Today I re-painted our front door because as you'll see from the photos below, it was very scratched and in need of some TLC!
We first painted our door back in January, however because we were painting over paint, we decided not to prime. Mistake. It takes more time, but just go ahead and re-prime so you know you aren't wasting your time.
Right let's do this! Here's a video incase the descriptions below confuse anyone!
Step 1. Clean everything. Get the dirt out of the corners and ideally use Sugar Soap to sponge everything off. If you don't bother cleaning then you will be painting dirt that will move and you'll have unpainted areas. (I know this from experience haha!)
Step 2. Run your hand over the surface, check for scratches or holes that need filling. We had scratches relatively deep into the wood from our puppy Boki. Grab some contract filler and use something (doesn't have to be a tool) even a plastic card like an old library card will be fine. Don't stress and bother to make it beautiful, just make sure you lather it on and roughly smooth it over.
3. Once the contract filler is dry, grab some sandpaper, 120 grit will be fine. Use either a block of wood and wrap the sandpaper around it to create a flat surface, or if you're experienced enough just grab the sandpaper, start sanding with even pressure to ensure there's no mounds (if you use your fingertips only you can end up with a circular inverted mound). Sand until you can run your hands across the entire door and there are no rough spots. If there are rough areas, the light will hit these and make your paint job look less than fab!
4. Primer coat. Grab a cheapish brush (nothing fancy) and paint in the direction of the grain. For our door, I painted it all vertically except for the detailing of the panels where I did those small sections that transition between the two different depths of the door horizontally, just the top and bottom of the panel (sorry I feel that's awkward to explain without using technical jargon). When you prime, it doesn't need to be flawless and it's better to do a thinner coat and avoid drips than slap it all on at once and then have to go back and re-sand the drips off. It doesn't need to be amazing, but you can't leave any areas 'thicker' than others otherwise it may effect the final result.
5. First coat of your chosen colour. Grab a nice brush. Personally I prefer the Legend brushes found at Resene, the angled ones help control how much paint is on your brush vs while brushing areas like the edges of the doors. If you're an amateur especially, a nice brush will help you out a lot. Again, only paint vertically unless you have panelling in which case those areas discussed should again be horizontal. Paint up and down, using both sides of your brush. Don't apply too much pressure, the lighter you brush the less brushstrokes you'll see. The less brushstrokes, the better the finish. Personally, I like to use a small angled Legend brush and cut in around the door handles. I don't really trust masking tape as it seems to bleed underneath 90% of the time for me - if you don't feel confident by all means mask away!
6. Repeat step 5 :) you'll notice this coat is especially important because it fills in the negative of your brushstrokes from step 5. Does that make sense? A brushstroke has areas of paint that sit higher than others, as is the nature of a brush, so this second coat of paint will fill in any gaps you may not notice at first and will also really make the colour pop. Don't do one coat. It will look like shite :)
7. Booooom! You're done! Let it dry completely open for at least an hour otherwise the sections that touch the seal may stick and peel off.
All photos here have been edited with Presets by Stacy
Any questions hit me up :)
Chat soon,
S x
