This post is sponsored by BEHR Paint. All opinions are 100% mine.
Friends, painting my garage doors was EASY. For years I kept thinking, “I should paint those garage doors,” “I should paint those garage doors,”I should paint those garage doors!” Do you ever do that? Do you know what you need to do, but somehow, you put it off for YEARS? Goodness gracious. I am raising my hand in shame.
The outside of our home has always been a priority, and like I discussed last week in THIS POST, we have worked on our curb appeal since we moved into our home in 2009. But, the difference of just one gallon of paint and a little elbow grease is honestly astounding. My neighbors are already texting me telling me how good it looks, and it has only been done for one day.
Supplies you need for this project:
1 Gallon Premium Plus® Exterior Paint {I choose Havana Coffee N210-7 in Satin}
A Homeright sprayer {or your favorite paint sprayer} and an extension cord
A few sponges
A bucket
A Hose
Comet All purpose cleaner
A roll of masking paper
One roll of painters tape
One roll of Exterior painter’s tape
A few ultra fine sanding sponges in case of drips
Two step stools
And a partner in crime
Step 1: In order for your paint to adhere properly to your garage door, it needs to be squeaky clean, degreased and dry. So while you are picking up your BEHR Paint from The Home Depot, grab a can of Comet cleaner and a few sponges.
Our garage door was pretty dirty. So I sprayed off the door with the hose and a high power hose adapter first. Then I cleaned the door thoroughly with Comet. We had a few oil splatters on the door, and it definitely degreased those spots too.
Step 2: Let the door dry completely.
Step 3. Unhook your garage from the opening mechanism and put the garage door in the open position.
Step 4. Mask off the door by using paper and painter’s tape. You need a buddy to help you with this, and you also need two step ladders unless you are freakishly tall. 🙂 I learned so many lessons during the masking process, and I am happy to pass those on since I ended up masking off one of our doors TWICE.
This is our first masking off job. It wasn’t completely useless, but it wasn’t great. The tape kept falling off, and when I took a break after painting the first coat, the paper fell completely off.
I decided that the paper fell off for two reasons.
- We didn’t use EXTERIOR painter’s tape when we were taping on stucco AND
- We realized that the paper we used was way too thin to get the job done. It was ripping and falling off in the slightest breeze. So the second time, we folded the paper in half to double it up. Plus, we were more precise in cutting the lengths of our paper too. That way it was easier to work with.
The second time, we taped the inside edge of the paper INSIDE the garage onto the wooden frame just inside the garage door. For that part, we used regular painter’s tape, and we did several layers of tape so that when the garage door closed, the paper was secured firmly and wouldn’t fall off. After the inside edges were taped, then we carefully brought the paper to the outside of the garage door opening and taped it with the exterior painter’s tape onto the stucco. It was crazy how much better the exterior tape stuck.
Step 5: Mix your paint to the correct consistency in your sprayer’s instruction manual. I use a Homeright Finish Max sprayer because it is my very favorite {plus it’s less than $70!}. In my opinion it is easy to use and it does a GREAT job. I thinned the paint slightly so that it was the correct consistency, and I went to work. TIP: Mix more than one container full of your paint so that you can work quickly. If you look in the above picture, I have two containers that I have mixed so that when the first one is out, I am ready to quickly switch it to the next. I bought a separate container for my sprayer just so I can do this.
Step 6: Spray your door in overlapping patterns. I made a video to demonstrate:
TIP: Make sure you are painting your door when it’s not in direct sunlight. Since my garage door is metal, it got REALLY hot as soon as the sun came up.
Step 8. After you have recoated your paint and it is completely dry, you may need to fix a few drips if you applied the paint too thick in a few spots. {Speaking from first-hand experience here} After your drips are dry, take a super-fine sanding sponge and smooth out the drip.
After you have smoothed out the drip, reapply another coat of paint in that spot.
Step 9. After the door is completely dry, remove the masking paper and tape.
Here’s a reminder of what my home looked like before:
And now check out what a HUGE difference one gallon of BEHR Paint made and one afternoon of work:
It’s a night and day difference from when we moved in!
2009 version: Foreclosure, dead lawn and plants.
2013, looking better:
And in 2017, it looks so much better:
I’m obsessed! I cannot believe it took us this long to paint that darn garage! It looks sooooo much better.