DIY: Painted Door

I've been wanting to paint our front door for as long as we've lived here, but we didn't get around to it last summer and I wasn't going to paint a door in the winter. Since we have a party at our house coming up, that gave us the perfect kick in the butt to get it done.

I'd read a bunch of tutorials on how to do it, and they all involved way more steps than I wanted to take. We have a metal door that's in good shape, it was just stained from the sun beating on it. There was no flaking paint, so we decided to skip sanding. All I did was wipe it down to remove any surface stains and dust and we went to town.

I used regular wall paint because the guy at Home Depot said there wasn't really a special paint I should use. He also said I didn't need any type of sealant on it to protect it from the sun. Who knows if he actually knew what he was talking about. I guess if it fades quickly, we'll know the answer.

We used a sponge brush for the crevices and a roller for the big parts, which gave it a little texture. Overall, I really like how it turned out.

View from outside our house. 

We went back and forth on the color to go with. I've seen so many awesome bright yellow doors and I love the look, but not for our house. We have a combination of materials on the outside of the house- brick, cream siding, white shutters. I just didn't think yellow would look right. Also, a bright yellow door in the middle of a snowy Minnesota winter seemed weird, too. We just painted our bathroom navy, and I love the color, so we decided to go with navy for the door as well (the fact that we only had to buy one gallon of paint helped, too). It pops just enough for my taste and I think it translates well between winter and summer. 

I also made the little frame wreath and I love how the yellow pops against the navy. Now if only I could get the flowers to stop falling off from overheated hot glue...