If you have children, or even if you don’t, it’s a strong possibility that the paint on the interior doors of your home has faded significantly with time. Whether it be from a steady diet of bumping and scratching or mostly unavoidable wear and tear, interior doors take quite the beating. Aside from purchasing new doors — which can get expensive quickly — the only solution for this problem is door painting. If you’ve never given this a try, you should first understand it’s not as difficult as you might think. In fact, there’s not a better, simpler DIY weekend project than painting an interior door. Up next are a few valuable tips on painting a door inside your home.
The basics
Here are a few general steps for painting an attached interior door:
1. Remove all door knobs and any other hardware from your door.
2. Choose a paint that’s suitable for interior doors.
3. Clean the door with a degreasing cleaner, fill holes and repair any imperfections with sandable filler or spackle.
4. Use 120-grit sandpaper to sand the door, creating a smoother surface that will absorb primer or paint more easily. After sanding, remove any dust before priming or painting.
5. Put drop cloths on the floor. These are large sheets used to cover furniture or flooring as a means of protection from paint.
6. Cover the door hinges with painter’s tape, assuming you don’t want to paint them.
7. Paint the inside of the top panels. Smooth out the paint, working with the grain. Coat the recessed areas first and then the faces of the panels.
8. If the door has a vertical center stile, paint it. Then blend in the brush marks from the center stile when painting the horizontal rails. Paint the rails, starting with the top rail and working your way down.
9. Paint the remaining vertical stiles, beginning on the left. Feather the brush marks from the rails while they’re wet. Keep the line as straight as possible along the edge where the stiles meet the rails. Brush or roll the edges, but don’t get any runs on the face of the door.
10. Keep the door open long enough for it to fully dry.
Check out these short DIY videos on how to paint an interior door.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ptY8pUyz5Qhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3g9FgeJNEchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGg_DN_87M
Final Word
Are you ready to start painting? Maybe you’re painting because you’re looking to sell your home and start looking for a new one. If so, Fairway of the Carolinas can help! Contact us today to speak with one of our experienced mortgage advisers, who can quickly put you on path toward a wonderful home purchase.
