How to Paint Your Front Door Entry

4 Materials
$5
6 Hours
Easy

Even though we have a lovely front door, it is rarely used. Most people use our side entry off the carport since it is convenient to the driveway. Since those stairs and door get a lot of use, the paint was worn off and the stairs had many dings and looked terrible. We spent a few bucks on paint and a few hours of labor to create an inviting entry!

Here is what we started with...

The stairs were extremely worn, the skid strips were peeling up, and there were dings in the wood that we filled with wood putty and sanded prior to painting. I had painted the door black several years ago, but it was chipped in a couple of places and I wanted a brighter color.

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 (Brick Red by DecoArt), 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.

I opted not to tape the windows, but instead scraped what little bit of paint I got on them off with a scraper after the door was dry.

We taped off around the steps so we would not get paint on the brick. We primed the steps with Kilz to help the paint adhere better and to keep the burgenberry shade from bleeding through. 

We painted two coats of Behr exterior paint on the stairs and railing, letting it dry for 2 hours between coats.

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! 

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