Ohhhhh my loves! I've been wanting to share this quick and easy DIY with you forever! I'm such a fan of immediate gratification! Think of all the glorious immediate gratifications in our lives. Spray tans, keureg coffee pods, bronzer, Amazon Prime. Need I say more? I mean, can I get an AMEN?! What would we do without 2 day shipping on our favorite can of spray tan while we drink our fresh-brewed coffee? No judging, please. Yes, I spray tan. Regularly.
So in December we moved from our beautiful Birchwood home, to our Taylor's Wood home. This was quite the difficult move. In many ways. From a bloggy standpoint, we had renovated, together, almost every nook and cranny of the Birchwood home. She was "a beaut, Clark, a beaut!" (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation). The Birchwood home tour is featured on the blog for your viewing pleasure. One day I will have to post all the 'before' photos of The Birchwood. Then all my lovely readers will get to see how far she did come. We had DIY'ed major changes in the kitchen, laundry room, screened-in porch, master bath, master bedroom, guest bathroom, nursery, basement, living room and yard. We had brought our daughter home to that house. We had hosted a million youth group sleepovers and bonfires in that house. We had shared holiday dinners, and tears and memories to last a lifetime. We started our adoption process for our future son in that house. We will never forget our years at The Birchwood.
Well our lovely Taylor's Wood home is now in the process of being majorly renovated (by us, of course). Today I'm sharing a rather gorgeous DIY. If I do say so myself.
This specific Do-it-yourself is a great project that requires little time, money, or experience. But first, the 'before' photos.
This was our home before our therapeutic intervention. To be fair, this was our house before we bought it.
So as you can see. We have 3 garage doors that are very simple and plain and are taking up half of the front of the house. Not quite the curb appeal I was after. The home lacks warmth and character. Nothing really stands out or says "come in". When you see these photos, please keep in mind that other projects were needed. We have started upon these other various endeavors including chopping down trees and landscaping and planting grass. Oh how wretched it is to plant grass, my loves. Absolutely wretched. But for now, let's focus on garage door glam.
You will need for this project:
Exterior paint (I used Sherwin Williams "Keystone Grey")
Blue painters tape
Garage Door Hardware kit (link below)
Paint brush or small Roller
Screwdriver
That is all you need! I used only 1/2 gallon of paint for 3 garage doors. So keep in mind that you won't need much!
Step 1. Tape off a design you like. I googled a lot of ideas. I really wanted something that looked like carriage doors but wasn't too fancy. I also didn't want to do the "fake windows". A lot of google searches showed taped black squares that faked windows. I didn't want anyone driving up to the house and seeing shiny black paint squares and judging me too hard.
Lucky for me, my garage doors had raised panels so I was able to follow the strait lines of the panels so as to make perfect lines with the tape. If your doors do not have raised areas, just measure out from the sides or use a tiny piece of foam to mark your lines. Keep in mind that the taping is the most time-consuming and ANNOYING part of the project. Tape along the lines you drew with your tool. Like playing connect the dots.
If you have more then one garage door, be sure you are following the same rules of measurement. To do the diagonal lines on the carriage door design, I used a small sand paper foam wedge as a tool to make sure I was keeping the correct width (About 5 inches thickness).
Step 2. Now you get to paint. But first, a word on paint. Choose a color that matches other areas of your home. For instance, if your front door and shutters are a gorgeous dark grey, go for that same grey or a version of the tone. If your front door is a beautiful feature color like red, but the trim around the windows is a nice taupe, I'd recommend taupe. If you want to update your front door (see last week's post $50 Friday!), choose a paint that you can also use on your front door! Make your purchase go further!
Now. Back to painting. I used a roller for the larger areas, but since I had raised panels, I went behind the roller with a paint brush to get in all the nooks and crevices. If your darling husband comes outside to help, be sure to mark WHERE he is supposed to paint! It can be a bit confusing to see tape everywhere! You may need several coats of paint if your garage door was a darker color. My garage doors had a good coat of white base paint so I only needed 2 coats of fresh paint.
Step 3. Pull off the tape. What an obvious step. But I had some minor touch ups because I painted on a very hot day and some of my painter's tape had peeled back a bit.
Step 4. Attach your carriage hardware. Prior to this step you may have been thinking: "OKAY Ash, this looks like a mouse-maze". This is the fun step! Again, there are lots of options on where to attach your hardware. The back of the hardware box even has some ideas for you! Below is the placement we decided on and we really love it! The screws are nice and tiny so you can use a screwdriver to attach. Or, if you want to be super quick, a handheld drill. All of a sudden you see the gorgeous carriage door emerge!
Step 5. Enjoy the benefits of a gorgeous updated garage door and rest assured that this is an investment in your own home! Such a dramatic transformation can easily be considered sweat equity! Your neighbors will be sure to LOVE!
Don't forget to tag @thebirchwoodblog in your instagram photos! We want to see your garage doors!
Love Y'all!
Ashley