Painting the front door can be easier than you think

When we moved into our house, the door was royal blue — and it was fine.

A couple of years later, I painted it red and liked it a lot … until I got sick of it.

A few years after that, I painted it — and all the other exterior doors — a nice deep teal.

I wasn’t necessarily sick of the teal, but once we installed our new smart deadbolt, I realized the paint was pretty chipped and needed to be re-done.

I dreaded the task since I remembered how annoying it had been to paint the door those two previous times. I have done it the right way, with primer and special door paint, and it was awful. The paint felt sticky to the touch for ages, so even after a full day I still didn’t feel comfortable closing the door.

Luckily, I read two separate articles from people who used Fusion Mineral Paint* — my go-to indoor furniture paint — on their front doors and it had turned out beautifully. I’d never done any exterior painting with it, but it was certainly worth a shot considering how regularly I use it and love it.

It’s about $27 after tax for a jar of Fusion Mineral Paint and I knew I’d only need one. (Spoiler alert: I only ended up needing half). All I had to do was choose a colour that would look nice with our beige siding while making sure our new aged bronze deadbolt and handleset popped.

After very seriously considering yellow (Prairie Sunset*) and pale blue (Champness*), I settled on a daring shade: Coral*. My handy husband was not a fan of this bright pinky orange, but it made me so happy.

Have you been wanting to paint your front door, too? Here are the steps I followed to do ours, errors and all …

Continue reading in my weekly DIY column, My Handmade Home …