Hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of summer. While I love the fall, I’m hanging on to the warm weather like it’s my job. I’m sure I’ll get into it once it’s here, but for now it’s going to stay summer around here until the leaves change color. Last weekend we knocked out a bunch of projects and posted about two of them: the dining room wainscoting and the outside portion of the front door. Today we’re going to show you what we did to the inside of the front door…
Lisa has been looking to add some character to our vestibule and had seen other people paint their front entry door. She thought it would look pretty slick if we painted ours black. We picked up some black no-VOC paint from Sherwin Williams and knocked out both the exterior side and the interior.
Lisa was excited about this if you couldn’t tell.
We wrapped the door frame in painter’s tape and I scuffed up the existing paint with some 220 grit sandpaper.
It took us around 4 or 5 coats of the semi-gloss black to completely hide all the white. Now the door is a wood/foam core, but the outer layer is vinyl. To get the look of a solid wood door, we applied the paint with a small roller and then used a dry brush to even it out. If you brush the wet paint in certain directions, you can give the appearance of wood grain. I drew up a guide if you’re not familiar with the basic process.
Just smooth out the wet paint with a dry brush in the arrow directions shown above and you’ll get a clean, professional look.
We’re very happy with how it came out. Definitely breaks up the white trim. Amazingly difficult to take a quality photo of this door though in broad daylight.
I took a few pictures in the evening.. came out a little better.
One downside we’ve noticed is at night, whenever we glance at it, it seems like it’s open. We’ve been doing double takes.
Any door improvements you’re working on?
Very elegant! I like it!
Looks great! We painted the inside of our door an avocado green. It really stands out more than a white door.
That\’s a great color choice.
I just painted the inside of our front door dark also. It really looks beautiful. We chose "Cooled Lava" for the color. It really does add so much character to a room!
Sounds like a great color! It\’s amazing what it brings to a room.
The door looks great! I'm a fan!
Thanks Kristen!
I love it!! It makes a bold statement and is so pretty against the white!
Thanks Whitney!
This is awesome! I love how it came out- such a fun detail!
Thanks Christine!
What a great idea. I love that you chose black. It looks great!
I dig it!
I'd be the one totally freaking out that the door was open. I love how it looks. I like painted doors too because they don't show the dirt/finger prints. Painting our mudroom door was one of the best things we have done in the house!
I should\’ve painted a silhouette of something creepy on the door to make it all the more startling.
Looks great! I really like it! Definitely inspires me to paint ours one day!
Looks great! Just curious if you're going to paint the side lights black too? I am in the process of painting ALL of our main floor interior doors black. I love the look, but it's a lot of work! We have the same front door setup, and currently the door is black but the side lights are white. I'm debating painting them… still not sure. Can't wait to be done with this painting project!
We\’re actually keeping the interior sidelights white. I actually hadn\’t thought about painting them black too… Hmm. Will run that by Lisa.