The Power of Paint

11:10 PM

We closed on our new house, and got straight to work to paint prior to actually moving in.
Our house was built in the mid-80s, and all the doors and trim are this dark wood.
Many of the walls were also painted a dingy off-white that didn't help anything.  We wanted to give the house an update into the 21st century and leave the 80s behind. 
Not that our family doesn't appreciate the 80s, just not the decor as much.
[photo from the family 80's party Rhett's side had last summer]

So first step in our 80s update was to paint all the doors in the house from the greasy brown to fresh, clean white.  Our house isn't large, so luckily there weren't that many doors. 
We also painted every wall in the house except for the office and hallway upstairs.
Over 10 gallons of paint later, we were sore and tired after all our painting, but the results were with it.

(that weird area in the corner is plumbed for a wet bar, which you could see in the "before" shot, a counter had been there at one time, and you could see the discoloration on the walls. 
We have ideas for that space in the future.

Even the stair rails got the white make-over.

We filled the garage with doors to paint.
Closet doors had to be painted in the living room.

To paint Doors:
1. Remove doors from door frames,
leaving hinges attached to door frames to make re-hanging easier, remove door knobs too
*if your doors have a thick polyurethane layer, you should probably sand. I didn't, these were pretty roughed up and were definitely more of a "matte" finish rather than a "gloss"
2. Clean doors
(I had borrowed my mom's steam cleaner that made it nice--shocking to see the years of grime that build up once it's removed)
3. Prime with oil based primer
stinky, thick, needs paint thinner to remove, but very necessary
4. 2 Coats of latex paint in semi-gloss
I used Behr Popped Corn for the white paint, and it needed 4 hours to dry between coats.  I also splurged and bought the high-end rollers to get the best seamless, smooth paint job
I'VE READ YOU SHOULD LET THE FIRST SIDE DRY 5 DAYS BEFORE MOVING/ FLIPPING THEM OVER TO PAINT THE OTHER SIDE--WE DIDN'T HAVE THAT KIND OF TIME, BUT THEY DID DRY OVERNIGHT BEFORE MOVING TO THE NEXT SIDE OR HANGING THEM UP
**I had the stick extender on my standard roller, and with the doors face down, painting them was more of a mopping motion.
I also painted the sides in the first coat while the doors were raised, then when I flipped them over to paint the other side, they were right against the plastic drop cloth, I just needed to paint the door front, and not worry about the sides

Lots of painting, but the huge difference having white doors, especially in this dark hallway, made it all worth it for us, the whole house seems more modern, light, and clean.

You Might Also Like

2 comments

  1. wow! it makes such a difference to get rid of that gross wood color...it really brightens up the rooms, and gives it a modern look!

    Awesome jess!

    I love how your chairs turned out by the way...fabulous!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow! it makes such a difference to get rid of that gross wood color...it really brightens up the rooms, and gives it a modern look!

    Awesome jess!

    I love how your chairs turned out by the way...fabulous!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by, we love to hear from you!

Popular Posts