Did you guys catch my guest post yesterday over at Black and White Obsession? Where I shared my long-awaited front door makeover?
Today, I’m here to provide a little more detail on my step by step process so you can fabulous-ify your door as well!
My door “before” was oak-colored faux-wood-grain plastic/composite. Very 80’s/90’s with the not-really-stained-glass design.
You may remember that I have grand plans to paint the outside of the door glossy black as I mentioned in this post, Curb Appeal Updates: Planning Stages. In that post, I valiantly resisted the urge to pass off my photoshopped black front door as the finished product, because honesty really is the best policy, or so I’ve been told.
The exterior of the front door still awaits its glam makeover, due to the inconveniences of the unbearable heat of the Texas summer. [You say, “But it’s fall now!” The Texas weather gods say, “What is this ‘fall’ you speak of?”] But there was no reason not to go all Hollywood-plastic-surgery nuts on the interior of the front door with cool A/C and many episodes of Fringe to keep me company…
I can’t remember where I first saw this sort of black-and-white paint treatment on a door, but I’ve loved it for quite some time!
I actually achieved a similar look in our previous apartment with black masking tape (renters rejoice!). The masking tape did begin to peel after a little while, but I think electrical tape might be the ticket for a longer-lasting-but-still-removable design. Excuse the grainy iPhone photo please:
But on to the tutorial! To paint a door, you first need paint and painting supplies!
I went with an exterior paint-and-primer in a satin finish for the main color of the door (Ultra Pure White by Behr) and a small can of semi-gloss black paint for the details. However: this would be amazing done in so many other color combinations! White door with mint details? Mint door with black details? Black door with white details? So many possibilities! Go wild!
I selected my trusty Purdy paint brush to paint the inset details on the doors, and a smooth foam roller for the flat surfaces. I think the foam roller really helped to create to lay down light and even coats of paint.
Before I could even begin painting though, I needed to patch a few holes and dents in the door:
It’s an easy process: smear, wait, sand. Once painted, you would never know!
Next up – tape around the door handle and lock. You can see that I also taped the glass, but I now feel that it was an unnecessary step, so go ahead and save your super-expensive tape for other uses:
Then comes the first coat of paint:
Doesn’t it look wonderful? I just have to tell myself – “It always gets worse before it gets better.” It’s easy to freak out when you’re in the middle of a project that suddenly looks WORSE than when you began. But it does get better, eventually.
Coat two:
And coat three:
Here you can see that while waiting for the paint to dry, I amused myself by tacking up paint samples and testing my current favorite on the wall (spoiler alert, it did not win out).
After the third coat dried, the white was looking good and I moved on to taping out the black details:
I wrestled with this for an undue amount of time. I toyed around with trying to create thinner stripes like my taped version. In the end, I decided to go with simple and bold and just paint any inset or raised trim black, while keeping all the flat surfaces white.
The first coat of black paint:
It gets worse before it gets better. *Gulp*.
The second coat:
A third coat was actually probably not 100% necessary, but I’m nothing if not thorough… I will however spare you a nearly-identical photo, and jump straight to the fun part – removing the tape:
Or the not-so-fun part. I had a LOT of fuzzy edges where the black bled under the tape. (Yes, I have seen tips on how to prevent this, such as painting the base color over the tape once more, but seriously, who has the patience for that?) Also, the tape started to pull up the edge of the paint in some spots, which I have also since read is easily preventable by running a sharp knife along the edge of the tape. Hindsight is 20/20. Since I already had fuzzy edges, I just very carefully used my paint brush dipped in the white paint to cut in a smooth line once more – a five minute process that resulted in a crisp clean striped design!
At the time I painted and photographed this project for my guest post, I had not yet painted the living room walls, so yesterday I decided to snap some new photos for you so you can appreciate the huge difference the new warm white wall color makes!
One more before and after for you, because I just can’t help myself:
I’m in LOVE! Seriously, go paint something right now and then come back and tell me about it! I want to hear all about your amazing new hot-pink-and-black front door or the awesome cobalt blue details you’ve painted on your closet doors, okay?
Yes, yay to the door! What does the door look like from the outside?
From the outside, it's still the fake wood, but I can't wait until it's cool enough to paint it black (it's still in the 90s here lately!).
Your ambition never ceases to amaze me. New photos to show off the paint job, cheah color me jealous!!
I must ask though, I've painted doors plenty of times before, but how do you go about avoiding the wall trim? And do you paint the seams of the doors themselves, you know the part you only see when the door is kicked open (for lack of better terminology).
Great work my friend!!
Good questions! I painted the trim with the same white door paint, so I didn't have to worry about avoiding it. I haven't paint that "open" edge of the door yet (too hot to leave it propped open long enough to dry!) but I think it'll go black like the outside once it's cool enough here! And I just smushed my brush in the crack on the hinge side until I couldn't see any more oak-color 🙂
Glad you like the pictures! Thanks Trisha!
It's really coming along at your place, the new paint colours and door are looking great.
Thank you Eve! There's still much to do, but I feel very motivated now 🙂
You know I love black and white, right? So then you know that I LOVE this door makeover. It is STUNNING!
Thank you Amy! One of these days I will find the time to do this to all my interior doors! Black and white forever!!! 🙂