Over the past five or so years we have lived in our house, the sun has totally drenched the color out of our front door. It beams its rays down on our front porch area so much that when we open our front door, it’s too hot to touch. True story! See all that sun beaming into our living room.
If you stepped foot on our front porch, our faded front door was not very welcoming.
Although we have painted every single wall and our entire house, we had never painted our front door! Which totally means that it was still on our project to do list. (You can find our project lists here)
We debated on different front door colors, however we really loved the fact that ours was red and coordinated with our shutters and roof. We decided to stick with a similar color and just give it a fresh look!
While shopping one day, we found a display for “Front Door Paint”. Since we were planning on painting our front door sometime in the future, the name obviously caught our attention. We grabbed a can to see what made it so special.
This was just what we needed! We decided on the color Passionate from the Front Door Paint Collection. The paint is premixed and retails for around $35 a quart.
Before we started painted, we needed to know if our door was previously painted with latex or oil based paint. So why does this matter? If oil based paint was used, we would have needed to apply a bonding primer before painting our door with the Front Door Paint, which is a latex paint. Testing was pretty easy! We simply took the corner of an old rag and dipped it in rubbing alcohol and then rubbed the wet rag on the door. Our old red paint actually rubbed off onto the rag, which means it was previously painted with a latex based paint. If the paint wouldn’t have came off on the rag, then the previous paint would have been oil based. {Don’t skip this step! If you paint over an oil based paint with a latex or water based paint, it will not stick well and you will NOT be happy! #BeenThereDoneThat } If you do need to use a primer, the back of the paint can recommends the acrylic primer Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3. (We’ve never used that brand of primer, but assume it would work well)
Now that we didn’t have to prime our door, we thought about using a handy-dandy paint sprayer to apply the paint, but eventually changed our minds. In order to do this we had to have a nice day outside. You know, one where we were actually home for many hours of the day. Since we work full time, that pretty much narrowed our front door project time down to the weekends. Well, Kentucky had some ugly weekend weather. Every weekend we had free was either rainy or too cold for paint. And no way did we think we could squeeze it into an evening after work as we couldn’t go to bed without a front door!
I believe at first we were over complicating this project. I thought, it shouldn’t be that hard to paint our front door. And in the end, it totally wasn’t.
We decided to start this on a weekday evening after work and simply use a paint brush or paint roller.
First things first, we removed took off our brassy brass doorknobs (we actually painted these too, but that will be an entire post by itself!). Some people decide to tape around there doorknobs instead of taking them off. That’s fine, but they really aren’t that hard to take off. A screwdriver is all we needed. Now the door knobs can be a little tricky to get back on, but it is still not rocket science.
Next we wiped down the door with some soapy water and used a piece of sand paper to sand down any imperfections, as it had some paint chips and rough spots. We wiped it down again. Next we got out our handy-dandy painters tape and taped off the window trim and the sides of the door so our edge could remain white to match the interior part of our front door. We made sure to cover up our almost white carpet (not our favorite – hopefully this will be hardwood one day!) with some poster board so we didn’t get red paint everywhere. Although I’m not sure if it would be any worse than the ketchup stains that already exist on our carpet. (guilty!)
So we finally got out our Front Door Paint, grabbed our favorite Purdy paintbrushes, and got to work.
We were seriously amazed at how easy this paint was to brush onto the door. We just completed painting our 9 interior doors white, and oh do we wish that white paint had went on this easy.
We painted the raised panels first, followed by all the horizontals, and then all the verticals. This worked out pretty well for us. Of course this isn’t the only way that will work, but just our favorite way.
We divided this project into two evenings. The first evening we gave it the first coat and the second evening the second. If we would have started earlier on Day 1, we could have finished it out in a day.
The paint goes on beautifully and dries quickly, allowing you to paint several layers in a short amount of time. It’s an easy one-day DIY!
Isn’t it a zillion times better than before?
Of course I had to hang my DIY wreath back on it asap. And check out those oil rubbed bronze door handles! Snazzy, huh? We still need to do another coat of paint and a top coat on the knobs and then paint the kick plate on the screen door to match. Bye Bye brass!
And just because it is called Front Door Paint doesn’t mean it is only for front doors! Since it was so easy, we went ahead and painted our back door as well. We couldn’t wait to wave good bye to all those yucky marks and discolorations on it!
#MustPaintAllTheDoors – – And so we did! At least all three sets of exterior doors. This is the one leading into our garage. It was basic white and now it has a pop of passionate!
Of course going from red to red is a bit easier than going from white to red. This one required an extra coat for best appearance. Believe it or not, after painting all three of these doors with a couple coats each, we we still haven’t used the entire quart of paint!
So that leads us to our next project…. **HINT BELOW** It’s in the works and we will keep you posted with sneak peeks over on our Instagram.
Now we wonder why we waited five years to do something so simple and inexpensive as painting our exterior doors?? It made such a big difference and really upped our curb appeal too. We now love our front door and are excited that when “Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden Sun” does decide to come out, that our front door will no longer be fading away!
If you are considering painting your front door (or back door, side door, etc), check out Front Door Paint!
This post is sponsored by Modern Masters. All content and opinions, as always, are our own. Front door paint is available online via Home Depot, Amazon (currently has free shipping with Prime Membership), and the Modern Masters Online Shop.
If you stepped foot on our front porch, our faded front door was not very welcoming.
