Show Us Your Life: My First House Project

Shortly after moving into Phil's house this summer, I came up with a list of projects that I wanted to accomplish.  Phil and I have a lot in common but one thing we don't have in common is our desire and motivation to make changes around the house.  Phil is in the "it's fine the way it is" camp whereas I'm in the "but we can make it even better!" camp.  After a lengthy discussion, we settled on a finite list of projects that we'd try to tackle over the next year or so.

In October, I finally got around to crossing the first project off the list:  painting our doors. The previous owner painted them what I considered an obnoxious yellow color.  In fact, she must have loved the color so much that she painted some rocks in the backyard that color (I find this so strange).

I'd say about half the people who have seen them have said they liked the color or at least didn't mind it.  But I had a strong aversion to it from day one.  I just didn't think the yellow coordinated well with the cream color of our house.  And it's just a bit too 'out there' for me.

Picking the color:

Picking paint colors is kind of overwhelming to me as it seems like the color often looks very different once you start painting compared to what you were expecting based on the paint chip. So when I found a color on the door of a house down the block from us, I decided to be a sort of creepy neighbor, and I tracked down the color during National Night Out (a night in the Twin Cities when every block has a gathering).  The couple who owned the house wasn't at the block party, but their neighbors gave me their email address and after sending a couple of emails, I had the brand and name of the paint color.  Score! I ended up going one shade darker as I felt it would coordinate better with the dark brown siding on our house.

The painting process:

I used this 'how to' explanation from the blog, Young House Love, as a resource for how to paint the door. I used a similar technique as I used a 2" angled brush to paint the inset areas of the door. I used a 2" foam roller to paint the flat planks of the door. Our doors required 2 coats of paint + some touch-ups after the 2nd coat dried. It probably took me about 30-40 minutes to paint each door (I had 3 to paint). The most time consuming part was waiting for the first coat to dry.

The finished product!

Here is how it turned out!

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  And the project only cost me about $50 as the paint was 30% off at Sherwin Williams. It feels really good to have the first project crossed off the list, especially since it was one that dealt with the exterior of the house so needed to be done while the weather is mild.

Next up, I'd like to pick out some new furniture for our living room as Phil has some pretty ugly hand-me-down/garage sale pieces that are an eye sore and not very comfortable to sit in.

Are there any projects you'd like to do around your home?