If you think this post is about Jim Morrison, well, rock on.
If you know me at all, you will know that I was homeschooled so I had no idea that there was even a band named The Doors till vintage t-shirts came out at Target…and Mr. Mojo Risin is not really what we talk about here…we chat about the other kind of doors. like the ones that are colored like dried mud. basically my exterior doors would fit right in with nomadic mud huts. In which case, I would need a wardrobe change and some febreeze…because mud huts are sometimes a mixture of mud and poop. Talk about tossing that whole five-second rule right out the window!
Anyhoo…here are a couple of our exterior doors that lead out to the back patio:
and these lead from our work room out to the back yard too. My mom is wiping them down for me…I know…I’m one lucky gal to have her around…
Okay – a little Glidden exterior paint (colormatched to Martha Stewart’s Wet Seal) later, we have dark gray doors….
It only took a couple coats – which went on really easily. And then we ran out and picked up three sets of these:
Although these sets can be pricey, they are well worth it to us because we have 13 exterior doors. And since these Kwikset locks can be set to use only one key, this means that we don’t have to shell out extra bones to get all our locks retooled to fit a single key…or develop the massive forearm muscles it would take to carry around a dozen extra keys 🙂
And yes, I did install the locks all by myself thankyouverymuch. So if a bonehead like me can, so can you.
The lights still need ‘sprucing’. The one by the workroom isn’t so bad – I think I might just spray it black to look more expensive. And the one between the patio doors needs a full overhaul…as in, I’m gonna fully haul that sucker to the trash. Have any suggestions for a replacement?
So that’s just one of the recent outdoor updates I need to share. There’s more. There’s a lot More-rison. And that, my friends, is called full circle.
I like the workroom light fixture, maybe a can of ORB could do the trick? The other light fixture is definitely trash-worthy and in such a weird spot. You can’t get anything too big that you would whack your head on coming out of the angled door. Maybe go carriage light similar to the one you plan on spray painting just to keep some continuity. Good luck lady, I hope you can get Jeremy to install the light fixtures…wires = scare the pants off me.
I really like that paint color. It’s very similar to what we have on our front door. I can’t imagine having 13 doors! We have a chime on our 3 doors for our alarm system. If all 13 had that feature, with people over for a party, it would get pretty crazy!
“If you know me at all, you will know that I was homeschooled so I had no idea that there was even a band named The Doors till vintage t-shirts came out at Target”. Oh goodness, that made me laugh. I was also homeschooled. I didn’t know who Eminem was until we got in massive trouble with our church’s high school youth group leader for performing one of his trashier songs (re-written with slightly different lyrics) for the youth group talent night. Wide-eyed sheltered kid that I was, I thought the other kids had just come up with that catchy number themselves.
Helpful relatives are the best, aren’t they? I like the new door color.
I looooove that paint color! You are motivating me to get moving on some outdoor updates…that is if it ever stops raining on the east coast…
Much better! Looks great. You are getting SO much done!
This in’t a comment about your doors (though they are perdy!!) nope, this is about my blogstalking confession. I just love ABP! Thanks for giving me something to look forward to when I wake up (besides my hubby and kids) and for making me completely ignor said kids to peruse the archives 🙂 And then I found out you were a Hughes before a Bower (I was a Hughes too) and the blog love grew even more. Keep up the great work as a DIYer and a mommy!
Take care!
You are a very unique kind of brilliant, KB. I like the gray. “Don’t you love her as she’s walkin out the (newly painted) door…”
I love those knobs.. we got them for our house. Gotta love Kwikset.. and the single key.
The doors look AMAZING! I love how little things like new hardware can completely change things.
Wow, the dark gray paint looks so much better! Nice hardware too!:)
Your doors & locks look great! I can’t wait to see what you have in mind for the lights!
Also, 13 exterior doors?! I Cannot even imagine having that many!
We just changed out our front door hardware, and I have to say I am in love!
Katie, did you paint the exterior doors on your patio the same color or have those remained unchanged?
Katie, do you have or plan on putting any window coverings on the doors with the large windows? I ask because my front door is very similar to that, and the people who lived in the house before us had a hideous doily window treatment, which I promptly removed, but I don’t love having a wide open window there. I frosted the glass but I don’t love it…and haven’t figured out what to do yet.
Love the colour! It is almost a gun-metal colour eh? (Who am I kidding? I don’t know what colour gun-metal is, but I heard/read it somewhere and this is what I envisioned). I like how it is shinny and matte at the same time. Anyway, I was originally thinking OEB for the light, but do you think the brown-y-ish would clash with the grey-ish of the doors? I am not good with this stuff.
Tara
Those locks are the greatest, my parents own two homes (for now… soon to just be one!) and they have both houses keyed to the same key. It is very helpful when traveling back and forth between houses (and doesn’t make you ask yourself if you grabbed the right set of keys and/or lock yourself out because you didn’t grab the keys in the first place!)
