operation front door // the painted door (finally!!)

The time has come. I couldn’t put it off anymore. I sucked it up and painted the door. Quite a few people eagerly asked me what color I painted it, and I reluctantly had to say, “that same green color.”

Sorry, folks, this isn’t my house, nor was it my paint. But how fun would a bright purple door have been? Oh well, maybe someday when I’m a homeowner…but until then, I painted the door “that same green color.”

I did a little bit of prep work, starting off with scrubbing it down with some Tri Sodium Phosphate, better known as TSP. Here’s a nice big photo of it:

(try to contain your excitement with my super riveting photos, who can resist a giant pic of TSP?? I know I can’t…)

I also scraped off some of the big peeling chunks of paint. If you’re going to do an ace job with painting an old wood door, you should probably scrape a lot more and even sand a bit to roughen it up. After you’re all scraped and sanded it’s time to tape off stuff to keep your hardware nice and neat. (something a previous painter neglected to do on this door)

Looking back on the pic, apparently I taped, then scraped since this pic is pre-scraping. That works too.

Before starting I made sure I had a clean roller and tray lining and all that jazz. Turns out, you don’t need a roller when painting a 6 panel door.  I used a brush for the whole thing. There just isn’t that much flat area to warrant using a roller. Luckily I realized that before dipping it in the paint.

Ok, ok, I won’t make you wait any longer. Behold, the painted door!!

Yup, not super exciting…just an old door with new paint on it…too bad paint doesn’t fix that rotten piece at the bottom….

Oh, and I painted the little 2×4 handrail for good measure.

So for the last time, we can go back to the official operation front door checklist and see it completely checked off! whoo hoo!

• Weed the brick walkway and sidewalk
• Weed the side garden – aka “find the tulips”
• Plant some more flowers, “pretty it up”
• Weed and fix up the front garden
• Paint the door
• Unearth the Patio
• Weed and fix up the back garden

Don’t forget about the giveaway! It closes tomorrow at noon. Make sure to leave an actual comment…liking the post doesn’t count! Good luck!

I dedicate this post to my friend, M, for being my most “enthusiastic” fan about painting the door.  Thanks, M!