A Front Door Makeover
I feel like I should put a short disclaimer on this post before I get started. A slightly popular blog (coughYoungHouseLove) happened to post about this exact same topic (right down to the choice of color) yesterday, and I want you to know that I am totally not copying them.
I’ve had this post in my queue for a couple of weeks now, as this is one of the projects Corey and I tackled within days of moving in. Just wanted to throw that out there, since I’m not exactly quiet about my love for YHL’s blog, and it’s definitely not far-fetched that I would totally steal one of their ideas!
You may or may not know that my favorite color in the whole world is yellow. It’s just a happy color, and I think of our wedding when I see it, which is always a good thing to be thinking about, right?
So, before we had even moved in to our new house I made it very clear to Corey that our front door would be yellow and that he really didn’t have much say in the matter. It’s a bit of a bold choice, so I wasn’t sure he’d be up for it, but lucky for me he loved the idea and we jumped right into the project as soon as we could.
I was so excited to get started painting the door that I didn’t take a proper “before” shot, but you can see how boring the front door was in this photo from the first day we looked at the house.
It was a maroon-y red, and the paint was chipped, peeling, and just in all-around bad condition. Because of the chips in the paint, we had to take the extra (annoying) step of taking the door off the hinge and out to our workshop to sand it. It wasn’t fun, but we were in a fog of excitement over using our shiny new workshop for the first time (second if you count the not-so-exciting task of touching up and poly-ing our dresser-turned-media-console) and we didn’t really care.
One coat of primer and what felt like a million coats of yellow paint later (it was probably only three), we had a yellow front door!
(If you’re noticing the strange looking part to the right of the door, that would be our blurred-out house numbers)
We also updated the hardware from ugly, shiny brass to a much sleeker nickel finish.
You might notice a bit of a sneak peek for one of next week’s posts in the next two photos!
I love the way the door turned out, and it makes me smile every single time I pull into our driveway. Of course, now that we love the door color, the strange blue-ish gray trim is sticking out like a sore thumb, so that will have to be rectified soon.
And? Now that I’m looking at the photos of our door and getting a fresh perspective, I’m not loving the kickplate. I was on the fence about having one from the beginning, but we decided to go with it just because the door had one previously. But I kind of feel like it doesn’t look right and I’m thinking the door would look much better without it. It’s all about the trial and error, right?
What color would you like to paint your door? Also, I’d love some more opinions – kickplate or no kickplate?
That is a statement door if I’ve ever seen one. I love it. It says a lot about your guys’ personalities. Great Blog. Thank you for sharing your life with us to give us inspiration and relatable life experiences.
Any color suggestions for a old red brick home?
I think almost anything would look good, but I always love an emerald green or deep cobalt blue with a red brick house! I’d stick to richer, less bright colors to stick with the feel of the house!
I LOVE yellow front doors!! GORGEOUS!
I’ve been trying to find the perfect yellow for my front door. Yours is gorgeous and just might fit the bill! Would you mind sharing the brand and color of paint that was used? Thanks in advance!!
So sorry I’ve taken so long to reply! I’m not 100% sure because we have a couple of yellows out in the workshop and I can’t for the life of me remember which one was our door, but I’m pretty positive it was Olympic’s Del Sol.
The door is such a great color…fits you guys perfectly! I think we might need to spruce up ours!
Yes! That door (and house!) now totally belongs to YOU! I love it!! and I vote no kickplate 🙂
Can I just say that I absolutely adore that door? The kickplate seems screwed in too tight, but I’d keep it if it was half as tall. But your door handle + lock combo? Totally classy. Love it.
Love the color! Definitely unique, definitely you. I think I agree, that it would look better overall without the kickplate – it just seems a bit too.. shiny??
I agree – no kickplate!! I love the yellow, great job!
I’ve been wanting to paint our front door a yellow very similar to that one! But our door is really crappy and old and we really just need to buy a new one but can’t afford it right now, so it doesn’t make much sense to paint it. So for now, I will just admire yours!
I love your yellow door! And I vote no kick plate!
Love your open nature to try what others may fear. Love the door. May be the kickplate would feel better to you if you had a door knocker or peephole on the door. The whole rule of 3 thing and balance. Can’t wait to see more about the stair gallery!
It looks SUPER cute! And I have to vote no on the kickplate. It will look awesome without it!
I love the yellow! It is my favorite color too. It looks so good and gave your front door a whole new life. I kinda think no kick plate too.
This color suits you so well! Love it (except the kickplate). I would definitely like to see more of that yellow.
Loving the color, and I have to admit I like the yellow with the nickel over the bronze finish YHL used on their hardware. My vote would be no kickplate, though, because it kind of looks like it cuts off the bottom of your door. Maybe if you painted it yellow to match? Looks like I need to get around to painting our front door, because that’s what all the cool kids are doing these days!
We did our grey which I love. Our house is bright on the outside and we needed a punch of color that wasn’t as bright. I love your door.
It looks fantastic! So bright and cheery. I would love to paint ours a bright, fun color, but unfortunately the brick on our house is orangey/tan, and it probably wouldn’t go.
Love love love!! I am dying to update our front door, but I just can’t seem to find a color that I like (plus that will require painting shutters the same color, so it’s a commitment). But your yellow door is AWESOME. I love it! What a great way to add a pop of color. And the hardware is great too.
Looks great!!! I hope you are lovin’ Austin. Tell me, this heat will end before next summer come along, right?
Glad you are back to posting your renovations – so inspiring!
Sweet door update! It was one of the first things we did after moving into our first home, too — not a ton of work but makes a huge difference. Personally I like the kickplate however I think the one you have might be too large. Like Jill said above, they make narrower ones that wouldn’t cut so close to the lower “panes” on the door, if you know what I mean. Maybe balance it out by adding a knocker up top?
I LOVE the yellow, and incorporating wedding touches into the home is so fun! I had a bright red door growing up and want to do a splash of color on ours. Right now the front door is white and the back door is pink. We’re still debating on our shutter colors, but once we figure that out, I want to change up the door colors. I vote for no kick plate or spraying it a different color.
So cute!! Super bright and fun, and I think it would definitely make me happy to come home to a bright yellow door every day!
I think it looks so great!! And, honestly I think it matches your house better than the YHL house, but maybe that’s just me. 🙂 I haven’t been brave enough to paint our door, so it is a regular brown with a kickplate, which I also don’t love, but I haven’t taken it off. Not sure why.
I love it! You really do love yellow + grey 😀
I say no kick-plate. Can’t wait to see what you end up doing with the trim!!
So cute! I think if you use that door all the time, I would keep the kick-plate, because you need it functionally. Otherwise, you’ll just have scuffed up door that you’ll have to repaint. If you use another door as your primary entrance and exit, I would get rid of the kick-plate for aesthetic reasons. Also, if you keep the kick-plate, can you paint it?
Haha – I love that you posted this even after YHL posted theirs. I am currently obsessed with yellow and gray so I love this door. It really brightens up the outside of your house. I really like the look of things when you open the door to the inside and you get to see the yellow against your gray walls. For the kick plate – I would either get rid of it all together or get a narrower one. It just doesn’t flow with the new color as well. That’s my opinion.
I love the yellow color on your door and the nickle finish on the hardware too! I would take into consideration the color of the bricks when picking a color for our door. The kick plate isn’t too bad (probably because I’m used to seeing it on all the doors around us), but agree that the door would probably look better without it.