Painting the Front Door!

First painting adventure! Over the weekend we got tired of looking at this, specifically the green door:

So, a change was due. We held up so many colors: Caribbean blue (loved it, but it is a bit drastic), bright yellow, and about fifteen shades of purple. We had a bit of a dilemma though because we want to paint our living room purple. It came down to these two colors: Spiced Plum and Blackberry Wine. Spiced Plum is a rich purple/red color, with a hint of blue; while Blackberry Wine is a deep purple with hints of gray and blue.

                                                                     (Spiced Plum)

                                                                   (Blackberry Wine)

 Craig and I unanimously chose Spiced Plum. On Saturday morning we drove up to Home Depot and got our paint and a sample of paint for the living room. We cleaned the door meticulously (that old guy was dirty!). We also sanded down as many paint drips as we could, old holes that no longer existed, and any other raised areas.

When we removed the hardware from the door, (sorry, I forgot to take pictures)we could see coats of red, orange, white and of course a huge layer of the awful green. Our door is the original door so I am sure there are many other colors hiding under there, but it was interesting to see a small sample of the life the old guy has had.

Once that was done, it took me about 3 hours to do the 2 coats. They recommend you wait 4 hours between coats, but I saw no need to as they seemed to dry up very quickly. It was a huge pain to cover that green. It just kept wanting to show through, but I managed to finish covering it by carefully putting a third coat in the spots that needed it.

We have about 60% of the paint from the job remaining. I'm torn about whether to paint the inside of the door the same color, so I think I'll sleep on it. When it came to re-installing the locks, we ran into some issues. Part of the lock is probably original and needed some attention, but we got it figured out, finally! 

Today the door is being measured for a storm door and we are hoping for some good news. When I did my own measurements, it appeared that no "regular" door from the Home Depot was going to work. The width was fine, but the height of the door is a good 2 inches under the shortest door they have.

Without further ado, here are the pictures of the finished front door! Also, notice we hung a flag pole with a Michigan State flag (despite the terrible season so far). We bleed green regardless, but no longer have a make-my-eyes-bleed green front door. :)

Notice the difference in color here? That's due to the lighting. We don't get direct sunlight outside on our house, ever, which is great during the summer.  The most true color is about the middle the door, right by the lower part of the handle. The top looks much too red.

Hello