We’re back as promised with the whole front door shebang.
First, here’s what we started with:
Yup, it was an old maroon storm door with three issues: 1) the grids didn’t match up with the six paneled door behind it, 2) it was always jamming, and 3) it didn’t latch closed very well, so it would bang open in a storm.
It was nothing but a nuisance to us, so we opted to go storm-doorless (just like we chose to do in our first house) since we didn’t use it once in eight whole months (we have a screen/storm door on the side of the house that we occasionally use along with screen doors in the living room and sunroom that we use a lot more often). It’s definitely not a choice that everyone would make, but we’re psyched to go storm-door-less so we can appreciate our awesome six-paneled solid wood door that was hiding behind it:
So off came all the hardware that held our slammy-jammy storm door in place. Then all we needed to do was spackle those holes and use some exterior paint to touch up the trim (thank goodness the previous owners left that in the basement for us).
Oh but before we did any spackling we got to the fun part: picking the paint color. We held up a ton of options in all colors of the rainbow (plum, turquoise, navy, lime green, and beyond), but kept coming back to a happy yellow color. Here are the final four contenders (they look pretty similar in this pic but they varied slightly by how much white or orange they had in them). After looking at them in all types of light (morning sun, afternoon shade, artificial porch light at night, etc) we ended up choosing the top one: Full Sun EB1-1 by Valspar’s Eddie Bauer Home collection.
But removing the screen door and spackling & painting the trim wasn’t the only prep task we took on. We also decided that our awesome original door knocker (which was rusting and peeling) could use some love.
So we carefully removed it with the hope of bringing it back to its former glory and reinstalling it on our bright yellow door when we were finished painting.
Then we sanded the paint around those areas, just to get everything nice and smooth.
We also opted to remove the rusting brass plate on the bottom of the door and spackle and sand those holes. We didn’t have one in our first house and prefer the uninterrupted look of one big boldly colored wood door (but it’s definitely another one of those personal preference things like nixing a storm door). Oh and we also took off our door handle and lock too – since we had hopes of sprucing them up while they were removed like the door knocker.
And now for a shot of sunshine in a can:
We mentioned that we chose Full Sun EB1-1 by Valspar’s Eddie Bauer Home collection as “the one.” So we talked to the paint pro at Lowe’s about what exterior primer + paint she would recommend (sadly none of which are no-VOC yet). She recommended Valspar’s Duramax since it has a built-in primer and is formulated to be extra durable since it’s exposed to the elements outside. So we had her color match our Full Sun paint chip to the Valspar Duramax stuff and grabbed a quart of it in semi-gloss finish for around $15.
Oh but before we applied a single coat we used a liquid deglosser (Next Liquid Deglosser by Crown since it’s non-flammable, biodegradable, and low-VOC) to remove any oil, grease, or other paint-adhesion-saboteurs (I’ve never typed that word, and I have to admit I liked it). Basically it’s a shortcut when you don’t feel like sanding something you’re about to paint (albeit not as thorough, but usually good enough to get ‘er done). You do definitely want to sand any areas that aren’t smooth before deglossing though (like the nail holes from the brass plate and other places we removed hardware or spackled) since liquid deglossers don’t smooth things, they just remove residue that might mess with paint adhesion.
Then it was time for coat one of our yellow primer + paint, applied with a small foam roller (to cut down on brush strokes) and a 2″ angled brush (to get into the frames of the six paneled door). Of course one coat didn’t do the trick, but for yellow paint going over deep maroon it was actually a pretty impressive showing for just one thin coat:
And four thin and even coats later (yes, there I go with the “thin and even” thing again), honey was looking miiiighty fine:
As in, I couldn’t stop staring at her and smiling. So glad we chose such a happy color to wake up our drab brick and cream wood-sidinged exterior. And it looks just as cute from the inside as it does from the outside:
Mmm, glossy yellowy goodness. It came out really smoothly, partially I think due to using good exterior paint, and partially due to those thin and even coats that were carefully applied with a small foam roller and high quality 2″ angled brush. Not globbing it on (and waiting for each coat to dry before moving onto the next paper thin one) is the key to no visible brush strokes when things dry.
