|| L o v e l y. H a n d m a d e. A b o d e || Front Door Makeover

 

 

 Every person that runs, walks, or drives by our home gets a front seat view of our front door.  Each visitor that we enjoy the company of walks through our front door.  I walk through my front door on a daily basis. Hmm, maybe the front door is the heart of the home rather than the kitchen.  It is what welcomes every gal and gent into our lovely handmade abode.

 

I was itching to change something to the front of our home within just a few hours and that is when I decided to paint the front door.  Buying a new door is not an option at this time due to the original stain glass window that gives our home so much character (and the price of the door I am in love with stops me in my tracks)!  A lot of people kept telling me that they love the red on the door.  Is it a bad choice of color for a door?  No, not at all!  Is it the color/style my husband and I are looking for with our front door? No, not at all!

 

My new project began. See how we transformed the look of our front door in just a few hours!

 

 

 

 

This is what we started with.  Yup, told you it was red, bold red. I looked on Houzz and Pinterest for inspiration,  attached 15 different color samples on the door, and finally picked our color: a shade of teal.

  

 As you can see in this picture from the sander on the ground, I briefly sanded our door.  I was focusing on the areas that showed a little bit of cracking or peeling paint.  I was also prepping the door for the primer. 

 

Out of all of my excitement, I forgot to snap a picture of the sanded door before applying the primer!

 

 

 



 

 

For those who were walking, driving, and running by {what is running? ;) }, I am sure they were hesitant of my color choice at this point.  Although the sanding helped the new color adhere better, the primer was also a wonderful step within this project.  With the door being the original bold red, I needed all the help I could get with painting over it.

 

I also purchased a product to mix in with the primer and the paint color: Floetrol.  I mixed a small amount of the Floetrol into my primer (and eventually my paint color).  This eliminates the brush and roller strokes in the paint.  This means a flawless door!

 

 

 

 

After the primer dried, I was finally onto my next and final step.  Little did I know that it would be 3 coats later until I was done!  After spending 30 minutes of walking back and forth between my front yard and my front door earlier that morning, I finally decided on Classic Teal by Valspar.
 

 

Image Courtesy of Valspar

 

I also mixed the Floetrol into the Valspar Classic Teal paint according to the directions on the bottle.  I am in love with the final result!  Please come visit me!  The color of the door in the images does not show the true and vibrant hue of teal that it truly is.

 

 

We also found this bench on sale of Lowes! Perfect to start our front door/porch area and to throw a couple of my Lima Green Designs pillows on. 

 

 

This one day project was a success and a drastic difference to our front door.  I would love to see some of your front door creations and to take joy in what inspires you. 

Until next time!

Elizabeth 

 



Lovely Handmade Abode

The boredom of looking at white walls, the temptation to paint the walls, the lack of smell of your own freshly cut lawn, and ordering a custom address stamp that lasts less than a year due to moving again finally came to an end June 30th, 2014!

Since then I am finding joy in painting walls according to our taste, my husband loves cutting the grass (still in the grass cutting honeymoon period), and I have ordered a custom address stamp that will last years to come! We are finally homeowners in a city and state that we have fallen in love with.  It only took 3 states, 5 cities, and 7 apartments later in 5 years to finally settle us down. . . at least for now!

We bought our home right outside of gorgeous Orlando, Florida. Orlando is a city we have fallen head over heels for with the people, sights, and culture. 

This brings me to this blog post.  Being a lover of crafting and DIY projects (especially within our home now), I am going to have a weekly post on the many projects we are constructing and creating within our home.  I would love to share my passion with you and welcome you into our home!  These posts will fall under the category: Lovely Handmade Abode.  The watercolor picture with #lovelyhandmadeabode at the beginning of this blog post is a sneak peek of the outside of our home.

Beyond all of the hundreds of paint chips and samples brought home, rooms re-painted a week later due to the not so pleasant shades appearing in natural light vs lamp light, and countless amounts of paint stuck in my hair for days, we are finally getting down to the nitty gritty projects I can't wait to share!  Get ready LGD friends!

 xoxo!

Elizabeth