{renovate} painted interior front door

Happy Monday friends! Did you all have a great holiday last week? I ended up taking most of the week off and was SO productive! Can't wait to show you what we accomplished :).  But today I have a fun update that is very non-kitchen related. YAH! I feel like life has been consumed by our kitchen remodel, so it was nice to tackle something else - just for fun.

Young House Love and Bower Power are hosting their quarterly Pinterest Challenge this week, so I decided to paint the interior of our front door! Some of you might remember a couple months ago, I wrote a post about potentially painting the interior front door (okay, in January. Sigh). We looked at a lot of beautiful inspiration photos. You all were so encouraging, but I was nervous and then there was a kitchen and .... yeah. I have no idea why I was so nervous, because the change is AMAZING.

I went with a deep, deep navy blue. Black Ink from Benjamin Moore, specifically. It's the same color as the two doors in our back porch. Friends, our living room is a completely disaster from the kitchen over-flowage, but even completely unstyled it make a HUGE difference and I already love it so much. 

So, how exactly did I go about painting this? 

1. Remove everything from the door -- curtain, curtain rod, handle and deadbolt. Everything. And then fill holes. Use a basic wood filler putty, fill the holes and let them dry. Easy. I filled the curtain rod holes, but not the handle and deadbolt because we were using the same ones ;).

1a. A close up of the removal. The yellow in some places is the hole filler working it's magic. I opted to keep the vintage door bell in place because I was worried I would somehow break it. I just applied some tape to the edges and called it good.

2. Sand. Especially if you used hole filler, sand to get all surfaces smooth. I didn't do a lot of sanding here - just a 60 grit on the hole filler and a 150 grit quick and lightly over the rest of the door. Clean. Make sure your door is spotless before you start painting. I used a little TSP and it worked really. Let the door dry before you start painting. 

3. With a paint brush, fill in the edges. I actually locked myself in doing this (don't ask! ;), so the random line down the right side is where I was worried a roller would be too close to the trim. If you leave the door open though, you don't have to worry about this. 

4. Fill in with a small roller. So easy! Let dry. Repeat. This door took two coats.

5. Also, I've previously posted tips and tricks about painting high gloss doors. It's worth a read if you're thinking of tackling this project.

A couple things. First, this project total took a couple hours. Such an easy weekend update project. Second, I've always hated that our door fixtures are brass. But, we've never taken the plunge in replacing them because all our doors have brass fixtures. $$$$. Against the navy blue though? I don't so much mind the brass. Hmmmm. And third, yes, I had some fun with the window "covering". You can read more how to create you own decorative window film here..

A little styled. Even though in reality that is the world's most awkward place for a table! :)

What do you all think? I'm so excited to put this room back together and see the door against the furniture and other decor!

If you'd like to see my previous Pinterest Challenge entries, they are: DIY ombre pillow, a mirror quote, a DIY capiz pendant, and a DIY twig pendant.