Everyone loves a party...

I'm joining my first party!!

Sarah, at Thrifty Decor Chick is hosting a Before & After party. I stumbled upon her blog a few months ago and fell in love with her fruity kitchen decorations. Remember how I've talked about that before??? Anyway, I LOVE looking at before and after pictures so this is right up my ally. You know, with all the free time I have.

Decorating is a newer hobby of sorts for me.. I've always loved being creative (or pretending to be) but I've never gotten into it this much with pulling entire rooms together (I've been missing out, let me tell you!). Since the car accident, my brain is finally working a little better and I can use my wrist now so I'm trying to put more effort to get back into the swing of things.


Moving on. I've been talking about painting my front door for a long time now but I've been thinking about it a lot for the past few weeks.

Our door was here when we moved in almost 6 years ago.. it's one of those cheap-o ones and it came complete with a few dents. Over the years, my children and the neighborhood children have dirtied it up. Not even a magic eraser helped!

I thought about a soft yellow.. but then how would that look with my christmas decorations. Kind of liked the idea of a sage color. I was DYING to have a black door but apparently Drew hates them. (who knew)

This past weekend I was at Lowes and looked, like always, at the oops paint. There was a brand new can of choclatey brown outdoor paint. I considered it.. I consulted the kids (they did not care).. I sent texts furiously to my sister for her input.. I asked Drew if he liked it but he likes anything I choose (good man!!). I put it in my cart. I took it out of my cart. But in the end, I walked away with it. For $10 I figured that if it didn't work out then at least it would be a cheap learning experience.

I also bought some primer.. turns out it was latex instead of oil based. I had inteded to get the oil based but so far it seems to be ok. *knock on wood*

I applied two coats of primer some what randomly.. it covered all surfaces but I didn't get all crazy making sure they were perfect (which is why I did two).

Just having the door white had me saying, "Why didn't we do this YEARS ago???"

I painted a coat of brown.

Painted the trim around the door with the white Primer to brighten it up.

I painted another coat of brown.

Got nervous that I couldn't really think of anyone else I knew with a brown door and wondered if that was for a reason.. maybe the brown wasn't a good choice.

I painted the stair well in the garage because I had a lot of paint still left.

I painted the final coat of brown. And while it dried, I wished that I had painted the inside of the door as well since Drew had the door knobs off..

Then I stood back and admired.

Love! It!

Before:
After:

I know it looks a little uneven in the middle but you don't see that when you're standing there.

Isn't it fabulous?? I'll probably put my big chunky frame back up today.

My only regret is that I didn't take more advil prior to painting and that I ran out yesterday and had no choice but to buy another big bottle. All the stretching and moving around about killed me.. I'm still sore today. But at least my door looks amazing!! :o)