The Red Door

 

We have been wanting to paint our door since the day we moved into our house. I'm not sure if the previous owners were color blind or if they just had really poor taste, but they made some strange color choices in the house. I think they had intended to paint the door a nice red color, but it turned out to be a sort of fuchsia. And it had clearly been a good several years since the door had been cleaned, so the color was actually a dusty, dull fuchsia.

Not pretty.

So a couple of weeks ago we got our first cool day (after about 65 days of 100 plus degrees) and we decided it was time to tackle the door. Lobster and I opened up all the windows, locked the cats away in our bedroom and got to work turning our horrid fuchsia door into a truly red door.

First, we sanded the door down with a steel wool sponge. We didn't sand enough to take the paint off, just to scruff it up a bit. Then I cleaned the door with soap and water and let it dry.

We chose to use Rust-oleum's Door Paint in Cranberry. It's an oil based paint so it was a bit different to use; I've only ever used latex based paints. The paint went on nicely and it covered really well. I used a small angled brush to paint the grooved areas of the door and a foam roller to paint the flat parts.

Here's the door with only one coat of paint. Look's so much better already, doesn't it?

While the paint was drying, we cleaned the brushed nickel hardware with a mild soap and water. Then we applied a second coat of paint and let it dry. We had intended to do a couple of more coats, but after the second coat it really didn't seem to need any more. So we let the door dry for about 6 hours while we enjoyed a cool breeze, ate pizza and watched Batman Returns. It was a good day.

It took Lobster and I about 45 minutes to put the hardware back on the door. It was a lot harder than it had been to take it off. At one point, the deadbolt would not lock. Not good. Clearly, we're not pros.

 

Here's the door now. Much better. MUCH, much better in person, I promise. Now to just add a pretty little fall wreath and some potted chrysanthemums and pumpkins and we're all set for fall!