Fresh Front Door

I painted our new front door BLACK

I love charming features of older homes, but there was absolutely nothing charming about our original front door! I didn't realize that it takes so much work to install a new door. John and I went to Home Depot and found the door that we both loved and had our contractor install the door. The contractor also had to reframe the door. I was excited about painting the door, because it was MY project. I originally planned to paint the door outside without the hardware, before it was installed, the contractor advised that it could get scratched up during the installation, so I waited to paint.

"...painting without great lighting is a BAD idea."

Before moving into our home we had to get a new electrical panel and a complete rewire. That meant a lot of holes in the walls, dust, and no light fixtures. Thankfully we didn't have to live in our new home while the electrical work was being done. John and I worked on the projects that we were doing ourselves at night and on the weekends, while workers weren't there. That was a great idea, except painting without great lighting is a BAD idea.

Since all of the light fixtures were removed of course that means I was painting without any lights. I started painting the door when it was daylight outside and of course the sun started to go down. I was so proud and then we came back the next day to continue working on projects and I saw all of the paint drip marks (face palm). I wanted to prove to John how great of a painter I was and this project definitely didn't show it! One, painting without great lighting was definitely not a good idea. Two, I didn't tell me that using a paint brush could leave drip marks. I started painting the door with a paintbrush and on Monday my contractor suggested that I use a roller so there's no brush marks.

I sanded the areas with the drip marks, bought paint rollers, and repainted. Thankfully I started painting the interior first, so I was able to correct my mistakes and I learned a lesson about when to use paint rollers vs paint brushes. Things turned out MUCH better on the exterior of the door, I was proud of that part of the project and the hubby approved. Painting the window panes was a pain, but I love our new front door. I feel that it really makes our porch pop! We chose very sleek, modern Schlage hardware. For the paint color, we chose Behr Premium Plus Exterior Satin in Dark Secret. Dark Secret is black, with grey undertones.