door details

Door details! First off, I need to tell you  that I did this while my husband was off having (fun?) with the boy scouts on a 50 mile hike. I like to do these types of projects while he’s gone because sometimes questions come up like, “do we really want to get rid of the screen door?” or “the lights work fine, what’s wrong with them?”

Instead, I think it’s easier to just do it, let the house go awry, let the kids eat olives and ice cream for dinner for a few nights, and when he comes back and sees how great it looks, he forgets about his questions, loves that the work is all done, and remembers what a genius he is for marrying you. Kind of the easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission type thing.

Let’s get this door party started:

Take off the screen door, sell it on Craigslist. (Take off all the screws and have your 11 yr old help you move it aside.)

It’s gone in 2 hours. (+$20, but then we used it to go out for pizza)

I used black satin paint from Walmart: Tape off the window, then spray around it. See the holes from the screen door? Just fill them in with some caulk or spackle, let them dry, sand them down, and then paint over them. and then roll on the rest of the door with a foam roller. It took about 4 coats of paint to get a deep black.  You could also take the door off to spray it if you wanted to… 

The previous owners had a door knocker with their last name on it, so I just sanded it down and spray painted it a brushed nickel. 

I had also found a brass kickplate at a yard sale for $2.50. These babies are expensive, so I was thrilled. Cleaned it up, primed, spray paint, then a few clear sealant top coats.

Remember to pre drill your holes! I taped the kickplate up where I wanted it, drilled the holes in the door, then added the screws.

  *new lights found on Ebay for $27 a piece (they also have them at Lowes, but they are more of a brown/rust color and I wanted black)  Light fixtures seem scary, but they usually are not rocket science. Watch some videos online about how to install them and decide if it’s something you think you could tackle. I would say: have someone that knows what they are doing to help you the first time, make SURE you cut the electricity to the fixture, and then double check it with a little voltage tester (here is an example of one) These ones were actually easy to install~wahoo!

* a new door mat from Ross for $7 

* some new house numbers $4 each at Lowes. I would pre-drill my holes for these, so you don’t get a knick in the middle of your O like I did.

* a new doorknob set from H. Depot (a little note on this: We had purchased the Kwikset one and my mil was visiting that night, so she helped me out.   What a nightmare! The threads on the doorknob weren’t right for the screws, so we took it back and got another thinking it was just a lemon. Same thing again. Took it back and got a Schlage set and had it installed in 15 minutes. So worth the extra $25. Save yourself 4 hours and gas money and go with the Schlage next time. Just from our experience…)

 

And here we go:

*the flower pots you can read about here. I’ve been rotating them every week, but right pot continues to steal the spotlight.

Price breakdown:

paint and spray paint: $11

numbers on door: $12

knocker: free from previous owners

satin nickel spray paint: $3

new schlage door handle set: $112 w/ coupon

new lights: $54

kickplate from yard sale: $2.50

doormat: $7

urns and flowers $60   ($11 each for urns, I bought a hanging basket  of million bells and one of geranium at our local grocery store-$7 each-and split them up between the urns. The topiaries were $12 each at walmart)

Total: $261.50

of course, you could do it for less than a hundred if you spray painted your existing doorknob and used a pony pack of flowers in your urns.

That’s how we done did it.

Happy Tuesday~