Painting the Front Door

Whether you are a Potter fan and it's butter-beer, a teetotaler and it's the level of caffeination of your coffee, or you pour yourself a martini like I did, painting the door while it's still hung will make you want a strong drink! Despite being a small surface it's a more complex job.

Why do I always think it's easier than it is?

Here are my tips for painting your front door.

• Choose a paint wisely - make sure you take into consideration the colour of the house materials, the soffits, the light (how strong?), the style of the home (deep colours and traditional tones suit formal, some colours are more 'country'). If you like feng shui, choose with the direction of the door in mind. Paint a board to see if you like the colour on something larger than a paint chip, if you like. Custom a colour if you like - I once had the paint shop make the brown colour I wanted but reduce the 'red' quotient in the composition to 0 - so the door didn't look pinky in the afternoon light. Whatever you favour, take your time choosing so you don't have to paint twice. You will thank me.
• Can you remove your door? If you can, and can paint it on a horizontal surface (like a table or a workhorse) for a period of a day, that would be easiest and best. It will minimize drips and tricky angles.Start early, and do both coats in one day - with a couple extra hours of drying time in between coats than the paint can says (for good curing) and no chance of smudges.
• Can the hardware be removed? If so, do it. If you really don't want to and have the most simple 'round' door knobs, great. If it's anything fancy or intricate, and can't be taped off easily, it's a big ugly mess. I made that mess... I know.

Say you are like me and need to paint the door in place (don't want the kitties to get out or bugs to get in). There are a few things you can do to try to make this go better.

• Paint on a day when the humidity is at a reasonable level so it dries quickly. Don't paint on a windy day because you risk getting dust and dirt in your nice paint. Outdoor painting always needs to be done at a temp of 11C or higher.
• Wash the door with a non-residue cleanser and let it dry fully before painting.
• Tape off the windows, handles etc. I use the green painters tape - it's worth the little extra effort for a better finish. 
• Choose your weapons (aka implements) carefully. A smaller angled paintbrush or a dense foam roller are my faves for this type of job. The shinier your paint finish (I choose a satin because my door is in the shade - and that is shiny!), the more it will show brush strokes or errors. I went with a small dense roller.
• Paint in one direction whenever possible - you will get a more even coat and finish.
• You will need to have the door open while painting so put down newspaper or drop-cloth on both sides of the door to protect porch and floor. I put something heavy behind the door so it won't move when I paint with the roller.
• Begin with the parts of the door that fit into the frame when it's closed. Those will be in contact with the frame when you close the door later, so you need them to be good and dry. I'm careful and only paint these areas once - because they won't show as much and don't need to be loaded with paint.
• I always keep paper towels and warm water handy... I clean messes or mistakes as I go so they don't have the chance to get dry and hard to remove.
• I painted one coat one day and left it a good 4hrs curing time before closing the door and touching it, then painted the second coat the next day and left it the same amount of time.

Done! Martini in hand, I swear I will never paint a front door again. Until next time, of course! 

This lovely home is not my own - but we now share similar front door colours (photo - pixabay)