Front Door Makeover

Bean and I finally got our home update fix for the first time since we moved in.

There's just something different about doing the work yourself. Sure, it's nice to pay someone to take down popcorn ceilings or paint all the required coats on wood paneling but you don't get the same satisfaction.

The front door was a doozy. It took a full 2 days with us trading off working and playing with the baby. Here's the before:

 

 Notice the ugly wood and the really ugly brass numbers at the bottom of the door. What a weird choice in number placement!

 

 How about 2 ugly and crooked light fixtures to frame it out?

This picture highlights the worn threshold, the peeling weather stripping, and the faded and uncared for wood finish. Also the handle was cheap, black and dented.

 

Now here's one thing that bothered me the most- a centimeter thick, wavy, mismatched line of caulk. It's just sloppy and unnecessary. Well, having caulk there is necessary, but having it be so poorly done is not. I really have a passion for updating homes and doing it right. I realize that not everyone feels the same way, but in this case I would say if you don't know how to caulk, pay someone to do it!

Another close up of the battered threshold, weather stripping and hideous numbers.

And the door handle. You can see how the wood looks ashy. We figured out it had been top coated with an indoor polyurethane, which also caused the alligatoring all over. I didn't get a good picture of that, but it's one of the reasons the project took so long.

The old owners probably went into a home improvement store and bought whatever they thought was right without any help from someone who knows. It is literally the same amount of work to top coat a wood door- whether you use indoor polyurethane or outdoor spar urethane, but it makes a huge difference in how it holds up!

 

 We took down the wreath and sanded the door. Luckily we planned to paint so we didn't have to get too crazy with the sanding. If we wanted to re-stain it, we would have had to get it down basically to the bare wood and remove all of that old polyurethane.

 

 We also ripped out the nasty old caulk. See how much better the edge looks already?!

However, on the right side there was a quarter-inch gap from where the house has settled and had foundation repairs done. We filled that crack with foam, and shaved it down. In the meantime, I worked on priming the whole door and frame. We ended up priming it twice.

 

 How do you make that decision? If the wood is really bleeding through. The primer doesn't have to look perfect, but it does go on thicker with a brush. So the detailed areas, the curves and trim pieces look well covered, while the middle areas (especially the lower inside section) that were rolled needed another coat.

Now, when I'm talking about a second coat, I'm not all anal about it. The first coat is really good and covers every square inch. The second coat, I just go over random areas that need it. Professionals go over the whole surface again- it looks completely uniform before the paint starts.

 

 After that dried, I caulked the edges. It was my first time caulking something with a straight edge to brick and I really didn't want it to stand out, so I tried to get a color that was close to the brick. It does touch the brick, because it has to. The purpose of caulk is to join two dissimilar surfaces together- to bridge the gap. I didn't care that it went all over the primed areas because the caulk we picked was paintable.

It is always fun when you start the actual painting with color. For me, it's not only fun to see the change in appearance, but I love to know that I did all of the prep work in advance and I'm in the home stretch of the project.

There are the close-ups of the newly painted edges of the door after my caulk work. It's certainly not perfect, but it's much better than it was and I'm comfortable with it. I don't notice it anymore, all I see is the beautiful door.

Since we are particular homeowners and want everything the way we want it, we bought new lanterns too. They have the style we are wanting to bring throughout the home.

Of course I made a new fall wreath! And I love the new Baldwin door handle set. It has a little flap over the keyhole that you slide to the side to put the key in. Plus the finish is oil rubbed bronze, which goes with the rest of the house.

The only small detail remaining is to paint the threshold metal piece oil rubbed bronze, and also to paint the new door numbers the same color so it's all tied together. I love our new door and it makes me so happy to see it everyday. We even got a compliment from our new neighbor!