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)

Travel Prep (Toiletries)

Is this housekeeping? I say yes - it's getting your travel bag ready to go and this saves tons of time during the year. Whether you manage to get away for a two days, 7 days, or a month, having the things you need ready to go gives you more flexibility and confidence traveling. It also means you are ready to go if your life gets exciting and a fab opportunity comes up

Run, don't walk, to your nearest beauty counter! This is the season most prestige cosmetics companies wait for to launch their new products, offer special deals, and most of all, to offer a GWP. The GWP (gift with purchase) is an industry standard for the big cosmetic lines which is decades old. It's a win-win situation where you go to buy a mid-to-high price product from their line, and with it they give you a bonus. They often offer a cosmetics bag perfect for your purse or for travel and they offer trial sizes of colour and care cosmetics.

This practice makes this time of the year the best time to shimmy up to the counter, buy something you love and use, and get to try a bunch of new treats. In doing this, you can get a new/replacement cosmetic bag and travel sizes of cosmetic goodies.

So take this time to pull out that travel cosmetics bag, empty the contents, and clear out the old, broken, or shabby and replace with the new. My tips are these:

• I buy doubles of my most-used cosmetics - so one is in my bathroom, and the new one is in my travel bag. Of course I rotate when my daily-use one wears out to keep the stock 'fresh'. For me this means translucent powder, concealer, lip-liner and mascara. I change lipsticks too often to keep doubles! What would you take if stranded on a desert island with your hottie of choice?
• I keep two bags - one small one for colour cosmetics I'd need in a week or two away, and one for toiletries such as cleansers, toner, cotton pads, folding hair-brush, fave travel toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, etc.
• I keep my little bags packed and ready which means I can throw them into a weekender bag or a suitcase at a moment's notice and not have to even think about what's in it. I love the hanging toiletries bags precisely because you can hang then when you don't have counter space. But, I prefer taking my 2 separate bags because they are easier to pack and take less space.
• I keep a typed list of what goes in my cosmetic bag (it varies for each person) so I can print and refer to this list as I pack, but also take the list to make notes while I'm traveling - what to take (or what not to take) next time. You think of things in the moment when you need them and forget them on return!
• I always keep my eyes open for space/time saver items I can add to my travel bag - it's a little game for me.

I know we don't often have the opportunity to get away for a weekend, jet off to an exotic locale, or even manage a week in the tropics, but shouldn't we always be ready to go? I say we make our own adventure ... so be ready and be open!

Bon Voyage!

Paint Can Do's

I hate a messy paint can, but I don’t mind doing some painting of my own. It’s almost the only DIY I feel I can competently do and have professional looking results.

Here are a few tips for keeping your CAN from becoming a goopy mess:

• When you open your paint can, you can use a little plastic implement (about $3) to snap onto the lip of the paint can to help pour out the paint. If you use this, you don’t get runs down the can, and there is no paint in the lip of the can. It is easily washed and it can be used again and again. I've had mine for about 10 years - no kidding.
  

  

  image www.flexiproducts.com

• Closing the can is easy with a rubber mallet. Who has these? I don’t, but I used a hammer on my rubber garden slippers to properly close a paint can by gently tapping all around the lid. Closed well, I’ve used paint from 5-8 years after first buying it. And yes… you want to keep your paints for any scuffs or marks that may come in the years ahead. Even if you had the colour mixed again, there would be a slight difference in the batch.

• If you are painting with a brush, put a rubber band lengthwise around the can to be able to wipe excess paint when painting. It keeps the lip of the can paint and clump free. This is a Martha idea… and I tried it last week. It’s definitely a ‘good thing’ I will always use moving forward.

  

  image origin unknown - likely Martha

Here are a few more handy paint tips:

• If you need a lot of paint for a project, get all the cans mixed at one time – to avoid batch colour differences.
• To be extra careful for colour match, pour the multiple cans into a huge plastic bucket and stir fully so you blend them before painting your walls.
• Buy good quality rollers… cheap rollers often leave lint in the paint. What you can do is roll your roller with a pet-fur sticky roll before using it. This removes bits of lose ‘fluff’
• If you want a clean line, use the painter’s tape. (I don't know about you but my hand gets shaky and tired after a little while, so my free-hand lines are not acceptable.) Paint one stroke parallel along the tape edge before painting the wall to avoiding bleeding. That first little bit of paint on the tape edge ‘seals’ the edge.
• Keep a bowl of water and some paper towels always handy – almost everything is latex paint now and it’s easy to fix a mistake if you do it immediately with a damp paper towel
• Keeping a ‘wet edge’ really does work to give a streak-free, uniform, professional finish
• I don’t care how ‘good’ new paints are – I think a second coat is needed to give a flawless finish. I let my first coat dry for a day before I do the second… lots of drying and curing time and a lot less marking or scuffing. 
• Remember I said 'keep the paint'? Buy cheap little paint brushes from the dollar store and use them to stipple scuff marks that can't be cleaned with water and sponge. They are so inexpensive, you can just throw them out after each use. Another 'Martha gem' I remember from ages ago is to pour some of each of your paints in clean, dry baby food jars. You can see the colours easily and they are handy for small fixes. If your colours are similar, label the jars with a sharpie. To keep them from drying out, store them upside down so no air seeps in.  
• Store your paints in the basement - the garage gets too cold. The wide variance in temperatures and humidity experienced in the garage will  not be good for the paint longevity.