The Front Door

Hello, gorgeous! 

Our freshly painted front door and steps lined with pumpkin mums.

It's taken a year, but finally I can think that every time I see our front door. You see, the door to the foreclosure house when we first saw it was white. Simple, functional and fine. After living with a black door for the previous 9 and a half years (HOA rules in our old neighborhood said door & shutter colors must match), I was happy for any change.

Then it rained. And the paint began to bubble and chip. Repeat multiple times throughout the months to mid summer. It was not pretty. Our best guess - whoever last painted the door used the wrong paint and thus with each rain the front door looked worse and worse.

In July, we had the entire house powerwashed. I left specific instructions to the company doing it to hit the front door and hit it hard. When we arrived home, I literally laughed out loud as I saw the disaster left behind. The bubbled paint job was almost completely gone revealing some white primer (?) and streaks of the original black beneath.

Paint chip (color at top) against the brick & siding of our home.
[Tip: try this at several times during the day to see the variations due to lighting.]

Then we waited. July is just too hot & humid in North Carolina for outdoor painting. As fall approached with cooler days, I began to get the urge to complete this project. I had a few ideas of what color I wanted - something in a blue gray tone. While surfing Pinterest, I found the perfect example from PlyGem here. The third color swatch from the bottom was exactly what I was thinking. The brick and siding colors in the swatch were similar to our home and the accent color - a blue gray. My mind was made up. Off to Lowe's we went and I quickly selected a shade from Valspar and had a quart of semi-gloss exterior paint mixed: Prussian Cadet.

The "lovely" streaky door before on the left and my little assistant helping paint.

It took a few hours, slowly adding a coat, letting it dry and adding another coat. Repeat. Repeat. Enjoy.

Admittedly, we all did a double take our first few days returning home. It's a fun little pop of color and so much more cheery than before. Even one of our neighbors has come over and said how much she likes it. Hopefully they all do. We're certainly happy to now have a beautiful, welcoming front door. Another project complete.

Our freshly painted blue door decked out with our $3 fall wreath.

Cost: $12.98 + tax