Fresh Front Door + How to Hang Permanent Wallpaper w/out the Permanent!

Quick and easy DIY projects are my fave and this one was both!  I’ve been itching to do something with our front door forever and I finally went for it.

Let’s start with the before and all that wood.  Don’t get me wrong I like wood tones but the honey color and the fact that we have SO much of it just doesn’t jive for me.

It’s a nice door but that honey colored wood, I absolutely hate it.  So you can see I popped up a peel and stick wallpaper and tacked a piece of salvaged trim around the opening to give it some personality.

We’ve been toying around with painting all the woodwork in our house black (+ relevant trim color to each bedroom).  Our first foray into this was the rainbow stairs (see that here) and we LOVE the way those turned out.  So when we pulled down the peel and stick wallpaper and it took up some of the varnish well, I thought, now’s the time to give it a go.

First step was sanding it down.  Parental tip!  The kids REALLY wanted some electronic time and I had another project I needed to work on, so I came up with having them do the sanding on the door while I worked on the spackling in the other room.  A win win situation because they are motivated to work for some xbox/computer free time and I could use the extra help.  Plus it teaches them some DIY skills along the way.  However long they work for they can earn an equal amount of electronic time.

They got this done pretty darn quickly with all 3 of them working on it

Here’s after they sanded and I did a good wipe down.  Then a quick taping  off of the windows and trim to prep for the black paint.

I set up a tarp, I’m an embarrassingly messy painter and always end up with it all over myself and my hair.

After the second coat I had great coverage and a bold black door.  I used Caviar by SW which is my fave black.  It’s the same color that I did on our bathroom vanity (see that here).

We really like the black, it modernized the entire feel of the entry, but it felt a little bit too consuming.

I rummaged around in my home stash and found some leftover wallpaper from the powder bath.  TIP:  Always keep your leftovers from projects!  I am in the process of tiling a second fireplace with leftover tile from the bathroom.  I have used spare wallpaper to frame for art.  You never know when those “extras” will come in handy.

This is the wallpaper in our bathroom with the pink sink and it’s a permanent paper.  Double sided scotch tape, the secret weapon.

I measured the panels of the door and cut pieces to fit.

You can use a straight edge for cutting if you are worried about a straight line.

Bogey decided he needed to supervise me doing this.

He always knows when I’m going to snap a photo of him and looks away haha.

I did all 4 panels on the door in about 20 minutes.  I put double sided tape all the way around the perimeter, lined up the paper and pressed down.

Double sided Scotch tape makes this SO easy.

Here’s a quick snap after I finished but hadn’t done any styling yet.  You can see how the color pops off of the door but the black definitely still has a presence.

The paper is sticking really well and I don’t anticipate any issues with it falling off.

LOVE the black and the colorful paper.  It really gives the entryway a presence.  The trim piece that was here prior, I am using elsewhere so it’s still here!

Paper is by Lucy Tiffney

Next up on the agenda, renting some scaffolding so I can paint that upper window trim and work on that closet door.  You can see the difference the black makes next to the closet though, from honey to black and how much more contemporary it feels.

And if I ever get tired of this paper and want to change it up, I can just peel it right off the door along with the scotch tape.

I see a lot of painting in my future, eeks.  What do you think?  Have you painted your front door fun colors or black?  I debated a color but my go to pink was booed by the fam.  Maybe one day I’ll give it a go though (wink wink)

I always love to hear from you so hit me up in the comments!

And don’t forget the subscribe box in the sidebar, you’ll be the first to know when something new and fresh is up to see!