$10 DIY Door Transformation

Hello, friends!

For quite some time now, I've been wanting to repaint our front door. Its cute and red, and I love it but the paint was getting chipped from us pushing on it and it was lookin' a little bit shabby. (The trim around the door is next on my list.)

I went to Lowe's and bought some Rust-Oleum Door paint for 10 bucks in Cranberry- I really like having a red front door- its so cheery and stands out and comes in really handy when you're giving someone directions to your house. ("It's the one with the red door!")

Sorry this photo isn't stellar- but you can kinda see the chipping of the paint at the bottom..

 I went ahead and painted the front door. Just a heads up, if you use that paint, its VERY strong-smelling- and kind of thin so be careful about dripping because its oil-based and doesn't clean up very easily. I know, because first thing I did was spill some. Oops.

Yep, that's just paint, not blood!  We also need to repaint our front porch now...

The door looks nice; about the same- just shiner than before. And a tad more richly colored. Love it!

Then I got to thinking....
I still had 3/4 of a can of paint left, what else could I paint??
I thought it might be cute to have the back door match the front door.

Now, our back door is not as charming as our front; actually I've always kind of hated it.
Its just a regular metal door, with windows in it...nothing special.
Now, add to the fact that one of the kids (Ethan, I think) decided to color all over the outside of it with sidewalk chalk....like 2 years ago..
For some reason sidewalk chalk doesn't come off of flat paint very well..I think its just the paint. Anyway, I've tried and tried to scrub that chalk off and it just won't  budge.
The door was stained beyond repair.

Here is what it looks like from the inside...

not that great. 

I'm planning on sewing a cute shade for the window..but for now this is it.
Just picture the same for the outside but with big blue chalk marks across the bottom part..
( I looked and looked for a picture of the outside of the back door "before" and couldn't find one! You'd think, in four years of living here I'd take at least one picture of the back door! Nope. That's how much I didn't like it! )

So, I painted it that lovely cranberry shade...and....
Viola!! A whole new door!

Oops. Slightly out of focus. 

I think it looks like a million bucks, don't you???

Solomon the cat had to get in on the picture taking fun.

It completely changes the look of the back of our house. (For the better. WAY better.)

I can't stop looking at it. Every time I do, it makes me so happy. Thank you, $10 paint!! I still have over half a can left for other projects I might find as well.
One drawback- the fumes from the paint were so strong, we had to camp out in our backyard that night so that we wouldn't get all loopy while we slept from breathing all those chemicals. We didn't mind- it was fun to put up the tent and fall asleep listening to the cicadas and crickets.

By the way, I get no compensation from Rustoleum or Lowe's for this- I just thought I'd share my back door transformation with you all. I hope you enjoyed it, and it inspires you to make a big decorating bang for a small buck!