Our front door was painted black. On the inside and outside. I really don't know why, except for some reason the sink base in the kitchen is also painted black.
This is the sink base, we couldn't fathom why this was painted black (like it needed to be any darker in that room with all the darker wood):
And here's the offending door (I realized AFTER I painted it I had only the immediate "before" photo of it, with the painters tape and all):
My apologies for the paint can and step stool in the pic. The white "tape" on the door isn't actual adhesive residue. I have NO idea what WAS taped there in that haphazard manner, but it's actually where the tape peeled off the black paint. That fun piece of furniture to the right is a treadle base from an old sewing machine. The machine is long gone, but the drawers are awful handy!
I used a painting technique that I've used before for some book shelves we use in our booth at an antique mall. It's pretty easy and has a neat effect. It uses whatever paint type you have handy-we had some "vintage green" around from a previous project so I didn't get a chance to use our milkpaint yet (I use milk paint for some crafts however, it's AWESOME).
I didn't photograph a step by step, but you really don't need one.
Step 1) If you have raw (unfinished) wood, paint it with a solid base of your choice, preferably a dark color (in this case the door was already black).
Step 2) Tape off anything you don't want painted (such as the knob, lock and windows on my door). Blue painters tape works best, but you could probably use masking tape. Lay paper on the floor or work surface.
Step 3) Make sure your paint is stirred well.
Step 4) Brush on the paint nearly dry. This is the hardest part if you are used to painting-you just dab the very end of the brush into the paint. The point isn't to fully cover the project, it's to let the base show though in streaks. It's best to paint all in the same direction so your streaks aren't all catywhompus. If you end up wiht a bit too much paint, clean off the brush and dry brush the area to remove a bit.
That's it! Here's the finished product:
We do have a sweeper on the bottom and it stands out a lot more with the door painted. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that yet. We're also going to need to introduce more green tones into the dining room and kitchen to tye it together, but it's SO much better than black. I've been considering painting the sink base the same color, and also putting up some beadboard in the diningroom (wall to the right) and repainting in there. Time will tell, but I'm happy to get rid of the black hole in my doorway for now!
