MY FRONT DOOR: HOW I PAINTED IT TO LOOK BIGGER

If you have a double front door, I’m jealous. I don’t, so I painted mine to make it look bigger. Here is how I did it.

I’ve never been in love with the exterior of my house. It’s nothing really interesting, just a bunch of bricks. Also, my front porch is non-existent. It’s mainly just a door. To call it a porch is bit of a stretch. And while it’s the first thing someone sees when they come to my house, it was my least favorite part. I knew I could improve upon it if I could just find the time.

Step 1: Look at other front doors in your neighborhood

Before I pulled the trigger, I walked my neighborhood and looked at other doors in my area. A lot of the homes are like mine where there have a large window above the front door. Some people painted that window as well as the door. Some painted it a different color than their trim and some painted the door and not the window. Most of what I saw, I did not like. So, while I couldn’t really find anything I liked and wanted to copy, I sure figured out what I didn’t like.

how to paint your front door — My house before I painted the door.

Also, before you pull the trigger, you might have to get approval from your home owners’ association.

STEP 2: Choose your paint colors

When deciding on your paint color, consider the trim you have on your house and the rest of the exterior. I knew I did not want to paint that window way up high and also wanted to tie the door in with the trim color on the rest of the house. I also considered the warm tones from the brick.

I thought I wanted a black door until I saw some in the neighborhood and I didn’t think it looked good with the brick color. I scraped off some chips of paint from my trim and took them with me to Home Depot where they did a color match. I found the paint card that I thought was the most similar and used it to help me pick out the door color. I decided on a dark gray with a warm undertone.

where they did a color match. I found the paint card that I thought was the most similar and used it to help me pick out the door color. I decided on a dark gray with a warm undertone.

When I got started on painting the door, it was super similar to the color I already had. Who knew, right?

Step 3: Prepare the front door area

I spent about a day scraping off old paint from the trim around the door. I just used a scraper and then I did just a little bit of sanding on the trim.

Next, I added caulk where ever there was a crack to fill around the trim.

Prepping is definitely not the fun part, but your paint job will only be a good as your prep job. So, make sure you are ready to paint before you get started.

Step 4: Paint the trim around the front door area

I painted the trim before I painted the front door area because it was a much smaller area to paint. I just painted the trim around the outer most part of the entire front door area to tie in with the trim on the rest of the house and to give a nice framed effect to the door.

Step 5: Paint the front door, surrounding trim, and side areas all the same color

See that those large pieces of trim on both sides of the actual door? I painted those the same color as the door to make the door look larger than it actually is. I also painted the areas around the windows on either side the same color. I mean, those look just like the door anyway.

how to paint your front door to look bigger

The door was actually the last thing I painted. Here is my last tip – don’t paint in full sun. Like I said, my door gets a lot of sun and exterior paint is much thicker than interior paint. So, it’s harder to spread out and make it look nice if the sun is drying it super quickly. So, I sort of had to follow the sun. I waited until the evening when there was no sun on the front door at all to paint it.

Is this a project anyone can do? I’m sure that depends on the person and the door, but yes, this was an easy DIY. I did have two assistants that helped quite a bit, though.