If you want to revamp the appearance of your home, your front door is a fantastic place to start. When it comes to exterior painting, it’s one of the smaller projects you can take on, but it makes a huge impact on the overall impression of your house. Your door is one of the first features your guests notice, so impress them with a beautiful, freshly painted door using these tips.

Front Door Exterior Painting Advice

1. Pick the Perfect Paint

The hardest step of this project might just be choosing the best color for your door. Think of the atmosphere you want the entrance to embody—neutral and welcoming or bold and lively? Narrow down your search to a few of your favorite paint colors, then experiment with them in other areas of the house to see if you like it.

2. Prime Before Painting

No matter how meticulously you paint your door, you won’t get the solid, deep color you want if you don’t use primer before painting it. Primer gives the paint a neutral color base, a surface that it will easily bond to, and increases the longevity of the paint.

3. Lay the Door Flat

If you’re able to, remove the door from the hinges and lay it flat. Painting this way allows you to notice blemishes and flaws more easily, helps prevent drips from forming, and tends to result in a more even coating.

4. Sand Between Layers

While it may sound counterintuitive, lightly sanding the door after priming and after each coat of paint leads to a smoother finish. Dirt, lint, bugs, paint drips, and other aesthetic flaws happen no matter how hard you try to prevent them. Lightly sanding the door’s surface will remove the bumps and uneven paint, so the next coat you apply goes on smoothly.

5. Allow the Door to Cure

Just because your door is dry to the touch doesn’t mean it’s ready to go. All painting projects, even exterior painting ones, must be allowed to fully cure after the paint has dried, a process that takes about two days. Otherwise, the paint can stick to other surfaces and peel off. For your front door, you can cover the weather strip and inner parts of the door frame with painter’s tape, which will keep it from sticking.

Get fantastic results from your next exterior painting project by buying high-quality paint from Fairbanks Paint & Glass in Alaska. They provide beautiful paint colors and supplies, fiberglass services, and glass replacement, repair, fabrication, and installation services. Whether you need painting accessories or a new storefront window, they’ve got products to brighten your home or business’s facade. Learn about their glass services online or call them at (907) 456-7758.