A DIY Turquoise Front Door
2 Materials
$50
2 Hours
Medium
Remember back in this post when I lamented over our front door color? I wasn't sure what to choose that was going to go with our red brick exterior and brown screen door. Well, ever since I painted our screen door black, my color options for our front door were wide open. I could go with any of my original contenders (yellow, red, or navy), or could stay true to my aqua-loving self. The result? A turquoise front door!
First step was to tape off the door. I used an "exterior surfaces" painter's tape from ScotchBlue that I hadn't tried before (this is the stuff). The special feature is that with a bit of pressure when you are ripping it off the roll, it tears off in a straight line - no scissors needed or wonky cuts! It only took a few tries of getting used to breaking it off, and it really made things a cinch. Taping off all of these little windows took waaaay less time.
When I was browsing my Martha Stewart paint deck, I saw her teal colour (called "araucana teal") and I was sold. It's a really saturated color, knew it would go well with our red brick and black accents, and it just felt happy to me.
I had it colour-matched at the Home Depot to CIL's exterior paint in a satin finish. [Update: After living with this paint finish for a while, I would recommend going with a semi-gloss or gloss finish. We found that the satin finish marked easily.]
I gave the door a sanding before getting started. I didn't go overboard, as we will replace this door when we do our major addition/reno, but I wanted to get some of the major dings sanded down a bit. Then I washed it down with a soapy cloth, let it dry, and got started on painting. Remember that your paint job is only going to be as good as your prep work, so make sure to put the time in (even though I know how annoying it can be!).
Want to see the rest of the tutorial and the final product? Head over to the full post here.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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I so want to paint my front door BUT, the problem I have is my door faces West & my house sits in a hollow, mtns both sides so I get 360 degrees of boiling sun all day until 7p when it goes down on West. Every paint color has faded, usually into a full ugly shade. So my door remains sadly white😟
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My house is light gray siding and, overall, boring. It does have a screened in porch which I've done in white and pale aqua, with navy and green accents. I wanted something about the house to stand out so I painted the door teal, inside and outside.
Frequently asked questions
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Was the door metal or woodwood?I have a metal door.
Can a person paint a metal door?
I would like to paint my front door but since we have a storm/screen door in front of main door we like to leave the inside door open much of the time so we get extra light and can also enjoy watching the birds, etc. My problem is I need a color that goes with the outside and also the inside since the door is open much of the time. Outside of house in gray inside a soft green. Any suggestions?