DIY : How to Paint a Front Door (in 5 steps!)

Remember way back when I teased you guys with the idea of painting our front door?

Well it happened (forever ago it feels) and I've yet to blog about it.

(oh the horror!)

So without any further adieu...the painting of the front door.

(please excuse my various outfits in these photos, this was not a quick process and took a few days to complete.  Also I was headed out the door to go shopping in one of the final ones, clearly not in paint clothes.)

 Items needed:

Paint (duh)

Primer

Rubber roller

Tape

Sanding block

Small sponge brush

Vaseline (what?! I'll explain later)

Patience (optional)

Wine (not optional)

Four legged (sleepy) general contractor 

Step 1: Sand, clean and prep the door with tape.  Don't forget to cover your hardware!

Step 2: Paint door with 1-2 coats of primer.  We only did one coat and looking back we really should have done two.  Our door is metal and really absorbed a lot of the paint.

*Tip: use the end of the rubber roller to get the paint the indents and details of the door.

 Step 3: Allow primer to dry completely.  We left ours overnight to ensure it was really dry.

 Step 4: Begin painting! Use the end of the roller or the small sponge to get into all the nooks and crannies.

Be sure you let the paint dry completely between coats! Because of the nature of our door (metal) it really showed roller marks, especially if I started another coat before the first was totally dry (not that I did that or anything...). 

We ended up having to do 4 coats of the red.  I think this was due partially to the red paint, the metal door and that we should have used a second coat of primer.

BUT, I still love the way it looks...just fyi for next time, right?

Step 5: Here's where the Vaseline comes in!

Even if you think your door is 100% dry, this can come in handy.

Smear a small amount of Vaseline around all of the edges of the door before you close it.

(this was 3 coats in, we did one more after this)

 This is so that if the paint is the least bit tacky (or it's humid out) it keeps the paint from sticking to the weather stripping.

Isn't that a handy tip? I can take 0 credit for it because my boss filled me on that BUT it worked like a charm! 

Any questions, feel free to ask!

What do you think?