Although we have painted every single wall and our entire house, we had never painted our front door! Which totally means that it was still on our project to do list. (You can find our project lists here)
We debated on different front door colors, however we really loved the fact that ours was red and coordinated with our shutters and roof. We decided to stick with a similar color and just give it a fresh look!
While shopping one day, we found a display for “Front Door Paint”. Since we were planning on painting our front door sometime in the future, the name obviously caught our attention. We grabbed a can to see what made it so special.
This was just what we needed! We decided on the color Passionate from the Front Door Paint Collection. The paint is premixed and retails for around $35 a quart.
Before we started painted, we needed to know if our door was previously painted with latex or oil based paint. So why does this matter? If oil based paint was used, we would have needed to apply a bonding primer before painting our door with the Front Door Paint, which is a latex paint. Testing was pretty easy! We simply took the corner of an old rag and dipped it in rubbing alcohol and then rubbed the wet rag on the door. Our old red paint actually rubbed off onto the rag, which means it was previously painted with a latex based paint. If the paint wouldn’t have came off on the rag, then the previous paint would have been oil based. {Don’t skip this step! If you paint over an oil based paint with a latex or water based paint, it will not stick well and you will NOT be happy! #BeenThereDoneThat } If you do need to use a primer, the back of the paint can recommends the acrylic primer Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3. (We’ve never used that brand of primer, but assume it would work well)
Now that we didn’t have to prime our door, we thought about using a handy-dandy paint sprayer to apply the paint, but eventually changed our minds. In order to do this we had to have a nice day outside. You know, one where we were actually home for many hours of the day. Since we work full time, that pretty much narrowed our front door project time down to the weekends. Well, Kentucky had some ugly weekend weather. Every weekend we had free was either rainy or too cold for paint. And no way did we think we could squeeze it into an evening after work as we couldn’t go to bed without a front door!
I believe at first we were over complicating this project. I thought, it shouldn’t be that hard to paint our front door. And in the end, it totally wasn’t.
We decided to start this on a weekday evening after work and simply use a paint brush or paint roller.
First things first, we removed took off our brassy brass doorknobs (we actually painted these too, but that will be an entire post by itself!). Some people decide to tape around there doorknobs instead of taking them off. That’s fine, but they really aren’t that hard to take off. A screwdriver is all we needed. Now the door knobs can be a little tricky to get back on, but it is still not rocket science.
Next we wiped down the door with some soapy water and used a piece of sand paper to sand down any imperfections, as it had some paint chips and rough spots. We wiped it down again. Next we got out our handy-dandy painters tape and taped off the window trim and the sides of the door so our edge could remain white to match the interior part of our front door. We made sure to cover up our almost white carpet (not our favorite – hopefully this will be hardwood one day!) with some poster board so we didn’t get red paint everywhere. Although I’m not sure if it would be any worse than the ketchup stains that already exist on our carpet. (guilty!)
So we finally got out our Front Door Paint, grabbed our favorite Purdy paintbrushes, and got to work.
We were seriously amazed at how easy this paint was to brush onto the door. We just completed painting our 9 interior doors white, and oh do we wish that white paint had went on this easy.
We painted the raised panels first, followed by all the horizontals, and then all the verticals. This worked out pretty well for us. Of course this isn’t the only way that will work, but just our favorite way.
We divided this project into two evenings. The first evening we gave it the first coat and the second evening the second. If we would have started earlier on Day 1, we could have finished it out in a day.
The paint goes on beautifully and dries quickly, allowing you to paint several layers in a short amount of time. It’s an easy one-day DIY!
Want to see how easy it was? Watch us do this project from from start to finish!
The color we chose is super saturated and just what we were looking for! We were both shocked at how vibrant it was compared to our original faded out red. Although the passionate color is in the same color family as our original red door, two thin coats of paint gave it a fresh, clean, brand-new look.
Isn’t it a zillion times better than before?
Of course I had to hang my DIY wreath back on it asap. And check out those oil rubbed bronze door handles! Snazzy, huh? We still need to do another coat of paint and a top coat on the knobs and then paint the kick plate on the screen door to match. Bye Bye brass!
And just because it is called Front Door Paint doesn’t mean it is only for front doors! Since it was so easy, we went ahead and painted our back door as well. We couldn’t wait to wave good bye to all those yucky marks and discolorations on it!
#MustPaintAllTheDoors – – And so we did! At least all three sets of exterior doors. This is the one leading into our garage. It was basic white and now it has a pop of passionate!
Of course going from red to red is a bit easier than going from white to red. This one required an extra coat for best appearance. Believe it or not, after painting all three of these doors with a couple coats each, we we still haven’t used the entire quart of paint!
So that leads us to our next project…. **HINT BELOW** It’s in the works and we will keep you posted with sneak peeks over on our Instagram.
Now we wonder why we waited five years to do something so simple and inexpensive as painting our exterior doors?? It made such a big difference and really upped our curb appeal too. We now love our front door and are excited that when “Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden Sun” does decide to come out, that our front door will no longer be fading away!
If you are considering painting your front door (or back door, side door, etc), check out Front Door Paint!
This post is sponsored by Modern Masters. All content and opinions, as always, are our own. Front door paint is available online via Home Depot, Amazon (currently has free shipping with Prime Membership), and the Modern Masters Online Shop. 
Glad we could help make your decision Celeste! We seriously LOVE the paint and will be using it again in the near future. Let us know if you have any questions. Happy Painting & Updating! ~A&J
What color is the exterior of your home? We need to paint our entire outside and we want to have burgandy doors and shutters, looking for the whole outside house color and I like yours. Thanks.