Some COLOR in the mud room

I’ve been making progress on the mud room lately and I’m getting SO excited about this space. Remember when I painted the room white a few weeks ago? Still love it – but I have started craving just a BIT of color. I haven’t decided on the exact color for the beadboard just yet but I know the direction I’m going.

My plan all along has been to add some color to the door to the garage so I started with that. I may kick myself for it later for doing it before the other color but it came together so well I just couldn’t resist.

And with the trim taken off around the door it was much easier to paint – I could make a little bit of a mess and it would be covered. :)

A year or so ago I started using the back of our door as a command center of sorts – but honestly, it hasn’t worked that great:

I have a small calendar on here that I used to put all our appointments on, but we haven’t used it in a year. I clip coupons on the door thinking I’ll grab them on the way out and I don’t – I ignore them and remember I need them when I’m actually at the store. So there’s that.

I have a smaller version of this in mind down the road for this room, but for now I just took it all down.

Before the smaller calendar I had a larger one and it left a mess on the door:

SO pretty. :)

I started by scrubbing off what I could (most of it didn’t budge) and then cleaned the door really well.

Now, if you’re going to paint a door you want to do one of two things first. Either check to see if it’s oil or latex paint that’s already on there (I explain how to do that here) or you can just prime it.

I usually just prime because it gives you a nice clean surface to start off with anyway. This door is a slick steel door so I knew the paint would do better over a primed surface.

You’ll want a heavy duty primer for the job. I use the little quart sizes:

This stuff is great and is truly odorless – I really don’t smell anything, which is huge for this type of primer! It’s usually really stinky.

I usually have this tinted, just because I’m typically painting a color when I use it. In the past I’ve had it tinted gray and it works great, but I forgot to do that this time.

I did one coat but went over a few spots more than once:

And then it was time to figure out what color to use! I raided my paint stash first to see if I had anything that would work. And I’ll BE, guess what I found? It was (nearly) PERFECT.

I pulled out the rug I’m planning on using in the room (but not as a rug, more on that later) and realized this blue color I already had was just lovely with it:

It’s called Ticker Tape, how cute is that? 

You may recognize it from the samples I had painted on my walls for months years:

OK, you probably don’t recognize it because it was painted over the blinding yellow. But it was the color on the left. Or the right? Not sure. I think the left. I was considering it as a color for the whole room years back.

I knew when I started painting it on that it was going to be so pretty:

I would call it a very saturated aqua I guess? Not sure. The more I look at it completed the more it leans blue.

To paint both the primer and the paint on the door I used foam rollers and a small, angled brush:

And I use a specific system I told you about here:

It works great!

I was so happy with the paint too, it went on SO well. I even used the brush to paint the raised panels in the door, which I never do (because I can see the paint strokes). I always use the foam roller for those areas.

After the first coat I gave it a quick sanding, just to knock down any texture from the roller. And when I say quick sanding, I mean like two minutes and done. I hate sanding. I only had to do one more coat after that, so two total, which is impressive for a color over white.

I wanted the door to be fun and colorful and it is!: 

Oh yeah, there’s the spray painted knob I told you about. :)

It’s not an exact match to that rug but it’s close enough, and they won’t be right next to each other anyway:

I was going to wait until the new floors are installed to do the door trim, but that got pushed back to later this month so my zero patience won out and I installed it all:

I made a few minor changes to how I do the DIY craftsman trim around the doors which I’ll tell you more about soon. OHHHMG. Love them.

Here’s the before and after over the utility closet:

It all needs about four coats of paint (oh happy day!) but it’s a step in the right direction.

I also started continuing the beadboard on that door wall:

I didn’t go too far with it because I’m deciding on the bench dimensions first.

The room still looks like a bit of hot mess right now but it’s getting there – I always like to share the process along the way because man, it takes time to do this stuff! It sure doesn’t happen overnight.

I should just make a to do list for this room and knock them off on here, right? But so far I’ve pulled down all the trim and installed new stuff, painted the walls and now the door. Next up will be the flooring, finishing the beadboard, more trim, then the part I’m most excited about – building a wall of built ins and a bench! It won’t be done till next year but it’s coming along.

Do you love a painted door? You know I love the black doors in our basement and that’s on my to do list elsewhere in the house. I do like having one that’s more fun and playful and the mud room is a great spot for it.