FRONT PORCH MINI MAKEOVER- NEW BLUE FRONT DOOR

You might remember that several months ago we bought an old door to replace our front door.  It was quite a process getting to this point, but the new front door is in and our front porch mini makeover is complete!

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As a reminder, here's what the door looked like when we bought it- one side painted with multiple colors and the back side stained.

After much patching and filling in, sanding, paint stripping, and re-painting, it's finally exactly what I had pictured.  Well, almost.  I wanted a brass door knocker too but it doesn't really work with this style of door.   That's ok, though.  I'm loving the simplicity of it.

After removing layers and layers of old paint,

(if you follow me on Instagram and saw my stories you know what I'm talking about!) I started off with a super glossy paint that I thought would look fantastic.  Strike one.  Once on the porch the color wasn't what I had in mind, and I was having trouble getting the glossy sheen to dry properly.  So, I darkened up the paint a little and it was better, actually a pretty blue/gray color, but it still wasn't the color I had in mind and the gloss was still a bit uneven.  And, I realized when we leaned the door up for a test run that the gloss didn't look right.  I've seen some beautiful lacquered front doors, but this one wasn't working for me.  Strike two.

Here are the first two attempts- it's hard to tell in the first one but the color was much brighter-almost turquoise- in real life.

I scrapped the glossy plan and started completely over with a new shade.  I chose Dignity Blue from Sherwin Williams and had it mixed in a satin finish, then held my breath as I painted the door for the third time (actually it seemed like about the 20th time counting all of the primer coats and mistake coats!).

The third time was the charm, because now the door was exactly what I had in mind.  The perfect shade!  Our porch is always shaded so I love how the pop of color brightens everything up.

DIY Custom Monogrammed Door Mat

A new brass handleset finished it off nicely.  We're debating adding a brass kick plate at some point, but we'll see.

I will let you know that changing out the door was not as easy as we had hoped.  It was a tad too tall so it needed to be trimmed, which was no big deal.  However, the handle and lock position did not match up to where the previous ones fit into the door frame (not even close), so we had to hire someone to replace the entire door jamb and refit things for the new door.  Even with that, we still came out much better than buying a new door would have been.  This old door still has a quirk or two and isn't perfect, but it's charming and we're happy with the change.

While we were at it we also switched out the exterior porch light.

I bought this light several years ago from a thrift store in Dallas for a whopping 89 cents I think.  I completely forgot to take a before shot (well I did, but I posted it on my IG Stories and forgot to save it, so it was gone in a day), but the finish was goldish and damaged and there was no glass.  I ended up with about $50 in it by the time I painted it and replaced the glass, candle sleeves, and bulbs.  Well worth it!  That scalloped detail across the top is what did me in and made it impossible for me to pass it up, even in it's sad condition.

I've had these urns for several years, but just added some gold detail like I did on my old concrete planters years ago.  This is my favorite gold paint to use for projects like this, it covers extremely well in just one coat and holds up well.

It's hard to tell in the photos unless you look closely, but I painted the trim around the door the same white as our patio trim.  We're planning to get the house painted soon and I wanted to test the color, and I also like the crisper warm white against the door than the tan trim.

I'm excited about using wreaths on my door now.  The oval glass on the old door made it a little difficult to hang a wreath, they always looked a bit odd.  As a reminder, here we were before:

And with a pretty new update!

I was definitely inspired by all of the beautiful front doors that we saw on our trip to London several years ago. This one makes me happy and reminds me of that wonderful trip every time we arrive home now!

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