YET ANOTHER BLUE DOOR

So I painted another door. By now, this should come as absolutely no surprise to you. When I get an itch, I paint something and 99% of the time it's a door. What can I say? They are easy and you get a lot of bang for your buck.

BEFORE (Wythe Blue door)

AFTER (New York State of Mind door)

Just as I felt like the Wythe Blue was too washed out on the screen door (which I painted a much brighter color a few weeks ago), I never really felt like it was quite right for the garage either. So I went with blue (shocker), but a new blue. It's Benjamin Moore's New York State of Mind. You might be thinking that it looks very similar to the Down Pour Blue that's on the front door and you are probably right but I did something different anyway. The collection of blue paint grows!

So I absolutely love the color. It's not too bright and it's not too navy. It maybe has just a skosh of green in it in some lights, but all around it's pretty fab.

But I'm not quite sure it's fab on the garage. I think the dark color is leaving the whole thing feeling very unbalanced. Not to mention there's a very, "Hey, I'm the service door! Look over here!" vibe to it.

So I'm living with it for a little bit. Frankly, the fix is easy, although I want to make sure to let this paint cure before I go slapping more on. So what do you think? And if it's not quite right, what is?

Another touch of black

What is it with me and spur-of-the-moment door painting? It's really quite strange. I usually really think about a project before I jump into it. I'm not one of those people who will tear down a wall on a Friday night without thinking through what happens next.

But for some reason, I get a little crazy when it comes to painting doors. You may recall that last year, just days after I painted the front door a slightly deeper blue (Benjamin Moore Down Pour Blue), I got Coastal Living magazine in the mail with a gorgeous picture of a turquoise door and damn near ran to the store to buy paint and repaint it right then and there. Fortunately a few readers talked me off the ledge, which was totally the right call, and the door stayed Down Pour Blue.

I'm not even sure what got me going last Friday. All of a sudden, in the middle of the afternoon, I got a bug about painting the inside of the back door black. I posted on the Facebook page and got several positive responses and one pointing out what was my main concern: with the black from the vintage botanical prints in the eating area, would adding more black to that part of the kitchen be overkill? It's a good point and I think it would be if our back door wasn't mostly window.

Within hours I was standing in the hardware store picking a black paint (if you thought picking a white was hard, try picking a black) and buying a quart to take home and an hour after that I was sanding the door with a glass of wine in one hand.

I knew I had some dark gray tinted primer at home from a project a couple years ago so my plan was the prime the door first, just to limit the amount of paint coats I would need and to hopefully provide better adhesion. Unfortunately I couldn't find that can of primer anywhere so I just started in with the paint straightaway.

I did one very thin coat of satin (Benjamin Moore Advance, which I think I like better than Aura for trim, but I'm not positive) and was not impressed. I gave it a second coat of satin, which would have been passable had it not been for the fact that I thought it was looking a little dull and chalkboardlike. I like a satin finish on woodwork in almost every case, but I think the intense darkness of the black dulled it down more than usual. So I ended up putting another coat of the same color in semi-gloss on for a little more sheen.

And here's what it looked like when it was all done. Boy that black really shows the difference where I've painted the trim (the door) and where I haven't (the window next to it). I'm actually in the process of doing that now, which is why the roman shades are off the window right now.

I've never really liked the door hardware much, but I think it looks much better on black.

And here's a before. I know it's not really a fair comparison because I didn't show you the whole area in the after, but I really didn't feel like cleaning off the table and straightening pillows. 

Mr. Much More Patient, who has been out of town and came home Sunday in time to see the newly painted door, which he knew nothing about, has decided he thinks "it's probably good."

I think so too.

So fess up, are you a spur-of-the-moment home improver or do you approach everything with a plan?

I have a favor to ask. Apartment Therapy is doing their annual blog awards, which is by popular vote. I don't have a chance in hell of getting to the finals, but I do find the awards to be a good way to find other blogs. If you enjoy reading The Impatient Gardener, I'd be so grateful if you would take a moment to vote for it in the Best Home Project & DIY category. Go here to find it. You'll need to sign in to vote (but that's a relatively painful process) and then scroll down (way down ....) or do a find for The Impatient Gardener and then check that little box by it to vote. Thanks so much! P.S. you can vote for multiple blogs.

The white house with the blue door

S
o far, we've changed very little about our house in the seven years we've owned it. But the first thing I did was paint the brown front door. I can't fathom how this cool door (certainly original to the house, which is now 70 years old) ended up brown, but that's OK, because after two days of stripping, sanding and repairing, it ended up this bright blue (conjure up an image of Greece in your head and you'll know the blue I'm talking about). I'm sure the brightness of the color was no coincidence. After seven years of living in beige rentals full of oak trim and shiny "brass" fixtures, I was dying to put color on SOMETHING. (Unfortunately I did the same thing with the guest bedroom and that didn't turn out as well!)

I stripped it twice (there was forest green and white paint under the brown), sanded it, and used a two-part epoxy with a filler to fill the cracks on the bottom (that part was fun because I got to shoot it in there with a syringe). After the epoxy was thoroughly cured, there was more sanding, priming and two coats of the blue paint.

Not only does it add some much needed color to our very plain white house, it's sort of become our signature "thing." Now I tell people to come to the "white house with the blue door."

I'm not a big fan of winter and lots of snow in February, but I do like a nice Christmas snowfall. Last year we had a big snowstorm a week before Christmas and I snapped this picture because I thought it was so charming.