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Door Painting 101: How Do You Paint a Door?

April 5, 2019

Do you watch a lot of HGTV? Do you secretly have a crush on one (or both!) of the Property Brothers ?

If yes to the first question (and maybe to the second) you probably know that accent front doors are in right now.

But it’s not as easy as you think. Learn how do you paint a door in this guide.

Step 1: Unmount the Door

It would be easy to just paint the door on its hinges, right? But that’s not the right way to do it. Not only do you risk dripping on your home, but you won’t be able to get even coats when the door is vertical.

You need to take the door off its hinges and lay it down on a worktable or workhorse.

Take off any screws and the hardware before you do anything else.

You should have a wood-only door at this point, with no accessories.

Step 2: Sand the Door

Whether it’s raw wood or already painted, you’ll want to sand down the door.

If the door is raw wood, you’ll want mid-grain sandpaper, like 120. If it has paint on it, look for something in the 80-100 range.

You don’t have to get all traces of paint off, but you should sand until you can see the grain of the wood through the leftover paint.

If it’s painted, make sure you do the sides of the door as well – these are areas that pick up a lot of dirt, as that’s where people’s fingers naturally go.

When there are no more rough spots on the door or you can’t see any old paint shining through, it’s time to flip the door and do the same to the other side.

Step 3: Wipe It Down

If the door has a lot of wood dust and you’re working outside, you can go ahead and get a hairdryer to take the majority of the dust off.

If you don’t have a hairdryer or don’t want to make that much of a mess, a shop cloth is fine. If you leave dust in the door, it’ll get into the paint and leave a gritty, textured spot.

Make sure you clean off each side of the door – as the dust can stick to one side while you’re doing the other.

Step 4: Paint the Door

Finally, you’re ready to paint. Give that door one more good wipedown, just for good measure. Make sure it’s somewhere that it can dry in peace, without the wind blowing dirt or leaves onto the wet surface.

Wait for as long (if not longer) as the paint says it needs to dry before you flip the door. You don’t want to have one side perfect just to flip it, mess it up, and have to paint it again.

Step 5: Put the Hardware Back On

You need to remount the door handle and the hinges (which you’ll do when you mount the door) and voila! You’re done.

How Do You Paint a Door? Wrapping Up

Painting a door is an easy weekend project if you have the right tools and patience for it. If you don’t – you can always call a residential painting specialist to help you with that and other color-changing house projects – both inside and outside of the house.

The easiest answer to the question how do you paint a door? Let us do it for you, get in touch here.

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