DIY projects don’t have to be complicated to have wow factor. In, fact one of the first DIY projects we did took less than an hour of our time in labor, and only a day to complete.
What did we do? We simply painted E’s bedroom door pink on the inside. It gave her room big personality, is subtle because it’s only noticeable when the door’s shut, and was simple to complete. All things I love in a DIY project.
Decorating kid’s rooms can be difficult. At least it was for us. We wanted the room to be childish and fun, but also to correlate well with our grown up style throughout the rest of the home. While building our home, I was pregnant and we didn’t know the sex of the baby. I actually gave birth about 2 weeks after we closed on our home, so we picked a neutral blue gray paint color called Hinting Blue (SW6519) by Sherwin Williams for the room and decided we’d jazz it up with either pink or blue accents. Stereotypical, yes, but we did’t have a problem with that. Classic standbys are classic for a reason, they work!
But after E arrived, the room seemed so dull, not even close to reflective of the sweet girl I was holding in my arms. Never mind that she was sleeping in a bassinet next to my bed and not in the room. When she was a few weeks old, I said to Daren “let’s paint the inside of the door pink today” and because he’s a good, supportive husband or because he didn’t want to mess with a sleep deprived new mother, he went straight to Sherwin William’s with me and we picked out In the Pink (SW6583) for the door. Then we got to work. This is how we did it:
How to paint an accent door:
- Take the door off the hinges, by using a large nail or similar object to drive the pins up from the bottom.
- Sand the door. Daren set the door on two saw horses like these
to have a stable platform and used 220-Grit sandpaper
to sand the door. The surface should be slightly rough. However, it is not necessary to sand all the way down to the wood grain.The roughened surface should be enough to hold a latex paint. For example, our door was stained and finished with a thin layer of polyurethane. We roughened the polyurethane layer but didn’t remove the stain.
- Clean the door after sanding. We used an air compressor like this one
to blast the door with air and then wiped it down with a wet towel. Once the surface is clean, let the door air dry.
- Tape the edges of the door and the doorknob. We didn’t do this because we were sleep deprived. However, I recommend you do because our lines are not perfect on the sides. (You could also paint the edges of the door, but we wanted the painted door to be undetectable from the hall, so we left the edges stained. I highly recommend using FrogTape
. We used it in our office and this stuff is amazing. If your doorknob is easy to remove, you may want to consider doing so. We removed ours before sanding).
- Paint the door. We applied two coats of this latex paint, using a 2″ Wooster Brush
, and let the door completely dry between coats.
- Resecure the door. First, reposition the door on the hinges. You may need help doing this as taking the door off is a little easier than placing back on. Then, place the pins back in the hinges one at a time. They should slide in pretty passively, but you may need to give them a final tap with a hammer to fully secure the pin.
- Voila! you have a pretty painted door! Enjoy!
to have a stable platform and used 
to sand the door. The surface should be slightly rough. However, it is not necessary to sand all the way down to the wood grain.The roughened surface should be enough to hold a latex paint. For example, our door was stained and finished with a thin layer of polyurethane. We roughened the polyurethane layer but didn’t remove the stain.
to blast the door with air and then wiped it down with a wet towel. Once the surface is clean, let the door air dry.
. We used it in our office and this stuff is amazing. If your doorknob is easy to remove, you may want to consider doing so. We removed ours before sanding).
, and let the door completely dry between coats.Painting the inside of the door a fun color is a trick we plan to use again for any future children’s rooms and when we move Eva into her big girl room down the hall within the year. Her favorite color is currently purple, so perhaps Sherwin William’s Wisteria (SW6822), a soft, but vibrant lilac, would be a good option.
Is this a DIY project you would try it?
I also want to take a minute to thank the Fargo Forum for featuring our home in their Sunday edition. You can read the story here. We were so honored to welcome them into our home. When I announced this blog, I assumed my mom and maybe a few of our friends would read it and that’s about it, so we are overwhelmed and grateful for the support from both our actual community and online community. Thank you!