Oh yeah, and you might notice the hardware is all sorts of spruced up. We’ll be back with a dedicated hardware-upgrade post full of photos and instructions when it comes to that part of the process (there are too many pics and not enough time to squeeze that in here).
In the meantime, here’s the door from outside (I couldn’t completely close it for pics because it was still drying – but if you paint something in the morning, by evening it should be all cured up and ready to close).
Isn’t our porch happier without the old broken maroon screen door + dark hidden front door combo?
Shucks, it just makes me giddy. And John loves it too. Oh happy day.
So there it is. A front door makeover that involved:
- checking out swatches taped on the door at all times of day (to ensure nothing would change from something we love in morning sunlight to something we hate in evening porch light)
- removing the screen door and spackling/sanding/painting those holes left in the door surround
- removing the hardware and sanding those areas to smooth them before painting
- permanently removing a rusted brass plate at the bottom of the door and spackling/sanding those holes
- thoroughly deglossing the entire door
- refurbishing the hardware (we’ll be back with all those details for ya soon)
- applying four thin and even coats of exterior primer + paint in semi-gloss for a nice shiny finish
- reattaching the hardware when the paint was dry enough (but not completely closing the door until evening, so it can fully cure)
Woot. Love it. As for the budget breakdown, whoop, here it is: one quart of Valspar Duramax paint in semi-gloss from Lowe’s: $15. Das it. Oh and if someone didn’t have spackle and a deglosser on hand those might be around $4 each on top of the cost of a quart of paint. We still have tons of paint leftover bee tee dubs, so a quart for a front door should definitely do it – even if you’re painting both sides of it (we left the back of ours white like our interior doors).
Have any of you recently painted your front door? Any plans to if you haven’t? Is it crazy that this is the fourth time I’ve painted a door in five years (and the second time I’ve gone with a happy yellow color)? It’s just so dang cheerful. Here’s hoping it spurs us on when it comes to about a million other exterior upgrades that we want slash need to tackle (including the possibility of painting the cream siding around the door, and even trying something with the brick exterior down the line). I guess time will tell where we’ll end up with that stuff. But you know we’ll keep you posted…
Update: There were a bunch of requests for some wider shots from the curb, so here they are. Remember that nearly everything else in the pics besides the yellow door might be on our change-that list down the line (so it’s all a work in progress)…
… especially the big barricade o’ bushes that makes the door nearly invisible from certain angles…
Wouldn’t the power to move bushes with the point of a finger be an awesome superpower? Methinks I’d pick that over flying and reading minds.
Lisa says
Love the yellow! Also, I love that it coordinates with the dining room curtains, beautiful!
Jen says
I only made it to the second sentence when this California girl had to Google “storm door”. ;)
Looks amazing! So cheerful, and I hadn’t even really noticed the yellow in the DR curtains, totally brings it out!
-Jen
Iomay says
I didn’t notice the yellow in the curtains before either! I’d want to keep my doors open all the time after that little color change!
Lisa says
All I can say is, “shut the front door!” or don’t, because it looks amazing. Yellow happens to be my favorite color and if I had my way, I’d paint everything in my house yellow. Nice job!
Emma says
I love it! You chose such a great color. Do you have any crafty plans for your old storm door? A photo or art project perhaps (maybe slice off the window pane portion and hang it horizontally or something)? It could also make a good headboard…or a donation. Well done!
YoungHouseLove says
We saved it with hopes of repurposing it somehow (or donating it if we can’t think of something).
xo,
s
Kat@withywindle says
LOVE the yellow! So happy!
Also, I was at a furniture store this weekend and saw your mirror you just put in the laundry room. I swear it was exactly the same one. For $400 buckeroos! Glad you lucked out at that garage sale!
YoungHouseLove says
Holy cow!!!
xo,
s
Wendy says
Freakin LOVE IT!!! That door knocker is very cool too!
Jen says
That yellow looks fantastic, I love it! I’m a big fan of painted front doors. When we bought our house, it was (of course) boring white, so I repainted it a cheery Granny Smith-apple green, with the garage to match, though ours had some parts I left white. It looked great and we got tons of compliments.
