My front door has always been one of my favorite architectural elements in our home. Some of the houses around the neighborhood still have this original wood door with it’s circular (or in other cases, diamond like) vision lite. When we moved in, this front door was painted with a dull dark brown color that didn’t enhance its beauty.
Being a neutral palette lover, I decided back then to paint this door gray and for this I used Home Depot‘s Behr Dolphin Fin color (#790C-3).
After a while, I got tired of this color and wanted to use a brighter hue, which was not a thing I usually do. I then painted the front of the door in a bright yellow color, again from Home Depot‘s Behr brand. To tell you the truth this color only made me happy through last year’s Fall season because it created a great contrast base against my DIY wreath for my Fall Porch.
Bringing this door to its roots:
Now I wanted to bring our front door back to life, back to its roots. And for this I started by stripping all the old layers of paint with a miracle product called Citristrip! I cannot tell you enough good things about it, but to name a few:
– this smelled so fresh and incredible
– I have sensitive skin and was able to manage this product without consequences
– it worked so quickly and removed all that old paint
Now I wanted to remove every bit of paint in all the doors in my house! (P.S. this is not a sponsored or paid post. I just really love how it worked.)
After I removed the heavy layers of paint, what remained was sort of a dark film over the original wood which I was able to easily remove by sanding. I first used Diablo’s premium 5 in. 80-Grit universal discs with Hook and Lock backing and ended up wit a 120-Grit for a soft finished.
Final touch
To finish with this door and because its natural beauty was too much to hide behind a color, I simply applied two coats of Minwax® Helmsman® Spar Urethane protective clear finish. In between coats I again used my 120-Grit sanding paper to eliminate any rough patches.
I really love how this product brought back to life the grain of this old door without adding a glossy finish.
What do you think of this procedure? Would you dare to bring back to life an old door or piece of furniture with this process? Share your thoughts with me!
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