Bradley and I recently noticed that the casing around our front door has started rotting near the bottom since our front stoop has zero protection from the elements. For that reason, we will be looking at having a new door installed probably next spring. Bonus that I get to replace the gold-inlayed half-lite door with something more our taste. I have been researching options and am leaning towards something with more privacy. We both like something like this:
As a temporary fix, I am working on patching and painting the wood frame. I also got a new handleset for the door that we can eventually transplant to the new door. It is satin nickel and the interior knob is Juno by Kwikset, just like all the interior knobs I have upgraded from the builder-grade brassy gold. The paint on the exterior of the door has been in poor shape for a while now, because when we changed over to double-cylinder deadbolts they were not the same shape as the old deadbolt. And I was a little overzealous when I was cleaning out the leftover paint from the previous owners and unfortunately got rid of the lovely plum color that is on the door and shutters. I did have a quart of oil-based black paint. I figured a black door would look fine with dark plum shutters. I have never used oil-based paint before, so I dug out an old brush that I didn’t care if I ruined and started painting. I used a coat of the Adhesion primer that was left from painting the kitchen cabinets, then two coats of black.
Here is the sad plum paint and severely worn gold handleset before:
And here is the shiny black and nickel after:
It is hard to see, but I also painted the toe kick black to blend in. We will see how it holds up. I was just hoping to do whatever I could to not draw attention to the door for now. I have plans to replace the light fixture with a nickel one, but I can’t do anything about the gold inlay in the glass until we replace the door. Obviously, I am not quite finished with the temporary patchwork and painting of the wood frame around the door. One thing at a time…