Home: Painting the Front Door

We bought our house 1 1/2 years ago. It was built in 1987, which really isn't that old. I was born before then, so it can't be old! But, it has reached the age of needing updates. Mostly what it needs is a good coat of paint everywhere. One of the first places to start was our front door. Take a look at the before.

It's just so blaaaaah... and the paint is chipped to the metal. 

 I hated that when people came to our home, the first thing they saw was our old beat up front door.

The inside wasn't much better. When the previous homeowners painted the walls and trim they did a pretty sloppy job of it. They painted right on the door and the hinge! 

 I'm not a fan of the wall color, but that has to stay for now. But look, the front door is the same color. It sinks right into the wall. So boring...

My husband is awesome. Seriously awesome. He spent 1 1/2 days painting that front door. It took quite a bit longer than we originally thought it would. But it was so worth the effort. 

To start with, since the paint was chipped down to the metal, we had to strip all of the paint off the door. There it is, bare, right down to the metal. The red spots are areas where Kyle filled in a couple of larger dents in the door with some bondo (auto body filler).

Then came priming.

And then painting. Look at that bright red! We really wanted a red-orange, which it is. But it is heavier on the red side than we originally wanted. I still love it though! The color we chose was Grenadine by Behr. It was nice and bright and happy. And definitely not boring.

Now look at that happy door! Isn't that more inviting?  

We even painted the inside the same color. I love the pop of color it adds. It was definitely needed.

And now our house is easier to find. It's the one with the bright red door! (Yes, we still need to paint the trim. It's somewhere on our long list of updates to make.)