How to Paint a Door

How to paint a door: Get great results, even on console doors.

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Time

A full day

Complication

Intermediate

Cost

$51–100

Introduction

Painting paneled doors is the ultimate painter'due south claiming. To arrive easier, we tried unlike tools and paints and watched pros piece of work. Here's what nosotros found.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Foam brushes
  • Paint
  • Paint drip remover
  • Primer
  • Sandable filler
  • Sanding sponges
  • Sandpaper

ⓘ

Picking your pigment

While y'all're picking a paint color, as well think well-nigh sheen. With a flat finish, scuff marks and handprints are hard to wipe away. High gloss is easy to clean but accentuates every little flaw, so your prep and paint chore need to be perfect. Satin and semigloss are good compromise choices.

Note: Painting a door typically takes three to five hours, depending on the status of the door and how fussy you are. But add in the drying time and it'southward a full-twenty-four hours project. And so if you lot're painting a door you can't alive without, like a bathroom or exterior door, start first thing in the morning then information technology can be back in service by day'south end.

Project footstep-by-step (xiv)

Pace ane

Painting Prep Tips

Pros oft paint doors in place. Merely from prep to painting, yous'll become improve results if you remove the door. Working in your garage, shop or basement allows you to command lighting and drying conditions improve. Laying the door apartment volition also minimize runs in the paint task.

Hither's what to do after you remove the door:

  • Clean the door with a household cleaner;
    • Most any cleaner will practise, as long equally it cuts grease. Areas around doorknobs are particularly decumbent to greasy buildup.
  • Remove all the door hardware to get a neater pigment job and save time;
  • Slice through paint buildup around hinges and latches.
  • Fill dents and holes with a sandable filler such as MH Ready Patch.
    • Pro tip: You'll probably have to fill up deep dents twice to recoup for shrinkage.
  • Remove old pigment from the hardware. Commencement with a product intended to remove pigment splatter such as Goof Off Pro Strength Remover or Goo Gone Painter's Pal.
    • Yous tin can use paint strippers, but they may also remove clear coatings from the hardware or harm some types of finishes.

painting prep tips

Stride 2

Sand the Door Smooth

  • Showtime with lite sandpaper or a sanding sponge (180 or 220 grit). This will roughen the surface a little and allow the primer to adhere better.
  • Smooth out chipped paint and imperfections from previous pigment jobs.
    • This is usually the most time-consuming, slow function of the project.
  • On flat areas, level out sometime runs and brush marks with a hard sanding block. For the shaped profiles use a combination of sanding pads, sponges and scraps of sandpaper.

painting a door prep sand the door

Step 3

Remove the Sanding Grit

  • Pigment often sticks to sandpaper, clogging the grit and making it useless;
    • Pro tip: Be sure to check the label and purchase sandpaper intended for paint. You may nonetheless get some clogging, only you'll get less.
  • Offset with 120 or 150 dust. You can switch to coarser paper (such equally 80 grit) on problem areas, but be sure to follow up with effectively grit to smoothen out the sanding scratches.
    • Pro tip: Employ a finishing or random-orbit sander on flat areas. Information technology might save you lot tons of fourth dimension.
  • Use a vacuum with a brush zipper to remove almost of the grit. Wipe off the rest with a clammy rag.

Remove the sanding dust from door

Stride 4

Sand After Priming

  • Sand out any imperfections in the prime coat;
  • Polish a light across the surface at a depression bending to accentuate imperfections;
  • Mark whatsoever spots that need an extra dab of filler with masking tape.

inspect door sanding

Step 5

Paint for a Polish Finish

  • Choose a paint designed for a smooth finish;
    • Pro tip: Smooth paints are normally labeled "enamel" or "door and trim."
      • Super-smooth paints oft toll $25 to $30 per quart! But it's worth an extra x bucks per door to get starting time-grade results.

Our Door Paint Pick:

Among the paints we've used, i category stands out for smoothness: water-based alkyds.

  • These paints dry out slowly for extra working time and level out about too as traditional oil-based alkyds.
  • After applying them with a high-quality roller, you can usually skip the brush-out steps and still become perfect results.
    • Cleanup is every bit easy merely be prepared for a long expect before re-blanket (16 to 24 hours) and a higher price tag.

Water-Based Alkyd is Best flaws in door paint job

Step half-dozen

Tips for a Perfect Workspace

Later on the messy job of sanding is done, set the door aside and prep your workspace.