Hated the old color, love the new one! How long did it take you? I feel like that is a LOT of painting.
Goregous color! Are you planning on keeping the house the same color or eventually changing it? If so, did that effect your door color choice?
How do you paint a door? They sort of scare me.
I love that gray color! And I really do like that big lantern you’re planning to keep. I love all the new outdoor lights they have at HD and Lowes that are more “expensive” looking with “cages” over their lights (like the YHL bathroom light). Hopefully you find a good one before the wedding! Speaking of which, I love all the work you’re doing on the outside. It’s so hard for us to get motivated to tackle ours but your wedding is spurring it all on!
I was homeschooled also. The first time I heard classic rock I was working on a potato farm. “Sweet Home Alabama” came on the radio and everyone was saying what a great song it was and I thought it was new! (Just to clarify: I’m 22). It’s nice to know I’m not the only one! The doors look fantastic, by the way. Great work!
“If you know me at all, you will know that I was homeschooled…”
Ahhh! That explains so much. Did your Mom teach you to start your sentences with a capital letter? 🙂
You said Martha Stewart “Wet Seal”…I have the paint palette from Home Depot…is it just “Seal” maybe? I love the color.
“…And that, my friends, is called full circle.”
I have such a soft spot for cheesy word play, thanks to my English teacher dad. Just wanted to say I love your last paragraph as well as the new door color. Glad you weren’t tempted to paint it black. Keep rockin’!
I love the color! It looks fabulous and I can’t wait to see more!
Loving the handles you picked out for the doors! 13 exterior doors is a heck of a lot of doors so I’m sure that took you a while. We only have 2 exterior doors and changing the locks on those bad boys was exhausting. Kudos to you!
I’m getting ready to paint our front door. How long did you have to wait before you could close the door again? How long did you wait between coats? I’m worried that it’s going to take forever with my front door hanging open.
Did you use a roller or a brush? I’t two coats in with navy on our door, and the roller isn’t doing to weel at all… I used a small faom job like I’ve seen recommended numerous places. Help this girl out!
I love the light outside of the work room and I think that finding a smaller version for the light between the patio doors would make everything look balanced. The grey doors look amazing! That Martha has a way with color 🙂
Love the new color!
So… where’s all the ripped out drywall coming from? Is there a new project in the works?
Bob, Bob, Bob…I’m just wondering who keeps pissing in your cheerios every mornin?! On a side note, I am kind of getting your sense of humor…sometimes rude, but sometimes intriguing 🙂
Katie,
We need to change our locks to our house asap. We just bought a new house. Do you know if we need any other special tools to change the locks other than power drill? I am just a beginner at DIY , so would totally appreciate your help.
And oh , I LOVE LOVE your blog and the photos you take!
The Intriguing Bob! I like it!
I think I’ll make that my circus name.
love the door colour!..ours is almost the same…maybe a little more blue. takes me so long to decide which colour and now that our doors are almost twins i feel like i have made the right one :)…also spray painted our door handles and knockers black (after i saw it on the ever inspiring yhl) …knockers…that sounds so bad… anyways…your doors look great!
Katie, I saw a praying mantis today and thought of you and how you said it represents peace…which is so incredibly perfect because I have had a very stressful week and it was just the reminder that I needed. Thanks 🙂
Great color choice! It looks gorgeous.
lol…longest string of nonsensical thoughts ever at the start!! 😉 LOVE IT!
Just curious…how did you go about picking your door color? It looks great by the way! I’m considering painting our front door but have no idea what color or even a tone to go for.
killer color (kolor?) !!! get down with your bad self.
Love the colour, and well done on the locks. They always look like they’d be a fiddly job to me. Can’t remember how I came across your site now – I’m living down here in New Zealand, and I head on over to your place every day, to see what’s happening. Your home is going to look amazing for the wedding!
haha, oh boy
Did you just paint over the old paint?… I am always curious..
Lovely home Katie! Since you are asking about advice on your planters… (I had the exact same ones a few years back) Try planting white geraniums and some sort of vine… like vinca, asparagus fern or sweet potato vine. They are all pretty hardy (heat wise) can dry out (somewhat) without looking awful and will fill out pretty quickly. Since it is late in the planting season, you should be able to find these at extremely good prices. The vines may be a bit tricky to find….if you do, and they look “shabby” just trim them back a bunch and they should perk up right away. Purchase a bag of soil that has added “moisture control”. (Miracle grow has this, it will help)
Also, for an added bonus….when the weather starts getting a bit chillier in your area they will be able to tough it out without looking like sauted spinach! If you have an area to bring them inside, when you get near freezing, do. I have “winterized” them in my garage when I lived in Minnesota! Come springtime, just hack away(if thin and spindly) and they will just keep on going! Geraniums like to be “dead-headed” and that means just removing the old blooms….not another band reference! (This part is easy and therapeutic!)
