this front door has been the best makeover so far ever in history ! I went through actual pain to get there and so did my husband but it was so worth the effort. I get lots of questions about it so thought I would document it here listing what we used but also so I can show off my swanky looking door a bit more 😂!
This is what I had when I moved in – in my mind it looks like a back door – this house deserved more ….
The porch was cracked and unloved / with old speckled tiles from the 60’s so no lovely Victorian ones for me !
The door itself was just going to have to stay – it’s a big door and frame and was so far down on the list of things to replace – but then we had a brainwave – I can’t remember who had it to be fair (could have been me I do have them every now and again !) to see whether we could replace the middle insert with a full upvc insert / we had a friend in the trade who said he could do it for £100 – so we snapped his hand right off!
I work term time and as my boys get older I find that they need me less and less so I like to set myself little targets to keep me busy – the porch was the first on the list
It was rough broken plaster so we had it skimmed in a render and I used sandtext smooth in plain white to cover this / it’s covered really well – it’s a slightly textured paint. As all us house obsessed people know / it’s amazing what a tin of white paint can do 😊😊 it was instantly lighter ! I was inspired to get it done !
Next was the door itself / as my early Instagram followers know / one Monday morning I set out to prep
I had sandpaper (light) and after research I had zinsser 123 primer / check out their website it’s super helpful depending on what you are painting. I have used zinsser lots of times in this house – it’s never let me down but other paints definitely have 🤦♀️
Now at this point I could tell you that I continued on without issue and the door was finished in record time but that would be a big fat lie!! I want to read real life stuff so I can learn from other people’s mistakes and omg did I make a mistake ! Learn from me!
After lots of tester pots (except the one I bought !) I decided on Farrow and Ball moles breath. This paint went on like a dream, very easy, unlike gloss which is much harder to paint with…. so far so good
The colour sigh 😔 was just awful ! I followed the instructions and gave the recommended time between coats and even though I didn’t like the colour I thought that it might by some miracle change from the ugly duckling brown to a beautiful swanlike muted grey tone but it didn’t …..
To top off the fact that I didn’t like the colour, I had used a full tin, done four FOUR! coats and it was a very very damp weather week (this is very important when painting – who knew ) it was now Thursday 4 days gone
I decided that I couldn’t live with this colour / this is not what I wanted my long awaited door makeover to look like ! So I decided to paint over it again with the zinsser – big mistake huge!
I had decided to go back to my original paint choice that I have used in my house lots of time and painted one coat of my trusty purbeck stone in dulux high gloss and went to bed to dream about statement doors and what door furniture I was going to get
When I woke up the next morning the paint was peeling off …. the nightmare began 
11 hours of sanding later ( my poor long suffering husband )- mixed with kitchen utensils as scrapers and tears of frustration I was ready to start again
The air was blue – I was utterly deflated. Five days of getting up at 6am to paint a door in a rubbish colour which was now all over my crappy porch floor was not the best time I have ever spent!
I couldn’t give in… how could I ? The entrance to my house looked like the actual money pit movie and I had only a couple of days left before work again / I had to keep going … my Instagram followers were the best during this time / I had so many messages of encouragement and this really did help spur me on 😘
Bright and early on day 5 went on the zinsser, again on the freshly sanded door followed by two coats of dulux high gloss mixed in f&b purbeck stone -dulux do a great colour match service as do crown paints actually and I wanted a high gloss / f&b didn’t do this xx
https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=12009&awinaffid=594619&clickref=&p=
If you are about to embark on your own upvc door painting – this is where I went wrong –
The weather was damp all week – it was misty from morning till night that week and that definitely stopped my paint drying – I followed the tin and left 4 hours in between coats of the farrow and ball top coat but I now know that the first coat never dried, the three after that didn’t stick either – the damp had got in to the paint on the very first coat. Always make sure your paint is bone dry even if you have waited the time stated, check check and check again before starting the second coat
– I decided I didn’t like the paint and slapped on the zinsser to cover it up and start again – this was my second mistake / zinsser is a specific primer and this was the wrong paint to be painting on top of / plus even my trusty zinsser isn’t going to stick on four coats of paint that were also not sticking – now got 5 coats of various paints that are just hovering on top of the door ….
– make sure you buy a tester pot – rookie mistake Sam! Farrow and ball and other paints change from what they look like in different lights and moles breath whilst lovely for some people did not look good for me – I mean it matched my ladder ! It’s like I had to set out to paint my door in a muddy brown ladder colour 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
One thing I do always do is Pinterest the hell out of stuff before I start – this was no different. I am not clever enough not to use other people as my inspiration / here is what I pinned months before I started #doorgate
I think they look dead similar …. I had actually forgotten about this picture saved to my Pinterest account until it was finished / but subconsciously this is what I had in my head – love it when a plan comes together 💪
That’s it ! I bought the accessories from amazon uk and the shiny chrome instantly made this door look posh😍
The tiles were the finishing touch we needed and I was so excited !
I had my eye on devonstone tiles here for ages. One night I happened to realise that they were indoor tiles! I maybe could have got away with it as the porch is covered over but after doing all this the last thing I wanted was frost cracked tiles so I had to rethink. I usually do research stuff if I’m unsure / and I do listen to the experts as I am not one 🤷♀️
So frost proof tiles were needed and I eventually settled on Marrakesh no 5 patterned tiles / I think the porch floor cost me £64 and I still have one box left :)) they are lovely / with griege tones which I actually think suit my colour more than the Devon ones would have ….
So my second novice blog is complete – as is my door 🚪 – the paint has lasted this far, it’s shiny and new and you would never know what it had been through to look this good 😂
Any questions please get in touch via my Instagram page -good luck transforming those doors / how bad can it be?
Sam money pit and life 
A true labour of love and looks absolutely great!
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Thank you so much 😊
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