Sadly, when we put our house on the market, our agent insisted we re-paint both doors back to white. I can’t tell you how BLEAH it looks and how I hate it! But that’s what you have to do when you don’t live in a decor-forward area…
Katrina McElhinney says
This looks great and I Love it with the dark hardware. I painted my door this same color about 2 years ago and it still makes me happy everytime I see it.
Kristal says
The door knocker and knob is ORB isn’t it? ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, details soon! We tried a variety of methods so we’ll share what worked within the next few days!
xo,
s
Shari @ Chicago Cuisine Critique says
Looks awesome! :)
Iomay says
I had no doubts that it would be anything less than awesome. I love it!!!!!!! I only wonder how the brass plate would look orb-afied and on the door. Have you tried photoshopping it in.. you know.. just for fun?! :)
YoungHouseLove says
We just prefer a big bold rectangle of color instead of a plate on the bottom chopping it up. But it’s definitely one of those personal preference things!
xo,
s
Iomay says
I have no personal preference.. just curious :)
Tracy says
Love it! Just yesterday I was thinking that we might be able to improve the look of our front door by painting the handle and lock. I can’t wait for the post where you share all those details!!
Adriane Wacker says
Are you going to use the old storm door for something? I love the yellow and it looks ultra classy with the new black fixtures!
YoungHouseLove says
We saved it with the hope of repurposing it somehow (and donating it if we don’t).
xo,
s
Laura says
Looks awesome! Gotta question…I also live in a 50’s rancher with some tudor qualities. Our trim is also cream, so I’m immediately drawn to “warmer” colors for the front door. Does your yellow blend with cream trim? For some reason, I’m imagining that cool yellow blending the best with bright white–same way gray is cool and brown is warm. Does that make sense? And while we’re at it, the neverending debate in this house is this–do you coordinate your indoor/outdoor trim? Our interior trim is bright white, outdoor trim is cream (that’s how it was when we bought this house). Thoughts?
YoungHouseLove says
We just hung up a bunch of swatches to see what we liked best in person. We both gravitated towards pure yellow tones (not too orange and not too pastel). I think it’s just about trusting your eye to see what works. As for outside and inside trim, our last house had creamy tan exterior trim and white trim inside and we really liked it!
xo,
s
Meagan says
the door looks fab…im in love
Irene says
Love it! So bright and cheery!
Jennifer D. says
I didn’t think I’d be keen on the yellow, but it turned out pretty. We are planning to paint our front door this fall from boring brown (to go with brown brick and brown shutters) to Valspar’s Heirloom Red. We plan on keeping our storm door though since it has a pull down screen which allows for lovely breezes.
Susan says
WOW!!! What an amazing upgrade!! And I love the dark hardware on the sunny yellow and the way it looks with your curtains! I recently installed a new door, and I’m trying to decide on a color to paint it. I’m thinking Martha Stewart Sultana green (I think that’s what it’s called), but I need to put up some paint swatches. I’m glad to see that you decided to paint the door edges, too, cause I wasn’t sure what to do there with mine.
Stacey says
Looks great! This post comes at a perfect time because I am working on painting from a storm door that was removed to put a doggie door in. Do you use regular spackle or is there some sort of spackle recommended for outdoor application?
YoungHouseLove says
I just used regular spackle and exterior paint to “seal” it in.
xo,
s
Carolyn H. says
I’m just guessing here, but it looks like someone sprayed the door knocker and knob with a little ORB?!
Trish says
So cheerful…like its residents!!! Love the knocker and knob too! Good Choice…
Betsy says
OH, it looks fantastic. I love the look without the storm door too. I have a covered porch and was tired of the storm door did the radical thing and got rid of it.
Rachel says
Wow! LOVE it! The dark hardware looks awesome against the bright yellow!
s leigh says
so you didnt take the door off the hinges? do you think that made it harder or easier?
YoungHouseLove says
Nah we never do that. Personally I think its easier that way (you can move it to get the sides, you can almost completely close it between costs to keep bugs out, etc). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Ashley says
Fun! I would like to go on record with a prediction that you will tint your exterior brick gray, a la Sarah’s House Season 2. :) I think it would look great!