You can plant every other….geranium,vine, geranium etc…or put the geraniums in the
middle. Have fun! I hope this helps! LOVE reading and sharing with you!
P.S.Good job on the Gardenias, they can be tricky little buggers! They may need a little frost covering this winter if it gets chilly. FYI! I am in FL and last winter mine turned yellow when it went under 35 @ night…had to wrap them up in beach towels!
Love the grey color and love the last sentence. Cute. 🙂
I love the color you chose! Much better than mud!
Katie, do you SERIOUSLY have 13 exterior doors? I thought my four were a security nightmare! How do you sleep at night??!! 🙂
Love it. I just sprayed my mailbox and the handle and deadbolt on my back door with ORB paint and they look so good. I want to paint my doors, but I’m still narrowing down a color. I want to spruce up my exterior lights with the ORB paint for now, but will eventually want to upgrade to some newer lights with a motion sensor on them.
The doors look great! I love the color you used, such a nice improvement.
I like how the dark knobs add to the whole look. The doors change completely, even after being painted.
Who won the FLOR giveaway??? 😉
I can’t believe you have 13 exterior doors! That’s nuts. The gray doors look gorgeous, a lot better than that brown/tan colour. 🙂
I have no options for that light, sorry.
Maybe it’s just me, but I like the workroom light fixture as-is.
love the doors, but actually this comment is a bit more random than that…I was drooling over jcrew’s crewcuts that i will never be able to afford for my sons and i saw this shirt and thought your little boy in a year, wearing it… http://www.jcrew.com/boys_category/teepolosfleece/graphictees/PRDOVR~47566/47566.jsp
yes, random. alas.
Love the color =) pssst ~ spray paint your clay pots 😉
Yup – cleaned it and sanded where needed…basically the same thing we did with our front door 🙂
xo – kb
Well, I was partial to a darker color – like a dark dark gray and I walked into Home Depot and picked up the closest swatch by MS that I could find and Jeremy vetoed it and said he wanted more of a lighter gray so I went one shade lighter. Martha only has so many dark colors and I wasn’t about to waste time so I just chose one. It is only paint, so I figure if I hate it, I can repaint later…but anything will be better than mud 🙂
xo – kb
Actually a regular old screw driver is the best bet. And if you are taking off old locks, you might need to touch up the old paint around the circles…so it is helpful to have some damp paper towels, some sandpaper or steel wool, and some touch up paint with you…other than that, you should be good to go!
xo – kb
I used a brush 🙂
xo – kb
I waited a couple hours between coats…and I started about 3pm and it was dry by dinner time (8ish).
xo – kb
What’s a capital letter?
Is that like when people write notes to the President?
xo – kb
Eventually we want to paint the siding on the house but it really isn’t as much of a priority than the mud color…so we tackled one and if we have to revisit that door color later, it’s no biggie.
As for the door, wipe it down with steel wool, clean it with water and a towel, let dry and then it’s time to paint. It’s not super hard – just don’t forget to use thin coats and triple check for drips 🙂
xo – kb
Not too long – maybe an hour of actual painting per door total – plus wait time while it dried 🙂
xo – kb
Well, these are basement doors so it is different than your front door…where most strangers would come to the house. If you absolutely want a more solid barrier, you could always hang a roller shade or a bamboo blinds that can be lowered at night or when you want more privacy 🙂
xo – kb
Those have remained unchanged…although the plan is to get them done in time for the wedding. I just simply ran out of paint 🙂
xo – kb
I have a bad habit of skipping over text and just looking at photos. Your blog is the only blog that I *sometimes* skip over photos and read all the text. You are extremely witty and I really enjoy your posts!
I hope yours “wear” better than ours! We bought all new Kwikset Tustin levers in ORB for our house (to replace the scratched and 80’s brass ones), interior and exterior, and after just 2 years the finish is wearing off of a lot of them! The levers are shiny in a lot of spots and the finish is just gone in others, gross! Grrrrrrrr. I think they have a lifetime warranty but what a *pain* to remove them and send them in! Grrrrrrr, again.
Haha…nope I think its when you send letters to the Capitol Building…
Looks great! Love the color! I think you should put a light up like the one Sherry and John put in their bathroom. I think that wire look would look great in between those doors!
Just checked out your link – awesome! 😉
Haha…actually I put up that same light fixture in our downstairs bathroom (you can read about it here) – except it was bronze and I kept the cages 🙂 Great minds think alike I guess!
xo – kb
Would love a step by step!! I’m dying to redo my own poop-colored front door and am a bit hesitant over the project. The new color is gorgeous!!