Painting My Front Door

Like I said, I really want a new door.  This one is actually fine (I think) but I just would like a nicer one.  It's a steel door by Stanley.  If you have a steel or fiberglass door you can paint it anything you want.  Fiberglass doors can even be painted to look like wood.  (Wood is cool, but not nearly as efficient and doesn't have the life span of steel or fiberglass.)  Dave thinks I want all evidence of the previous owners out of the house--there might be some truth to that.  This is a picture of the front of the house last fall (hence, the scarecrow and it's not as big as it is now).  It had a maroon door and shutters.  I hated the shutters (they didn't serve any actual purpose) and every house in the neighborhood has gray siding and maroon doors/shutters.  I HATE being like everyone else.

So when it came time for Bob to reside the house I told him to nix the shutters.  I bought some paint from Benjamin Moore in town.  That little paint shop is so happy they are on my walking route each day.  Paint cans fit nicely in the basket of my stroller.  I bought the color, dove blue.  Or dove gray.  Dove something.

We are definitely going to have to address the rotted out frame around the door.  That's what happens when you have lousy gutters.  I really never realized how important gutters were for a house.  Not only do they move the water away from the foundation (well, supposed to) but they keep the water from dripping constantly down off the roof line down on to your porch and bouncing up onto the door frame.  Last year we had the gutters positioned correctly.  There was a big whole in one of the planks on the porch.  It was from water continuously coming down and beating on the wood.  As it turns out, it was also bouncing up and hitting the bottom of the door frame.  Water is incredible.

My hope is that we can just replace the frame for now and save the current door. Anyway, the next few days are going to be wet so I took advantage of the warm dry weather and painted the door.  I don't have a storm door on the front of my house, so that means the door needs to stay open when I'm painting it.  I can't close it while it's wet either.  So I hung some plastic sheeting.  Three different people (USPS and then UPS were two of them) commented on my nice front door today.  (Groan)  Pictures below show plastic sheeting and door from the inside and one from the outside.

 

I did the first coat very early this morning.  I sanded it down as best I could (the door is beat) and then wiped all the particles off.  I put a second coat on a few hours later once it seemed to be dry to the touch and then took down my plastic sheeting so that it could get more air.

So here's the next problem.   That little piece of tacky wood with the 30 on it (also previous owner's item) needs to go.  I need to repaint that porch and guess what we're doing about that door handle? You guessed it, it's GOT to go!   The front door makes a huge impression on your house.  In fact, now that I look at this picture I'm wondering if that light fixture is all wrong.  (Dave would kill me.. it took him forever to put that thing in there).   Doesn't that door need some cool molding around it?  I really need to hit the lottery.. a girl with this many ideas should have more spending money.

 

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