This is one of those curb appeal updates that gets tossed around when thinking resale. For me, it is just too-long-delayed improvement for every day life.Granted, part of the reason it was so satisfying was that I’d devoted countless hours to fixing up the rest of the exterior, but this felt like the element that tied everything together.
I’d already chosen a color pop mailbox with an orange face and white powder coated metal structure. I knew I was going to switch out the aged and rusting storm door for a full glass one in white metal so I wanted a door color that exactly matched the box. Part of making the front entry pop is coordinating: See this more comprehensive post on the Design Elements of Entry.
I did spend a few minutes wandering the the sample area of my favorite paint store but quickly realized I was only going to find a partial solution. Fortunately a friendly employee came and introduced me to a fun new color matching technology. Bring them any object, and they can scan it and generate a matching paint color.
By the way, I love my local paint store. Hallman Lindsay is locally owned and operated. They manufacture their paint here in Wisconsin and they pay attention to key details like low and no VOC products. They are super helpful and always available for advice – something I appreciated when I was trying to dodge around edge-season exterior paint work and figure out when it was and was not too cold to keep painting.
To do a GREAT job on the door I would have pulled the hinges, laid it flat and done the whole thing on saw horses but I was in a hurry and didn’t have an extra pair of hands to help me with the task so I did a good enough job by working carefully in situ. I scraped and sanded it while it was securely closed so I had a firm surface to work against, then propped it open to prime and paint it. Orange is a tough pigment for paint to hold so it took three cotes but it was very well worth it!
The result makes me happy every time I leave and every time I get home.
Hooray for a fun front door!