  • For priming and painting, y'all want a work zone that's well lit and clean.
    • Pro tip: Sawdust on your workbench will end up on brushes; airborne grit will create whiskers on the pigment.
  • Minimize air motility for less airborne dust and slower drying. Shut doors and windows. Turn off forced-air heating or cooling.
  • Don't rely on overhead lighting; you lot may even want to plough it off.
    • Pro tip: Position a work light iv to five anxiety above the floor. This depression-angle light will accentuate any drips or ridges.

painting a door tip flip

Footstep seven

Door Painting Tricks

  • Make the door flippable: Drive 1 screw into one terminate and two into the other.
    • This lets you coat both sides of the door without waiting for the first side to dry.
  • Moisture the floor: A moisture flooring prevents you from boot up dust that volition create dust nubs in your terminate. It also raises the humidity, which extends the time you have to polish out the pigment and gives the paint more fourth dimension to level out.
    • We establish raising the humidity doubled the working time of the paint.
  • Keep a pair of tweezers handy: Pluck out paintbrush bristles or rescue stuck insects without messing up the paint.

tweezer door painting tip

Step 8

Door Painting Priming Tips

  • You can "spot-prime" a door, coating merely patched dents or areas yous sanded through to bare wood. But priming the whole door is best.
    • Pro tip: The new paint will stick better and you'll get a more than uniform cease.
      • Your pick of primer is just every bit of import as your selection of paint. At the paint shop, enquire for a primer that's compatible with your paint, levels out well and sands smoothly.
  • For an ultra-polish paint job, apply 2 coats of primer.
  • Lightly sand the primer with 220-grit, inspecting as you go.
    • A couple of quick passes is all it takes.
  • Let the primer dry overnight before sanding.
    • The longer it dries, the better it volition sand.
  • Paint the edges and wipe off the slop. Brush or roll paint onto all four edges. Immediately wipe whatever paint that slops onto the face of the door with a rag or cream castor.

door painting

Step 9

Painting Tips

  • Painting a door is a race confronting time.
    • You have to lay downward the pigment and smooth it out before it becomes too gluey to piece of work with, or then stiff that brush marks won't level out and disappear.
  • Consider a paint additive to irksome down drying and improve leveling.
  • Beginning with a dust-free door; wipe it down with a damp rag just before painting.
  • Don't employ cheap roller sleeves or you'll get fibers in the finish.
    • Use a mini roller and become good results with microfiber, mohair and foam sleeves.
  • Paint all iv edges of the door first.
    • Pro tip: When painting edges, some paint inevitably slops onto the faces of the door. It's better to accept that happen earlier the faces are painted.
  • Castor on a calorie-free glaze.
    • A heavy coat of pigment covers improve and sometimes levels out better, but runs are more probable and brush marks are deeper.
  • Roll on the pigment where you lot can.
    • Rollers lay on paint much faster than a brush, giving you a few more precious minutes to work the paint before it begins to stiffen.
  • Brush out rolled paint.
    • Brushed paint usually levels out ameliorate than rolled paint, and any brush marks are less noticeable than roller stipple.
      • Pro tip: With peak-quality enamel and roller sleeves, roller results can be super smooth.
  • Plan to apply at to the lowest degree two coats and lightly sand between coats with 220-dust to remove any grit nubs.

painting a door

Step 10

Brush Effectually the Panels

  • Work the paint into the corners and grooves.
  • Then elevate the castor over the paint to smoothen it.
  • Wipe away any slop around the panel.

Brush around the door panels

Step 11

Coil, Then Brush the Panels

  • Coat the panels chop-chop with a roller.
  • Then smooth the paint with a brush.
    • Be careful not to bear upon the profiles surrounding the panel.

Roll, then brush the panels

Footstep 12

Scroll the Runway and Stiles

  • Roll the door in sections, coating no more than than one-quarter of the door at a time.
  • And so brush out the pigment.
    • Be careful not to slop paint over the edges around the panels.

Roll the rails and stiles

Step 13

Castor With the Grain

  • Castor across the joints where door parts run into.
  • So drag your brush in a straight line forth the intersection.
    • Pro tip: Any visible brush marks will wait more similar a wood grain blueprint and less similar sloppy brushwork.

paint a door brush strokes

Stride 14

The Ultimate Smooth Finish

  • Even the most skilled painter can't match the perfection of a sprayed-on end.
    • There are ii types of sprayers: "airless" and "HVLP" (high-volume, depression-pressure).
      • Both tin can utilise a flawless coat in minutes, only HVLP is more than forgiving. Information technology produces a finer spray, which reduces your chances of blasting on too much pigment and creating runs.
  • Aside from terminate quality, a sprayer will also relieve yous hours of brushwork if yous have several doors to paint.

For more than on airless and HVLP sprayers, see Pigment Sprayer Reviews and Painting With an Airless Sprayer.

sprayed-on finish paint a door

Originally Published: May 15, 2020