4 Back Doors

Hi, for those of you who may not know, I live above my shop. It is handy, and works great for me. After all, who wouldn't want to walk down some stairs, turn left, open a door and be at their work. This may not be for everyone, but when you are a solopreneur (the owner who does pretty much everything) it is a huge time saver. it is a unique live/work situation. At the back of the business/living quarters is a covered hallways which leads to 4 doors. one door accesses the garage, another the living area, and two go the shop. (one of the doors goes to a storage room so it is usually inaccessible and not used).

When we moved here in May of 2016 the back doors looked like this: Also they still looked like this in May of 2020.

Flash forward to COVID and me having extra amounts of time on my hands, and trying to stay productive, I tackled painting these doors. These 3 doors had been painted with oil based paint, so I knew prepping was going to be very important.

I started with washing them down with Spray 9, then I sanded them with my mouse sander, then washed them down again with a Natura TSP product from Home Hardware, which was a no rinse formula. Then I primed with Zinsser Bulls-eye 123 water based primer. I did two coats of primer on the rust color, then one coat overall. I let dry overnight then started with the painting.

I chose 2 colors for 4 doors, BEHR Exterior satin enamel paint and primer in one. First color is BLUE PRINT, second color TOWER BRIDGE. The trim color was a mistint I picked up for $3, it is close to a charcoal grey with a bit of a green undertone, this paint was the same type but in a semi gloss.

I gave the doors two coats and the trim two coats, I used a brush for all. I cut the decals with my vinyl machine and had made the wreath a few weeks earlier with some supplies laying around the shop. I hardly used any paint and had almost two full cans leftover, lots left for other projects. This took about 8 hours over 2 days with drying time. Feels great to be done this project!