Our front door needed a facelift since the day we moved in. We have white siding and, for a time, loved (at least the idea of ) the classic red door. As time wore it down, it became more and more drab and less of a classic statement. John Petersik (of Young House Love) once noted in a post that the front door is the smile of the house; if that is true – there has been a veritable sprig of spinach in ours for quite some time. Additionally, when the homeowner of the home directly across the street decided to remodel, they chose white siding and (you guessed it) a red door. We were no long able to direct our friends and family to the “white house with the red door” as we no longer had the corner on the white house/red door market.
Enter hours of Pinteresting to search for door color inspiration. The colors that jumped out at me the most were emerald greens, happy yellows, and two different shades of blue: a slate blue and a creamy, aqua. The photo that sent me over the creamy aqua edge was this one:
The door color pictured here is Benjamin Moore’s Stratton Blue. When I saw that swatch in person – I opted for a lighter color in the same palette: Wythe Blue.
Here’s how it all went down.
On Saturday morning, I got busy sanding. This poor old door has been through a lot. I didn’t bother to strip the layers and layers of old paint off – though some might have advised me to do so. I roughed up the surface with our belt sander and some 220 grit sandpaper.
Next came two coat of primer. I originally purchased a quart of Benjamin Moore primer but ended up using it for another project. Adam picked up a can of Zinsser primer (we’ve used this brand in the past for some furniture painting projects). It took two coats of primer before I was confident that the new top coat would go on smoothly.
The paint professional at Boise Paint and Glass suggested this particular paint for the door project and I really enjoyed using it – it smoothed on like a dream. I opted for two coats of color.
No project goes unsupervised – Ives kept close watch while I applied both coats.
While we were at it, we also decided to update the hardware, mailbox, and house numbers. They all looked 1.) weathered, and 2.) the nickel finish on the door handle was the odd man out – it was time to get all matchy matchy.
Whilst wandering down the spray paint aisle at Home Depot, I remembered a Young House Love tutorial on updating hardware (you can read it here) so, naturally, I just bought all the stuff they recommended.
I sanded, deglossed, primed, and painted (two coats) our sad old handle.
I let it dry for about two hours before reattaching it to the freshly painting door. I was skeptical about how well the application would go but I pleasantly surprised with the end result. Time will tell whether or not this is a long-lasting hardware improvement solution.
Without further ado, here is our happy new door.
I can’t help but take a deep breath each time I look at it. Ain’t nobody gonna steal your shine, Wythe Blue door.
-Layne
