front door |

I took a leap of faith this weekend and finally dove into repainting the front door. Again. I posted about our original door ages ago. Here’s a quick recap:

When we bought the house the entry looked like the photo below. Nothing terrible. But nothing special either. It also happened to match all of the other front doors in the neighborhood (burgundy, navy, hunter green). We also weren’t feeling the black kickplate. It was cutting off the door and made everything feel sort of shorter.

About 6 months after we moved in (and 3 months after we had O) I got the wild hair to paint the door teal. I wanted something brighter, bolder, and unique. Teal is one of my favorite colors so why not? (Side note: I once lived in a purple Victorian with magenta trim and teal accents as a kid. I’m not afraid of color. My parents still had a purple front door until last summer. Color crazy is in the family.) I also removed the kick plate since I figured I’d be able to reattach it if we changed our mind. But then I realized it was a brass and had been spray painted black… removing the screws prompted it to begin to chip and peel. Happy accident? I think so. Below is the teal door sans kick plate.

For a while I just stood back and admired the door. I loved it but something was missing. A few weeks later Molly and I grabbed some black trim paint on a whim when we were out getting other things. It took two coats but it was the best decision ever because it really made the door pop and the house feel more cohesive with black shutters, light fixtures and trim. I posted about the trim here. PS- You can see the giant half dead tree that we just had removed in the pic below too.

Alas, I was ready for change again. Hubby insisted that the teal door had really grown on him and had urged me to reconsider. But he went out of town last week and so I had a little paint fun. Of course, I knew that I may have to paint it back to teal again if this blew up in my face. That’s where the leap of faith came in. I popped into Ace on my way home from work and chose a paint color on the spot. Perk: The guys there know me now and gathered around to help me chose a color to pop against the black trim. With their help, I chose Mill Springs Blue by Benjamin Moore. It has a sort of washed-out mint vibe. I had it color matched to a paint and primer combo quart of Clark+Kensington outdoor semigloss. I was looking at the lighter swatch “Covington” right next to it but Molly gets the credit on selling me on a slightly darker tone (via text) and going with the Mills Springs Blue.

I did the project in stages over the next few days. After all, this was done after work, dinner, O’s bath and bed so I usually only had an hour before sunset. Basically, one day I did a new coat of black on the trim while Molly scraped and repainted the mailbox. Then the next night I wiped the door down with vinegar/water and then liquid deglosser that I had left over from the sofa table project and I did the first coat of my new grayed out minty green color. As you can tell below, the two colors are very different. At first I worried that this may be a disaster.

But after the first coat I was really loving the cooled down effect of a softer color. O liked it too.

The second coat stole my heart. Seriously perfect. Although the front stoop is a bit bare (planters are on my list), I’m really feeling our new mini-makeover.

Boom! Here’s a close up of the pop effect the black and mint have together. Yummy.

Yes, I still painted the inside of the door. Its just a tradition now! I think that the cool tone of the soft green really meshes with the rest of the inside decor which is mostly grays, creams, and some sea-glass tones with pops of white, wood and yellows/oranges.

Above is the view from the corner of the family room at the banister/half-wall and below is the view from the kitchen entry where it meets the hallway at the top of the steps. Now I think just need to get something for above the door but I’m blanking on ideas. Thoughts?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Paint can make some really amazing changes for a reasonable cost.

So our first house is pretty standard for the neighborhood: 30-something year old split level with shutters and ho-hum landscaping (on our giant to-do list) on a corner lot. The hubby and I both have laundry lists of things we would like to do to the house to make it “ours”… among those things is the outside of the house. As I drive through the neighborhood each day I notice the “curb appeal” throughout. So I got to thinking… The inside is for us. We can take all the time in the world to experiment with furniture arrangements, paint one room at a time, hang pictures, arrange books on shelves and so on. But the outside of our home is the welcome mat to the rest. The hubby and I hadn’t initially discussed how we felt about living on a corner so I was surprised when he expressed that he felt it was a “con” for him about the property. I actually thought a corner lot would be great… I love that the first impression of the home is the front of the house: sidewalk, shutters, front stoop and door. I love that visitors are first greeted by the front door … THEN they see the driveway and garage doors. So garage doors aren’t in the forefront. The front door is.

Before

When we moved into the house, the door was a not-super-ugly but far-from-impressive burgundy (so was one lonely wall in the family room- but thats a whole different post). Most of the houses in our neighborhood don a similar red while others stick to hunter green, creams and browns. But burgundy seems to be the boldest color chosen. We decided that our house needed some personality. After some debate and some pinteresting (as usual)… the hubby and I started talking about deep ocean teals and gray-blues. Let me remind you that I grew up in a purple victorian house. Even now my parents’ house (not the purple one) has a vibrant grape front door. I’m not afraid of color. I wish I could say the same for Hubby.

Side by side colors

And so we made our seemingly weekly pilgrimage to Home Depot and chose a handful of deep Caribbean jewel tones. We settled on “Caribe” Behr exterior paint with primer in it. I spent an afternoon lightly sanding the door, wiping away grime and taping off hardware. The hubby leant me his tools but knew better than to hang around any longer than that. And by the time he was finished with a Call of Duty marathon, I had completed our new door. In fact, not only did I paint the outside of the door, I painted the inside too. Nobody every does that. I don’t even know what possessed me to do it. But its awfully cheery in our foyer now. I highly recommend it.

After

Tada! Pretty bright. Admittedly brighter than expected. We actually stood in the driveway across the street and chatted for about 20 minutes trying to decide if we were too daring. We agreed to sleep on it… and we were back in the neighbor’s driveway the very next morning. The verdict is to keep it. However, we are seriously considering painting the trim around the entry black for a more cohesive look. Check back for pictures next week.

The big picture

Here is the view from across the street. After he took this, the hubby was flagged down by the woman who lives there. She raved and raved about our bravery and taste. I’m glad she likes it so much, she’s the one who has to look at it the most. And just yesterday two joggers stopped to tell me they adore it. Its growing on us more each day.

Tag Archives: front door

Minted

First Impression

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