Project Front Door...

From years of showing people around flats and houses, I know what an impact the front door and entrance to a property makes on the overall viewers attitude towards what they are seeing. I feel a good front door is a great way to welcome people to your home.

Refurbishing your door overview:

Nitromors paint stripper - £9.99 Homebase

Wood filler - approx £10

Sand Paper (Medium and fine grade) - approx £6 

Water based wood preservative primer - approx £15

Dulux Weathershield Satin door paint (we used Green Glade) - £19.99 Homebase

Door Furniture of your choice - allow £80 

Fitted new locks - appox £192 inc supply and fitting

Frosted door number film - £31 Purlfrost

Tools -

Assorted Screwdrivers

Hammer and Chisel

Wire wool

Detail sander with medium and fine sanding pads

Small roller set

Good quality 1 and 2 inch paint brushes

Nine months after moving into our home, I decided it was time to sort out our distressingly ugly front door.

Having bought a Victorian maisonette meant we have our own entrance on the ground floor. Luckily enough, we still have the original Victorian door which I had been told by many professionals was worth keeping and refurbishing rather than replacing with a modern door.

The gorgeous sewage green shade

The first thing was to remove all the door furnishings and 100 years of paint, taking away the sewage green shade showed quite a fashionable dove grey colour. I had to keep going to get the paint off down to the original wood as far as I could.

I used Nitromors (£9.99 from Homebase) to chemically break down the paint. This was far too time consuming and I was going to have to work my way slowly through each layer. (Not ideal when I had to keep seeing, feeding and checking on our 5 month old)

I broke out our old detail sander and worked my way through the layers, covering myself and everything (which seemed) in half a mile radius in dust, however I was down to the wood.

As much paint as I could remove

Then I arranged for a local locksmith to fit a new ERA lock and also a Chubb lower down at knee height. (£192 inc labour and supply of locks) I went for a polished chrome finished to match the door furniture I had ordered.

I filled all divots and imperfections with a light wood filler, dried and sanded smooth.

For the colour, we chose Dulux Weathersheild satin door paint in Green Glade (£19.99 for 750ml) and I made sure to use the correct water based wood preservative primer first.

The main thing you want is good weather as you cannot close the door for a few hours so best to start in the morning and don't plan to go out.

I then fitted the polished chrome door furniture - a chrome letter plate and tidy, kick plate, interior pull handle and a central knocker. (approx £72 from the Door Handle Company on line) Doorhandlecompany.co.uk

I retouched some of the paintwork from where the furniture fitting had scratched the paint work.

We sourced the door number from Purlfrost.com which was easy to fit from following the instruction given. The price is dependent on size and design.

I thoroughly enjoyed the project...so much I'm going to paint the neighboring door to match!