more movies with them, playing games and reading a lot more. I also told myself this is the time to do all the things in the house I never had time to do!
So project #1 of our mandatory time home: The Front Door! Our front door was painted about 5+ years ago. By awesome husband painted it bright green for me! I loved the color, but it was time for a change.
As you can see from the photo, the door needed to be redone. The bottom and middle of the door sits in the afternoon sun, so it gets baked. Hence why a lot of the paint was beginning to be peeled off.
My first step was to strip the paint. I decided not to take the door off the hinge because I knew it was going to be a multiple day process. I removed a lot of the loose paint to begin with before I used anything else on it. After this I needed to strip the paint, so I used Citristrip. Because we were indoor I didn’t want to use a product that had a strong chemical smell.
Citristrip is super easy to use, simply paint it on and let it do it’s work. I put this on later in the afternoon, and knew I wasn’t going to have the time to work on it, so I covered the door with plastic bags and left it over night. Here’s a little tip: use cheap chip brushes to apply the Citristrip so that you can just throw them away when done and not have to worry about cleaning. I use these from Amazon.
The next day, I pulled the bags off and started stripping the door down. My daughter and I found out there were about 10 layers of paint on this door! After we pulled the first couple of layers off we ended up having to layer the door again with citristrip and then this time we covered it tightly with plastic wrap.
We ended up doing three applications of Citristrip, twice covered with plastic wrap. And a lot of scrapping in between. Since the door sits in the sun, a lot of the layers were really hard to get off. Secondly, my daughter and I also decided, everyone prior to us just painted over top and never took the proper steps to paint the door.
After all the stripping, I washed the door twice. Once with the required mineral spirits (I just used what we had on hand from previous projects) and steel wool to get the Citristrip off the door and then again with soap and water.
Our door is metal (as you can see from the photos), but I still wanted to make sure it was smooth and all paint was off it before I repainted it. So I took a swipe over it with sand paper and got all the dried paint off, focusing mainly on the corners of the panels where paint sits.
After sanding it with 150 grit paper, I washed it down one more time with soap and water. At this point it had been almost a week we had been working on this door for about a week! But I wanted to make sure it was done correctly this time so it would last awhile!
Now, the door is ready for primer! I made sure to get outdoor primer that was going to help keep the paint looking great, and went with the Valspar exterior primer sealer. I ended up doing 3 coats of primers on the door. I wanted the metal to be completely covered so that the paint stuck on the door this time.
And, now it was time for the paint! I was so excited about this! My daughter and I picked out a paint color that was fun, would make a statement on the front of the house and that also would invite you into my house. I didn’t want anything that wasn’t going to match our interior of our house.
I have been in the process of redoing my entire house. It was my comfort when my oldest daughter left and went to college in the fall. The door paint color matches the rug in our main living room, and the accent colors in the rest of the house. I choose Valspar Duramax paint in Tropical Oasis.
I painted the first layer of paint with a foam brush and a roller. The second and third layers I painted with a regular paint brush and made sure I got the entire door covered thick with paint.
I LOVE how the door turned out! It’s a gorgeous color, it’s so fun and it matches the interior of my house perfectly!
The whole project costs me less than $100 and a week. But I truly love how it turned out and now I’m ready to continue my to-do list while I’m still stuck at home. Now off to the next project…
This Weeks Friday Faves - The Modern Simplest
[…] I am knocking stuff off my to-do list and loving it! I have a long list of things I want done around the house. It’s been years since I did any improvements, so now is the time. I finished my front door and it makes me so happy now! You can find the post about it here. […]