It's been been far too long since I last posted - I've very busy with "life stuff" over the past couple of weeks all the while trying to finish up painting the french doors. I
did finish them and am just now getting around to posting about it. I'll tell you what - it's been a BIG improvement to have them painted, even if it's just in plain 'ole white.
About 1 1/2 years ago, I made the first transformation with the french doors - the hardware. Most of the hardware (hinges, knobs) were brassy gold & the others were silver/nickel. I don't care for brass or gold at all, so I spray painted them. To see how I transformed the
hinges, click here.
 |
| BEFORE |
 |
| AFTER |
To see how I transformed the
sidelite knobs, click here.
 |
| BEFORE |
 |
| AFTER |
Taping off the windows and hardware
was an adventure - with 2 sidelites & 2 doors, that's a total of 30 little windows, people! I finally got a system down for taping off the windows, but the hinges & some of the hardware were not so easy. The hinges had these little tabs on them, so there was no way for me to tape them off without going crazy. I did tape off the main part of the hinges, but had to hand paint with a little artist's brush around them.
And the locking mechanism for the sidelites are pretty small, so it wasn't worth taping them off either. I did the same thing and hand painted around them.
Once I got to painting, it was smooth sailing. Until, this happened.
Yep - the paint peeled off the muntins (the window pane trim) once I took the tape off. So frustrating! I only had problems with the paint peeling off the muntins & right around the deadbolt & doorknob (it was minimal around the hardware though). It just happened that while I was working on painting my doors, so was
Bon Temps Beignet and she was having the exact same problems. So, I scraped it all off, sanded the muntins (I used Bon Temps Beignet's suggestion of roughing up that trim), and painted again. It didn't peel so bad this time, but it still peeled. I came to the conclusion that it was the cheap plastic muntins - the paint peeled on the doors and not on the sidelites and I noticed that the sidelites had a different type of plastic muntin.
A quick note: after I painted my doors, Censational Girl did this
post about painting her french doors. First of all, after seeing her doors, I immediately wanted to re-paint mine in the exact color she used - so lovely!! (but I didn't - maybe later on down the road!) Second of all, I wish she had posted before I started painting my doors - it would have saved me tons of time from taping off all those windows! ;)
You can see what a difference the white paint makes in the picture below. The left doors are painted and the right doors aren't. Already looking much better!
After the doors were painted (I ended up doing 3 coats and used a small roller), I could really notice that now the casing around the doors really needed to be painted again. Against the freshly painted doors, they looked kind of yellowy.
So, I painted the casing pretty quickly. Just one coat did the trick.
I also touched up where the paint peeled around the door knob and dead bolt - I just used a small artist brush and hand painted and then used a sponge brush to dab and even out the paint. Then, I cleaned up any paint that got on the hardware and windows and I am all good to go now! Here's a few pictures of the doors all freshly painted and cleaned up.
I'm so glad the doors are finally done. It really does brighten up the living room. Even though it took me over the course of a few months to finish, it really can be done in a weekend or even in one day if you start early enough in the day. The holidays came and I did a lot of starting and stopping on this project which is why it dragged out. Sometimes that's just how I roll. :)
Originally posted by
Adventures in DIY
Linked up to:
Creatively Living's Monday Funday link party
Home Stories A to Z Tutorials & Tips link party
Love of Family & Home's Paint It link party
Homework's Inspiration Board link party
They turned out beautifully!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous set of doors - 4 of them - love the 2 smaller ones on the ends!
Looks fantastic! Great job! ;)
ReplyDeleteThey look great! It's always such a relief to finish a big project like this. And I can relate to the stopping and starting for sure!
ReplyDeleteWow! Nice doors :) Thank you for linking up to Monday Funday!
ReplyDeleteI just love it!!! Looks FABULOUS!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer... From Dream To Reality! Can't wait to see what you link up tomorrow!
You went through a lot of trouble to get those doors done, but I'm sure that you felt that all the effort was worth it. It's a simple upgrade but getting them painted made the French doors look brand new. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Antonia! It definitely was a pain at times, but totally worth it! Thanks for stopping by!
Delete