Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Black Door Debacle

Good evening!
I have a fail to share with you. 
When be bought our house the children were 9, 6, and 3.




I took great pains to make sure that they didn't do anything to their doors. I wanted to keep them as pristine as possible because I knew painting them would be a bear. No stickers, posters or coloring on them was allowed. I was fine with stickers and posters on the walls but not on the doors. 
Our doors are now 23 years old and some of them look it.
I'd seen many stunning images of doors painted black.
I love that look but I knew it wasn't for me. A good well done finish on a door should last for at least a decade and a black door wouldn't withstand the test of time with me. I'm too fickle. 
But I wanted to try one somewhere and thought the door leading out to the garage would be perfect.



Black would provide an accent in an otherwise boring hall. 
Big mistake.
Big mess.




The door out to the garage was replaced at some point to become more air tight. The garage side was never painted and it was filthy so earlier this summer I painted that side with latex black in a satin finish. I realized in the midst of it that there were problems with the door itself. 
When we got the door about 15 years ago I painted the interior side of the door. I thought I was just a bad painter. 
I hadn't worked with oil based paint that often and I had a hard time. After painting miles and miles of oil based paint on other trim in this house, I realized the problem is not with me but with this door. 
This door is perfectly smooth. The other doors in the house have a faux wood grain pressed into them. This door does not. It is smooth except for the dents in it from kicking it open. Dents that didn't show until it was black. 
Painting something without the "wood" grain is a beast. Every mistake, drip and streak shows.
EVERY SINGLE ONE! So the project that was supposed to be easy as pie, was not. IT GOT WORSE.
I primed the interior side of the door and let it dry. 
When I painted the black latex it got gloppy.
I had to scrape it off and blobs of black sticky paint were everywhere. You cannot paint latex on top of oil even if you prime. I knew that but I did it anyway. The door itself looked like a door from a movie set or a fun house. 



We stopped in at Ace and got some oil based black, also in a satin finish. The imperfections just reflected in the satin finish. The best fix seemed to be flat black. Latex for the garage side and oil for the interior side. 



Paint and sand seemed to be my routine with this project.
Needless to say, I'm not in love with it. In my opinion black highlights the flaws. Bill says we are getting a new door. 



 I'm not looking forward to that because I remember the last time he put in a door...





Our pretty black door isn't so pretty.
Katie    
From My Front House to Yours   
French Country Cottage

5 comments :

  1. And this is the reason I'm always hesitant to paint things other than walls. Is the door wood or metal? Just let Bill get ya that new door. :)

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  2. I had to come right back and say the door doesn't look that bad...maybe just give it a day or two and it won't bother you so much.

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  3. I don't think it looks bad, either. But if you are not happy with it, that's all that matters. Let Bill buy the new door! I would love to paint some of my french doors black, but Hubby will not go for it. :(

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  4. Why don't you try a wax paste over the flat paint? The wax paste will give it a little shin and reflect the light better...unless you are just set to change the door...

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  5. thank you for sharing a fail. I got a kick out of this post, but I agree with the others that it isn't a bad look and some wax may have you loving it. I'm wanting to paint some doors black, but I'll wait to see what happens with yours before I proceed.

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