PRO SPOTLIGHT: Make A Front Door Pop with Jared Foster

With two little ones and running a carpentry business, free time is something that is not easy to come by, so I am always looking for ways to get quality work done more quickly around the house. Being a carpenter, you’d think that my home would always be in tip top shape, but sadly, my personal home is usually the last home I get any work done on. Turns out having two little boys running around means dirt, grime, and messiness can be a pretty normal part of everyday life. But my wife has been wanting to spruce up the front porch area a bit, since this is typically the first part of your home people will see.

We have this amazing porch swing that I built and we wanted to continue the theme of calm and relaxation as people approached our steps, so we decided to paint the door using Tidal, a navy color from Behr Paint, and Pasha Brown, a brown shade also made by Behr, for the trim. Before any painting got done, we needed to clean and prime the area to ensure the longevity of the paint and look. That’s why we chose KILZ 3^® PREMIUM Interior and Exterior Primer. KILZ 3^® PREMIUM Interior and Exterior Primer is a superior quality primer that offers excellent adhesion to both the surface and the topcoat. It dries fast, has a low odor and low VOC which makes it a great choice for a primer.   The primer includes stain-blocking properties that block most medium-to-heavy stains caused by water, tannin, ink, pencil, felt marker and grease which is essential when you have little ones.

The first step that I needed to take care of was pressure washing the front door and the areas around it to help loosen up and remove the gunk that built up over time. If you’re working with a time crunch, it’s best to utilize some shop rags or towels to soak up the excess water, as this can help speed up the drying process. Otherwise, you can simply let it air dry while you get other things done on your weekend to-do list. After the area dried, I laid down some painter’s paper to get the sanding done with less cleaning up on the backend. Sanding will even out all the old paint and remove any chipped pieces of paint on the door and the trim.

One thing I noticed is that whoever last painted the door to our home, didn’t utilize any primer, as it was really easy for some of the old paint to just peel off in chunks. Priming is a step worth taking, because it can help save time and money in the long run. Living in Atlanta means humid weather and using something like KILZ 3^® Premium Interior and Exterior Primer would have helped keep this from happening over time, regardless of the weather conditions. Priming is fundamental for completing any paint project. It is the difference between a job done and a job done right.

After sanding, I just utilized a leaf blower to get the excess dust off the porch, any extra can just be wiped off. When my son came out onto the porch after his nap, he asked me “daddy, can I help you paint?” One of the aspects of doing projects from home that I enjoy most is being able to have my children join in. It reminds me of the times that I spent learning how to be handy around the house with my pops as a kid. I was able to get my son to help me put down more painter’s tape. This isn’t really a time saving hack, but it’s worth the few extra minutes to let him assist me, as much as a 2-year-old can.  We put down more painter’s paper and tape on the trim, door, floor, and walls of the front of the house where we’d be spraying the paint to help save on clean up time.

I chose not to tape off the windows, because if I sprayed anything on the windows I could have quickly used a razor blade to scrape it off once it dried, which would give you a crisp clean finish and save time. Another way to save time would be by removing the door entirely. This would allow you to spray the door separately from the trim and not have to worry about taping anything off again.

Then it was time to prime the trim and the door. A huge benefit of using KILZ 3^® Premium Interior and Exterior Primer is its thicker consistency and high hiding capability which is essential when painting over an existing color and converting from a dark or bold color to a lighter one.  KILZ 3^® Premium Interior and Exterior Primer is a powerful stain blocker and will block color bleed-through and other stains.

Once I laid on the primer and allowed it to dry, I was able to spray the door and trim using BEHR^® paint, remove all the paper and tape and enjoy the new look. All and all, this project was completed in 48 hours and honestly, I was really looking forward to getting it done. Having used KILZ 3^® PREMIUM Interior and Exterior Primer I knew this door color would pop, giving me Instagram-worthy photo finishes and people will feel even more welcomed when they visit!

*This is a paid partnership with Jared Foster.