Paint it Black Blue

Rolling Stones, anyone? Like ol’ Mick Jagger himself, this project may be a little controversial. I took my front door from this:

To this:

I painted it Saturday morning and hated it all day. I sat on the porch staring and trying to like it, but it was just all wrong. It seemed way too dark. I considered trying again with a lighter shade, but I worried that by going too light I’d risk creating a look too tropical for my taste. I decided to sleep on it before making my next move. When I woke up Sunday morning I headed straight for the porch to give it a fresh look and, suddenly, we were in love. And I think ol’ blue-door and I will move from puppy love into a deep state of commitment once I tone down the shiny brass deadbolt and paint the porch floor a moody gray.

My painting method was pretty straightforward. I took the opportunity to move the weatherstripping to the inside of the door (it was on backwards and we’ve been meaning to fix it for a while), once again proving my skill with a level and power drill. When I removed the weatherstripping from the outside of the door it left behind a pretty nasty stripe of grotiness.

So I sanded it smooth and gave the rest of the door a really thorough cleaning, being sure to wipe the crud out of every nook and cranny. Then I taped off the glass panes because that’s a lot of edges for a hand that is only marginally steady.

If any of you have ever looked closely at a really old window before, you’ve probably already guessed that I was dealing with some seriously jacked up edges. Like this spot, where part of the frame was missing:

And this one, where someone apparently went a little crazy with the caulk:

I don’t have the expertise to feel confident fixing these problems without causing further damage, so I just worked to minimize their appearance wherever I could. In the area where a piece of wood was missing, I ended up applying paint to the glass to create the illusion that nothing was amiss.

I used Olympic exterior flat paint color matched to some paint I mixed together for another project. A word of advice here: in my experience custom color matching usually turns out a shade or two darker than the original color. I actually added a little bit of white exterior semi-gloss to the can to lighten it up a bit and still wish I’d gone just a smidge lighter. This is the original color I had it matched to, to give you an idea of the discrepancy:

The advantage to using flat paint, in my opinion, is that you don’t have to worry about lap marks and can touch up areas that are looking a little thin without having to slap another coat on the whole shebang. I was able to get pretty good coverage after 2 coats and touched up thin areas from there. I realize that flat paint is not quite as wipeable as semi-gloss, but I bought a quart of paint for this project and used less than half of it, so I’ve got plenty left over to freshen things up if needed further down the line.

Looking at these pictures, I’m wondering it would be worth the effort to strip who knows how many layers of paint from the lock plate. I really like the patina of the knob and exposing the plate would probably add some authenticity to the whole operation. The only thing I’m sure about is that something must be done about the brass deadbolt and hole cover. It’s like a sideways swollen-eyed deer in the headlights staring me down every time I come home.

So, love it or hate it, our door is now blue. It took almost 24 hours to grow on me but now I’m a believer. Check back tomorrow and Thursday to see more improvements I made to our entryway!

P.S. click here to read yesterday’s post about moving the mailbox, and here to see the rest of our front yard and porch!