Tuesday, June 26, 2018

How I Painted My Door and Stairs In One Day

It has been a couple of months since I posted a house DIY, mostly because we needed a break after finishing the basement. Our new focus is on the outside of our house. We have done several projects over the years, such as updating and staining our deck, painting the concrete around the pool, and painting the exterior siding, but there is still much we want to do. We recently added a firepit area, moved the pool pump, and are currently working on a boardwalk/walkway in the backyard. We also spent Memorial Day updating our side entrance.

See what a difference paint made to our exterior stairs and side door!

We have a lovely front porch, (the one with the yellow door) but the truth is, it is rarely used. There is no walkway from the driveway to the front porch and since our side entrance is right there at the carport, everyone comes in that way. Which is why I am highly embarrassed to show you these pictures of the badly chipping burgenberry stairs and badly painted door that greets our guests. Truth is, I painted the burgenberry door black at the same time I painted the front door yellow, but since it gets so much wear and tear, the paint was rubbing off around the frame area. We had also touched up the stairs a few years ago, but daily use takes a toll on paint. Here is the cringe-worthy "BEFORE" picture:

See what a difference paint made to our exterior stairs and side door!

We decided that we we would use leftover paint from the exterior to update the stairs, so everything would match. I wanted a pop of color for the door, so I decided on Brick Red by Deco Art, which coordinated with the greige shade of the house and the bright colors of our deck furniture. I painted a couple different swatches on the door to help me decide which way I wanted to go.

See what a difference paint made to our exterior stairs and side door!

Painting the Stairs:


To start, we removed the non skid strips that were peeling up from the steps, then sanded them smooth. There were a couple of gashes where some of the wood had splintered when we removed the strips, so we filled those spots with wood putty and let dry.

We primed the steps with Kilz to help the paint adhere better and to keep the burgenberry shade from bleeding through. Once dry, we painted two coats of the Behr exterior paint on the stairs and railing, letting it dry for 2 hours between coats.

See what a difference paint made to our exterior stairs and side door!

See what a difference paint made to our exterior stairs and side door!

See what a difference paint made to our exterior stairs and side door!


Painting the Door:


The last time I painted the door, I taped off all of the windows, which was a pain. Since then, we have done a ton of painting and realized that you can easily scrape dried paint off windows with a scraper blade, so I did not tape the windows off this time. I did not prime either because the swatch I painted on the door covered the black well. If you are going from a dark color to a light color, I would definitely use a primer, so you do not get bleed through. 

I removed the hardware and spray painted the metal cover Oil Rubbed Bronze from Rust-Oleum. I also sanded the rough places where the paint had chipped off, so that the door was smooth. I then used a small paint brush (an angled one works best) to paint two coats on the door, letting it dry on between coats for about 2 hours. On the second coat, I used a small roller to go over the flat areas on the door to remove any brush strokes.

See what a difference paint made to our exterior stairs and side door!

Once the paint was dry, I put the hardware back on the door. Here's a hack for you: rub a thin coat of Vaseline around the molding/frame of the door to keep the paint from sticking when you shut the door. It works like a charm!

See what a difference paint made to our exterior stairs and side door!

For $5 worth of paint (since we already had the stair color) and a days work, we have an inviting new entrance that I am proud to show off! Tell me what color your front door is or what color you want to paint it. 

5 comments:

  1. The update looks great! I always like one day painting projects.

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  2. This looks fabulous, Mary! I like the pretty color combination and how it brightens up your space. Painting my front door is on my short list so this really caught my eye. Thanks for the Vaseline tip!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! It was so easy to do and makes a huge difference! Yes, the vaseline tip saved the paint job!

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  3. I'm always so impressed with your talent..❤️❤️

    ReplyDelete

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