Front Door Fresh-Up

After being in our home for 10 years, it's time to do some renos. The thing is: renovations are expensive, they take a long time, and can often snowball from one project to another to another.

But small, self-contained projects are feasible and often, cost-effective. Plus, there's an element of DIY (if you're into it).

Like our front door fresh-up, which cost about $50 (even less if you don't need supplies).

Here's the BEFORE -- pretty basic, all white, single door. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but I wanted to jazz it up a bit and give the front entrance more of a presence.

I opted for a black outdoor/indoor paint in a Pearl finish from Benjamin Moore -- something that will hold up with regular wear and tear. (Just ask one of the reps at the paint store)

Because the door was white to start, we didn't need to do anything to it first, so we taped out the edges and started painting.

To give the door even more grandeur, we painted all the trim around the windows and the frame the same black colour. It took two coats (one per night), but essentially, this was one of the easiest and fastest projects we've ever done.

The black front door makes a big impact and I love the contrast against the light walls. And I'm not kidding when I said it was affordable -- just the cost of 1/2 gallon of paint.

What are some of your favourite and affordable fresh-ups?