Suzanne Supplee says
If I lived next door, I’d be staring at your door all the time, and it would make me soooo HAPPY. Love it! I also love the hardware redo. Can we have a street view, too? Hey, I’m a poet:-)
YoungHouseLove says
That’s on our to do list! Stay tuned…
xo,
s
Rachel Ray says
I love it!! When you took the door handles/knocker off I thought ORB!!!! But the Black is phenominal! WooHoo!!
Kelly says
looks awesome! We actually just painted our sorority house (I’m on the alumni board) bathroom Full Sun, but it was WAY too dark for a bathroom with frosted windows so we had to go back for “Zest” which was much better. Full sun looks much better on a front door :-)
Morgan says
Would love to see a photo of the door from a wider angle so we can see how it look w/the entire front of the house!!
YoungHouseLove says
We’re hoping to update our header or add a wider shot ASAP.
xo,
s
Lauren says
Oh I absolutely LOVE! My favorite photo is the one from the inside, I would not be able to stop staring…and smiling! As Bethenny would say Amazeballs!
Rachel @ I'm Loving Today says
I’ve been wanting to paint our front door since the day we moved in! Sadly, we don’t have much “punch” on the exterior of our home, so I think a fun, bright-colored door might give it a little more personality. Coincidentally, I would *love* to paint it a bold, bright and cheery yellow, too! The boyfriend has other thoughts, though, as we’ve got plenty of yellow accents in our living room (where the front door opens), and he feels we need different colors for more variety. I just can’t picture the door as anything other than yellow, though!
Fantastic job on this inexpensive change – it’s simply gorgeous!
Robyn says
I love love love the yellow. It looks like a Hobbit front door! :-)
Tara says
Love, love, love the yellow door!
Liz says
Oh my gosh! We picked out exterior paint colors a month or two ago and have been working on prepping the trim and siding for painting since then (the trim was in bad shape and needs lots of love!), but we chose nearly the exact same shade of yellow for our front door!! The exterior is going to be a slate grey, so I think the yellow will really pop. I’m even more excited about it now that I’ve seen yours! (Coincidentally, we also painted our kitchen/living room last fall nearly the same color you chose for your kitchen! We must be on some kind of cross-country wave length).
Cindy says
Love love love!!! We have a medium brown house with a darker brown trim (much cuter than it sounds) and I’m really thinking I want to paint our front door a turquoise blue. Doesn’t that sound fun?
This post is well timed for me, because I want to know how you keep your door from sticking! You said you did 4 thin coats throughout the day… How many hours total? Did you just have to kill all the bugs that flew into the house all day long? xo
YoungHouseLove says
I just left the door cracked when we weren’t actively painting it so we didn’t have any bug issues (we expected them though). Thin and even coats applied about an hour apart in the morning (and waiting until that night to close the door) is the key to allowing everything to fully cure and not stick. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Nina says
Looks great!
I especially love the yellow – grey combo when you left the door open ;)
Joelle says
OH how I wish you would have posted this two weeks ago. I JUST painted our front and back doors (boring white) but would have loved the idea of deglosser – I had to strip and sand and sand again before painting.
can’t wait for the details on the knocker and locks
Lisa in Seattle says
That came out beautifully!!! Dumb question, but did you just leave that door cracked open for several hours? Weren’t you worried about bugs and things coming in, or Burger going out? We have more neighborhood traffic than you do, so I might have to sit at the top of the stairs and guard the house from interlopers, bugs, spiders, squirrels, etc.
Did you use Floetrol at all? Every time I try to do something with a foam roller brush, we get tiny bubbles. Maybe we’re rushing it.
YoungHouseLove says
Nope no Floetrol, just thin coats with about an hour of drying time between them. And we just left it cracked between coats so it wasn’t wide open. We didn’t see one bug find his (or her, haha) was in!
xo,
s
Aimee says
I love me some sunny yellow doors! Just wondering, did you guys paint the sides of the door yellow as well? I never figured out where one color is supposed to stop and another starts!
