Want a quick update to your homes curb appeal?  Have you ever thought about repainting your front door?  Well, follow along with me on this process and see how easy and quick it is!

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FRONT DOOR UPDATE

We built our house back in 1983 and our front door was primed metal.  At the time, dark brown and beige was all the rage….I know….not exactly flattering to today’s standards!  But it was a thing back then!

Some years later, maybe five or six years, I decided the dark brown trim just had to go.  We opted for a nice taupe that went well with our brick.  That’s when I repainted the front door a nice deep dark barn red.

I repainted that front door several times over the last 37 years….always a red, but in various forms since that first time going in the red direction.  Fast forward to this year….it needed painting again, but this time it had to be stripped, as there were too many layers and the paint had been chipping off in so many places.

So, this past Saturday morning I decided it was time.  I bought a stripping product for some old furniture that needed to be updated so I thought I would give it a try on this project.  There had to be at least 5 layers of paint on this door so I knew sanding it wouldn’t be practical.

 

READY STRIP FOR THE WIN

Let’s walk through the process.  I had my hubby remove the door and we placed it in the shade on some saw horses.  To keep all the bugs out of the house, I taped up a large piece of plastic drop cloth I had with blue painters tape.

I used a cheap chip brush to apply the product.  You can totally wash this stuff out of your brush if you’d like with soap and water, but I’m all about quick and easy….and chip brushes are VERY cheap, so I planned on just throwing it away when I was done with the project.  You just want to brush on a nice thick layer.

Since it was already getting hot outside, I used a spray bottle of water and misted the door a few times over the next four hours.  Keeping it moist helps with the activation.

TOTAL SATISFACTION

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE when you go to scrape off the old paint, it just peels up with one swoop!  Talk about total satisfaction!!

After you get off all the old paint (I always have an old box to put the paint scrapings in), just hose down the door to deactivate the stripper.  Use a nylon brush to scrub it with the water and rinse well.  Now you need to move the door to a sunny location to completely dry.  Since this is a metal door, it dried super fast in the sun.

 

PRIME

Next we took the door back into the shade (of our garage this time) and I appled Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer by Zinsser.  This works for most surfaces including metal.  I just used a sponge roller to get a nice even coat.  As you can see, it isn’t a heavy coat.  I just want to cover the surface to make for better adhesion for the door paint.

Hang it back up!

After we left this to dry for a couple hours, we removed the plastic from the door and hung the door back on the hinges.  This finished our Saturday.

FRONT DOOR PAINT

Sunday afternoon I reinstalled the plastic to the door, and began painting the door while it was actually hung.  I used Modern Master Front Door Paint.  I’ve been a Faux Finisher for over 20 years now and Modern Masters has been one of my favorite product lines for all these years. (TIP:  between coats, wrap your brush, roller and pan in plastic wrap, so you won’t have to wash out until completely done with the project!)

This first coat will look pretty scary.  To do it all over again, I would have painted the door either a dark gray or black prior to the red door paint.  This wouldn’t have saved a layer, just made the red more deep, requiring only 2 coats of red instead of 3.

The door is dry in 1 hour and if you need to, you can close the door at this point.  To recoat you will need to wait 2 hours.  I ended up painting 3 coats of red but by the end of the day before dark, I was able to remove the plastic and close the door before bedtime.

FINISHED!

I just LOVE how fresh and new the door looks again.  We have a brass kick plate to go on the bottom, but my hubby wants to remove the protective coating, polish and apply a new topcoat to it before reinstalling it.  That will be for another weekend!

So, have you painted your front door lately?  It really is a quick and easy process.  I hope this inspires you to do yours!  Let me know if you do.