The Amazing Difference a Colorful Front Door Can Make (Plus, a Painting Tip for Painting Doors with Windows, and the Keypad Door Knob I Chose)
Some days I feel like I’m absolutely unstoppable when it comes to making progress on projects. Other days, it’s all I can do to get a front door painted and switch out a door knob. But when a painted front door makes such a huge difference, even that small task can be pretty exciting! Plus, I’ve marked off two more items from my 2025 list of home goals, and that alone is pretty motivating for me. Sometimes it pays to get those small tasks done just so that you can mark those off your list. That feeling of accomplishment in seeing those projects being checked off of the list is often so motivating for tackling the bigger projects.
For my workshop, I chose the same color for the front door that I’ve used on the doors of our house — Benjamin Moore Bird of Paradise. But this time, I had it color matched at Sherwin Williams since that’s where I went to purchase the paint for the shutters that I made for the workshop. The color match was perfect, and this color makes me smile every time I see it.
If you missed the post about the shutters I made, you can find that here: My Workshop Has Shutters!
Let me remind you what the workshop looked like with the new shutters and a plain white front door…
And here it is with the blue shutters and the new coral front door…
And how kind of the sweet little stray kitty to pose for me, right? 😀 He loves hanging around when I’m working outside.
This color is really saturated, and as is often the case with really saturated colors (especially anything that is red or red-adjacent), it took three coats to cover everything. After the first coat, it was looking pretty streaky.
Two coats covered pretty well on most of the door, but there were still streaky areas around the windows, so I went ahead and did a third coat. Three coats covered perfectly, and it didn’t take long at all. The first coat took about 15 minutes, and the two subsequent coats only took about 10 minutes each.
I opted to tape off the windows instead of using the paint-on window mask that you peel off after painting (which is what I used when I painted the French doors at the back of the studio). Since I wanted to do this quickly, taping actually went much faster, and I didn’t have to wait the hour (or sometimes longer) for the paint-on mask to dry before painting the door. Taping the windows off only took about 15 minutes, and then I could get right to painting.
The key to quick taping of windows is to put the tape straight across (which you can see at the top left of the photo below), and then go back with a razor blade and cut the tape at an angle to remove the excess tape. That gives you perfect corners every time.
Here’s another look at what the door looked like after just one coat. You can see how streaky it looks even from a distance. It wasn’t pretty. 😀
I wanted to put a keypad lock on the door so I can access the workshop any time rather than having to go into my studio and get the keys every time I wanted access to the workshop, and since this door only has one doorknob and no deadbolt, the options were pretty slim. Most keypad locks are for deadbolts and not doorknobs. So I ended up going with this Honeywell digital door knob that I found at Lowe’s. It’s nothing fancy. It doesn’t have wifi capabilities, so there’s no app that controls it. It’s just a simple touch pad lock, which is what I wanted for the workshop.
It was incredibly simple to install (it took about five minutes), and so far, I love it! Programming a new access code took another five minutes. The instructions were very clear and straightforward.
So that’s two more projects crossed off!
I’m glad that I had a couple of easy projects that I could do and check off the list because the next project — adding skirting around the bottom of the workshop — is not a quick and easy project. But that’s the project that will take this workshop to the next level.
If you want to keep up with my 2025 list of home goals (and my progress with links to finished projects!) you can see that here: 2025 Master List of Home Goals
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
It looks great. I am happy for you!
Pretty trim colours. I have always had a red front door, so know about colour saturation. First time I could only get the red in indoor paint…..but because it was sheltered, it held up for the 10 years we lived there.
No need to do the tedious taping, it is even faster to take off any excess paint with a razor blade, at least for me. And I paint a lot.
I like the grids painted a different colour, typically cream for me, but that is personal preference. Your white is a bit stark to go with the other shades, try to tone it down a bit to look its best. We just spent a whole lot of money to change out the white to cream (gutters, soffits, very high trim) on our house; so worth it.
Fabulous color!
I liked that you painted the plastic trim around the windows, so many don’t and the plastic yellows. Is there anything special to prepare the plastic?
I didn’t do anything special to this since it was a new, unpainted door. Latex (acrylic) paint works perfectly on unpainted plastic. If this door had previously been painted, I would have gone over it first with a quick sanding using 150-grit sandpaper first.
I agree unpainted plastic around windows is one of my small pet peeves, makes the paint job look unfinished.
I made a bet with myself that I would find an email today showing that you had painted the workshop door. Yep! and there it was. Looks great.
I agree that doing a few little projects gives such a satisfying feeling of accomplishment. I work the same way.
You have made a good start for 2025.
The coral is such a cheerful color, and the kitty is adorable <3. I'm looking forward to seeing how you do the skirting so I can copy you (again, lol). Our main storage is a shipping container, but we also have a very old shed that is fairly sound, but the bottom edges of the outside have gotten pretty rough looking. I hope that I can adapt what you do to our shed to make it look nicer. I'm glad your year is off to a good productive start – and stay safe and warm these next few days in the Texas cold!
Certainly makes a big difference. Completing small projects is very rewarding.
Cuter by the day. It is good to have a list written down so you can mark off the finished items. I really need to do that and used to when I worked. Now that I’m retired, I’m not so organized.
So glad you are back keeping all of us up to date on your projects. Kristi, it is too cold to be working outside. Find an inside job for the rest of the week.
I need to follow you in just doing the thing! So much of my time is wasted not doing the things that just need to be done and over with! Today is the day, I am going to be doing just 1 project of getting things taken out of cupboards that are finally getting some slide out shelving! Now, I am off to find flat surfaces for all the stuff coming out…if I am quick, I’ll even get rid of what I have not used in the last 5 years!
You are on your way and hopefully so am I!
Love the coral, and the kitty! ( I want a tuxedo cat so bad, but my husband won’t have it after our last cat snubbed him! LOL!) Can’t wait to see what you do for the skirting! And some actual steps will be nice too!
I love the color of the door. I fell in love with it when you used if for the front door, then the side door and now on the workshop. It is such a cheerful color and it just makes me smile. The workshop is looking great, the skirting will make it look so finished.
So much LIFE brought in with the front door color! I love it! I’m a little surprised you don’t have a deadbolt on the shed as I would want that for protection against theft if there are going to be construction tools stored there. I know a few people who have had power tools go missing.
I may consider it in the future, but quite honestly, I left my tools out in the open right under our carport for the last few years, and I’ve never had a single thing stolen. I’ve been amazed that nothing has disappeared in 11 years.
Really looking forward to the skirting. I have a shed that has needed it for 10 years and have been intimidated. I think I’ll use cement board.
I wonder if Whiskers is thinking what a great cold-weather roost your shed would make for some sweet, well-mannered stray kitties. What DID you end up doing to provide them with some shelter against bad weather?
He has his own little house with extra insulation (that I added) and a warming pad inside. I’ll share those details probably on Friday.
I need to paint a couple of our doors, but I’m nervous about leaving them open when the paint dries. How long did you wait between coats and how long did you wait before closing the door? I used an enamel paint several years ago and waited a week, and the paint still stuck to the seal around the door edges and looks bad when it’s open 🙁