And also, is your door wood or a metal? I have a pesky metal one that I’ve heard is hard to paint, so I’m trying to figure out the best plan of attack :)
YoungHouseLove says
Our door is solid wood and we painted the sides yellow to match the front since they were maroon before.
xo,
s
Alison says
Looks great! Can you post a picture from the driveway or the street? I’d love to see how great it looks from afar as well!
YoungHouseLove says
Will do, as soon as we can!
xo,
s
Michele says
When you do the hardware post, can you include how the heck those things come off? I totally need to polish mine and have been trying to do it while they are on the door which I assure you DOES NOT work, it just makes a mess on the door, but I can’t figure out how they come off – no screws! This is probably a stupid question but it’s been driving me nuts!
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, ours came off with exposed screws. Maybe yours need a small Allen wrench though? They sell kits of them for around $5 at Home Depot.
xo,
s
Kim says
So fun, love it!
I live in a three-unit Victorian and we can’t paint the outside of the building, but we CAN paint the inside, so we plan to add a fun pop of color to the inside of our door soon!
katie says
I love the results and can’t wait to hear about the hardware update! I have a few brass doorknobs that could use an ORB treatment.
Bonnie says
I painted my front door burgundy just a few weeks ago.
How tall do you have to be to reach that knocker? LOL
YoungHouseLove says
I can reach it at 5’2″. Woot!
xo,
s
Amy says
that’s what she said!
Jessica Z. says
Oh, we’d decided to paint our front door yellow when we get our house repainted in a couple weeks. So, I love it! And here I was thinking we’d be different by not going with red, but it appears we are very much on trend. I’ve got so many shades of yellow pinned on pinterest, but yours looks fabulous and cheery! I love the change you made.
Cheryl says
Just wondering….does your door get full sun? Are you worried that it will make the doorknob to hot to use during that time? I would love to try the same paint treatment on ours, but ours receives a lot of direct sun, and our current one gets pretty hot.
YoungHouseLove says
Our porch overhang keeps the door from getting too much sun most of the time (there are moments it gets some rays, but it’s not a constant all-day thing). If you already notice yours is really hot though, I’m not sure what you could do. Maybe ask the paint pros if they have something that’s meant to perform in high heat or even to cut or reflect heat?
xo,
s
Jaime says
Looks great!
I just painted all of our exterior doors in a deep blue, and I learned a trick along the way: if you’re worried that the paint hasn’t cured enough not to stick to the frame when you close the door, just rub a small amount of baby powder or other fine powder everywhere along the frame the door is going to touch. I used corn starch and it worked great!
Jesse Rader says
Love it and so timely as I have just today started painting our entry way. I am working on the trim since we also have windows on the side. For our mid century door I was also thinking of yellow or orange. I have a worn star surrounding the door handle and wanted to refresh that as well. My question is did you degloss between coats? I heard that you are supposed to sand between coats of semigloss paint.
YoungHouseLove says
Nah, we never do that since we’re huuuge fans of the thin and even method. Sometimes you have to sand between coats if there are drips or bubbles or it doesn’t go on smooth, but it seems to work out really well if you just apply 3-4 paper thin coats with about an hour of drying time between each one (so it cures up nice and solid).
xo,
s
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
LOVE how it turned out. Awesome color!!! Are you going to update your header picture with your new yellow door soon? Let’s see a picture from the front curb. I’m sure there is no mistaking where your front door is now. ;)
When we replaces our front door because the previous owners just didn’t take care of the old wood door, we took the maroon screen door off and never looked back. We are “no-screen-door kind of people too”. Now we have a nice white metal door with pretty glass. :) It’s amazing how a front door and make or break the look of your house.
YoungHouseLove says
We just added an update with pics from the curb. Still have to change our header, but it’s on the list!
xo,
s
Hillary says
It’s adorable — especially with the touches of yellow inside! We went with a bold turquoise for our front door and we love it:
http://agalandherdog.blogspot.com/2010/04/mini-makeover-outside-edition.html
YoungHouseLove says
So pretty!
xo,
s