You Had Me at “Hello” {Front Door Makeover}

Hey hey, it’s FRIDAY!  Which means it’s the weekend, a perfect time for sprucing up the yard and adding a few small details to bring tons of happiness to your front door.  What’s that?  Your front door isn’t happy?  Mine certainly wasn’t either, until I did a few things to add the Making Lemonade touch.  Suddenly our tired front door was repainted and given a modern font treatment that had me at ‘hello’.   Because who can resist a Jerry Maguire reference?  NOT. I.

You may remember (or you may not, it’s okay, I won’t judge) our formerly sad front door.  The idea of it was good, all solid and wooden and such.  But it was original to the house, and not in a cool 1880’s kinda way.  More in a 1967 faded and scratched wood kinda way.  See?  So sad.

Since our inside entry has high ceilings where it meets the second floor (and, since who am I kidding, I simply could not paint our entryway with two preschoolers running around) we hired our favorite painter to give the entire hallway and front door a few new coats.  After oogling tons of gorgeous front door ideas and inspiration, I went with the very bold… black.  Tricorn Black from Sherwin Williams, to be exact.  I’m not much of a risk taker and we needed it done, so I caved to pressure and went neutral.

A black front door is classy and sophisticated but unfortunately once painted it totally looked like a black hole.  A rectangle of nothingness.  Like the deepest, darkest parts of outer space.

That just would not do.  So I created a quick fix to tide me over until I could paint it something hip and bold and hot– I painted the word ‘hello’ (not super hip/bold/hot, but I digress).  But you’re not limited to a greeting, you could also paint your house numbers for a crisp, fresh look.  Here’s how:

1.  I printed out the word in a font and size I liked.  Then I taped it to the door in the exact spot I wanted.  And then promptly left it there overnight so the paper curled over, but don’t do that part.

2.  Then, using a pencil, I traced using hard pressure over the letters.  This left an indent in the wood below.  Can you see it?

3.  You can use an outdoor trim paint, but to be honest, I just used what I had on hand which was white craft paint.  I carefully filled in the indents with the paint, trying my very best not to let my hand wobble.  I’m a terrible straight line painter, but it ended up looking really good.

4.  I let it dry for about an hour and did a second coat of paint, hoping my kids wouldn’t run their fingers through it before it dried.  They almost did, but thankfully I distracted them in time {look!  a squirrel!}.

5.  Then, as it always seems to do, it came down to the accessories. I added my perfectly planted outdoor planters (LOL) and plants to the trellis.  That striped runner is actually a dishtowel from West Elm, it’s been outside for weeks now and still looks great.  On top is a candle holder I bought on sale years ago from Kohls.  I also wiped down the table and chairs to get rid of pollen and they look brand new.  My front entryway now has a ton of curb appeal and happy greetings for everyone who drops by!

Voila!  Here’s the after:

I’d SO love to put down an outdoor rug across the entire expanse of concrete.  And they aren’t very expensive so it might just happen if I find the right one and can hide it from my husband.  {he’s banned me from buying more rugs.  I may have an addiction to them}

Saying ‘I like my new door’ would be an understatement.  Our updated entryway and front door is so completely and totally ‘me.’  The sweet greeting, striped runner, boldly colored flowers and plants– this, my friends, is my happy place.  Just a few hours and a few dollars, and you’ve got yourself a huge amount of curb appeal bang for your sweat equity buck.

If you’re home needs a little help in the curb appeal department, I’m telling you, updating your front door and entryway is one of the easiest and quickest ways to achieve it.  No need for complicated landscape ideas when a can of paint will do the trick.  Go for it!  And then YOUR front door can tell MY front door ‘hello’ right back.  😉

{Linking up with: Not Just a Housewife |  My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia | Domestically Speaking | Home Stories A to Z | The Shabby Nest }