Seeing Red

We’ve been doing a million little projects around our house all at once and (much to my chagrin) none have been completely finished just yet so I figured I would give you a look at one of said projects being my front door.

When we bought our house it had a solid wood brown door with all brown trim. I wish I had taken a picture before we did anything at all to give you an idea of the unpleasantness. The first thing we did moving in was change the locks so we removed the ugly old round brass handle with the fancier bronze one you see above. The old handle matched the door knocker which I didn’t care much for either. It also had a jar-like exterior light not visible in this pic but trust me when I tell you it wasn’t pretty. Overall it just felt sort of bleak and unwelcoming. After a little handy work and some elbow grease we got it looking like this:

There’s something about a red door that’s always made me smile so I knew I would want one for my home. We debated getting a whole new door so I could switch the side of the handle but this beat up old wood door started to grow on me so we decided we would save ourselves the money and stress; it would stay and get a spiffy new paint job. We also added some hanging pots and the basket to bring in some summer cheer. The exterior light was changed out for a bronzed finish light to match the door handle and the knocker was removed. We still need to put in the peep hole on the door in place of the knocker. We also intend on painting all the brown trim black to look cohesive. I’ll post a finished “After” picture once that’s actually completed.

We painted the door in a color from Behr called Apple Polish which is supposedly the color above but I’d say it comes out a few shades lighter than this sample. This shot has a really merlot colored tone to it on my screen but it could just be my settings. We choose an exterior semi-gloss paint to give the door a sheen and make it way easier for cleaning.

 

  When we paint the trim black it will be done in Behr’s Beluga which will also be a semi-gloss to match the door.

 

I hope you like my progress so far and I can’t wait to post the completed project!

*Photo credit Reckless Bliss and Home Depot*