While Matt was gone last weekend on a trip to Alaska, I took the opportunity to paint our front door! See, we live in a collection of cookie cutter townhouses so I was incredibly excited when I found out that our HOA had just incorporated a program where people can paint their front doors one of eleven approved colors. Matt’s top picks were the dark blue, the red, and the golden yellow. My top picks were the lime green, the peach (?), and the golden yellow. Crisis averted! We picked our overlap color of “Gusto Gold” by Sherwin Williams. I submitted the paperwork, picked up a quart of exterior paint in a satin finish, and planned to paint over the weekend!
Our door had clearly been painted a couple times by hired help, also known as people who don’t care how evenly coated the paint is because they have two more buildings to do today! So, I decided to put in some extra elbow grease and sand the door as much as I could. I used a little orbital sander for the flat parts. And for the sunken in parts, I used a sandpaper–though, honestly, I can’t sand nearly as well as something motor powered can and I eventually gave up before it was super smooth.
I started at about 7:30 in the morning on Sunday because I had read that it’s an all day project because the paint would need to dry before I would be able to close the door again. I took the hardware off and got to it! I started with Liquid Deglosser, a biodegradable product that is designed to help new finishes adhere to the old. It prepares paint to adhere to the surface by removing grease, grime and wax. It only takes a couple minutes to dry, and I liked the reassurance that the surface I had just sanded for hours was, in fact, ready. Next up, Gusto Gold!
Thinking that I was probably due for my second coat an hour or two later, you can imagine my surprise when I read the can and realized that it was four hours until my next coat. Welp, dog walk time it is…
My goal was to do three coats of yellow paint, but after the third, I could still see some spots where I had sanded all the way down to the metal. Probably should have primed those. Oops. So, I did four coats and decided I was done. Problem was, even with cutting some of my drying time short between coats, I still finished painting the fourth coat at 5:45 which means after four hours of drying time, I wasn’t going to close my door until 9:45 = bug time. I decided to chance it (again) and started putting the hardware back on about 7:30 and finally closed the door around 8:15. I was relieved to find out this morning that I had waited long enough because there were no problems spots! Thank you high heat and low humidity temperatures.
Here’s a photo I mocked up of how you should paint a door. First, you want to do all the recessed parts, then the inside of those squares. After that’s done, paint the horizontal parts, going all the way across, then the vertical planes, all the way up and down. I chose to paint the number 1 areas with a 2″ angled brush, and the rest with a small foam roller. Once you go through these steps, let the paint dry for the allotted amount of time, and then proceed with a second coat.
And here’s the final product! Four coats later, how good is that color?! I would love to remove the remnants of the storm door that used to be here before us (I just realized that little latch that’s still screwed in to the frame) as well and sand, fill, and paint all the screw holes. I might have to talk to the HOA to find out what paint was used on those parts by the painting company first, otherwise I could be making more work for myself.
I can’t really express how happy this bright color on our front door makes me! We’re the first in the neighborhood to use anything other than red or blue, and even at that, we’re one of few who has even painted their door away from the standard white. I’m afraid this great Gusto Gold is going to catch on. At least, if it ever does catch on, there’s always peach. Hahah!
Budget Breakdown
- Sherwin Williams quart of exterior paint in satin:
$25$15 due to a 40% weekend sale - 2″ angled paint brush:
$15$10.50 due to 30% weekend sale - Liquid Deglosser: $7
- Foam roller: $9
- Paint tray: $2
- Sand paper: $4
- Orbital sander paper: $10
- Drop cloth: $2
- Shop towels: $6
- TOTAL: $65.50