How to Paint Your Front Door Like a Professional

MY FRONT DOOR NEEDED A FACE LIFT SO I WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO DO YOURS TOO

BEFORE

My front door has been white, which is plain and uninteresting, at least on my house! The windows and trim are white, the stucco is a creamy pink color, and the shutters are black. To create a higher contrast, I decided to match the shutters and go black!

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SUPPLIES

• Paint
• Brush/Sprayer – I used a Wagner SprayTech Flexio 5,000 sprayer – check out this one from Amazon.com: https://amzn.to/3hRACsk
• Microfiber Cloth
• Sanding Block or Random Orbital Sander
• Painters Tape
• Drop Cloth

PAINT SPRAYER

So I’ve struggled with painting doors in the past. The brush strokes end up leaving streaks and I wanted a more professional look. Honestly, a paint sprayer is a gamechanger! They come in a range of prices but I ended up getting a nicer one because of the number of projects I knew that I’d use it on.

One of the most important things to note is that paint sprayers need a lot of prep-work. The actual painting process is 10x faster, BUT the area needs to be properly covered to prevent overspray.

It can be tedious, for sure, but the shortened spray time and the smooth finish are definitely worth it!

PREP

The first thing to do before you paint your front door is to prep. I taped off the side-lite panels to cover the glass and protect the trim edge. But tape alone wasn’t enough.

I found this really cool tape roll that comes with plastic attached! I applied the tape edge on top of the tape that I already had in place, then rolled out the plastic drop cloth to cover the area. I used a roll of brown floor paper to protect the parts that the plastic didn’t cover.

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To make sure I got the whole front of the door, I removed it from its hinges and placed it on saw-horses in the yard. I didn’t want to also apply drop cloth and plastic sheets inside the foyer.

If you are just using a paintbrush or roller to paint your front door, you could get away with keeping it on its hinges.

PICKING PAINT

Picking out paint can be a daunting task. I recommend matching something you already have in your space and on your home.

Choosing a black was fairly easy, mostly because I already had shutters to match paint. Many blacks can have brown or purple undertones. The Black by Behr from Home Depot was the purest black I could find AND it matched the shutters! A win/win!

SAND

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It’s important to do a light sanding of the surfaces before you begin. Weather can do a lot of damage to paint and its important that the paint adheres correctly.

After you sand, use a clean cloth to wipe off excess sawdust.

TIME TO SPRAY PAINT YOUR FRONT DOOR!

I decided to start with the door because I was just so excited! I moved fairly quickly so the paint didn’t build up and worked my way down the door. I did this multiple times to get an even coat.

Approaching from multiple angles helps to get into the grooves, just remember to apply lightly so that the paint doesn’t build in the cracks. The side-lites had more grooves so it took some more maneuvering.

It’s amazing to see it transform before your eyes! The black looked so good and the finish was so smooth! I promise you’ll be so pleased when you paint your front door.

ALL DONE

By far the best part of any paint project is removing all the tape! To see that crisp line, make it all worth it.

Unfortunately, I missed a few spots that resulted in overspray. In my opinion, it’s not that visible so we will leave it for now. In the future when we repaint all the trim, it will be covered up. In the meantime, we will enjoy this beautiful black door!

If you enjoyed learning how to paint your front door, you may enjoy these paint hacks!