DING! DONG! The Door is Done!

What can I say?

We like to drag out our home improvement projects around here.

Case in point: we began painting our home in May 2010 and did not finish until four months later.

Why we didn't paint our front door when we painted the house in 2010 is beyond me, except that I know we would not have picked orange back then.

Nope, a year ago we probably would have played it safe with a dark ink blue or even {gasp!} stayed with the white.

Boooorrrinng!

No offense if you have an ink blue or white door.

Its just that Justin and I are finally discovering our design tastes and, as it turns out, we like a little bit of funky now and then.

Cue the 80's disco music!

"Won't you take me to funky town,
Won't you take me to funky town..."

You should know I have killer dance moves for this song.
Just ask my kiddo.



Anyhew...
I touched on some of my pop of color inspiration back in July.
After trying two different paint samples and taping about twenty different swatches on top of that we finally settled on Bird of Paradise.

Justin bought the Behr paint and primer in one, which I didn't realize until I was already shaking up my Kilz primer on paint day. When Justin pointed out that I didn't need to prime I was ecstatic! I might go so far as to say that the time consuming 'prime, dry, then paint' process was the reason I dragged this project out for so long, but who am I kidding.
I am just lazy sometimes. And impatient.


Any job worth doing is worth doing well, right?
Which is exactly why you should be slightly suspicious when a product claims to simplify your painting by elimating the priming stage.


Mistake #1
After two coats of the Behr you could still clearly see the spots of green paint underneath.
Grrr!
In hindsight, I should have done one coat of primer first, especially with the beatings that doors take.
It also didn't help that I was using a sponge roller.
Lesson learned.
(NOTE: we don't intend to buy the paint and primer again; we haven't been impressed with it)


For the third and fourth coat I used a roller with a longer nap.
Much better.


Mistake #2
No matter how great a multi-tasker you are, never attempt to paint while watching a kiddo and preventing two cats from sneaking into the warm house while the front door is open for painting.
In fact, remove the cats from the equation altogether if you can.
Otherwise you will find yourself scrubbing a path of orange kitty footprints off your carport cement.


I'm convinced I cannot complete a home improvement project without drama.


But at least the end results are worth it.
The combination of our house color with the white trim and orange door is funky awesome!

Let's recap the transformation of our door/carport, shall we?

{Dingy white with a screen door through May 2010 - blech!}


{Still dingy white with no screen door in October 2010}

{Still dingy white and covered with orange paint samples in July 2011}



{Nekkid door in September 2011}


{Today}

Somebody please ask for directions to our house.

I am dying to say "Its the house with the orange door."



{Disclaimer: we still need to do a clear protective coat and add a kick plate at the bottom before she is completely finished. I also want to add some typography below the window. But like I said, I am impatient. I wanted to show you a photo already.}



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