Projects

Our Might-As-Well-Be-New Doors

December 3, 2014

We believe we should all love where we live.

We’re a couple of homebodies, working to uncover the home our home wants to be. And we’re so happy to have you here. 

Portfolio

Projects

Design

We're Chris + Julia

read more

What we're                   right now

Loving

browse the shop

Befores, afters, mood boards, plans, failures, wins. We’ve done a lot of projects, and they’re all here. 

We have a long-standing relationship with DIY, and love rolling our sleeves up and making it happen. 

Even when you don’t want to rip down a wall, you can make that space in your home better. Right now.

browse all

browse all

browse all

02

01

03

Popular Posts

1.

2.

3.

Top Categories

We don’t want to start any huge projects before Christmas because we’ll be hosting a bunch of gatherings in the next few weeks and the last thing we want is our guests to be walking into a construction zone. They half expect it from us, but we’ll just say that’s part of our present to them. Ha! Even still, there are quite a bit of small and quick things that are on our list. Painting the stairwell, possibly replacing that light, giving our dining room table a makeover (poor thing is so beat up!) and our interior doors.

IMG_9267

IMG_9278

^^I spy Faye Faye! The walls and trim are freshly painted, which made our doors stick out like a yellowed thumb. Painting doors is one of my least favorite things to paint. 1. The walls above kitchen cabinets (my back! my neck!) 2. ceilings 3. doors!! We recently painted all of the doors in Greta’s room and the guest room with a brush and it was quite time consuming. Fortunately, Wagner Spray Tech reached out to us months ago to see if we’d be interested in trying out another one of their paint sprayers. Since we used (and loved!) their Flexio 590 when we painted Faye’s crib a year ago, we were definitely on board and thought this would be the perfect project to give their power house sprayer, the Flexio 890, a go.

IMG_9284

We took the 4 interior doors upstairs out to the garage and gave them a thorough wipe down with some soap and water. The dust that settles onto those tiny ledges is astounding really. Once the doors were wiped down and dried we started painting. I used the same paint for the doors as I did for all the trim–off the shelf Clark+Kensington Designer White in semi-gloss. I only had half a gallon left so I was prepared to run to the store, but we made it!

IMG_9297

I love a paint sprayer that doesn’t guzzle paint and is quiet with little overspray. Really love it. We have had bad experiences with other paint sprayers guzzling paint or spitting it out at thee worst times, and we never  have had any of that with either Flexio sprayers.

IMG_9301

Here you can see the drastic difference between the fresh white going over the yellowed doors. It only took one coat, or about 10 minutes (!!), on one side. Total time saver. We let things dry for a good 5 hours before flipping the doors over to paint the other side so we didn’t risk nicks.

IMG_9358

I don’t have true before and afters because we just couldn’t bring ourselves to putting our pitted and scratched hardware back on, what looked like, our brand new doors.

IMG_9347

So, we ordered new knobs and we’re still waiting semi-patiently for them to get here.

IMG_9355

Clean white doors feel good with our without hardware. And you know? Painting doors is not a horrible job anymore. We’ll end on this picture for all of you that like playing “I spy.” Yes, the shelves are finally reloaded. Haha. And I think that is a Greta sock under the bench. And that mess in the mirror is just real life, you know. I did not intend for this to be a two part project post, but since I am shooting our house tour video for later this week, I needed to get this half of the project up. Can’t wait to get and share our hardware pick soon!

This post is in partnership with Wagner SprayTech. We were gifted the Flexio 890 (would be a great gift for anyone! wink wink), and every word is ours. Thank you for supporting the companies that support us! 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

What do you think?

  1. Hans says:

    How much did you thin the paint with the Flexio 890?

    Thanks

  2. Wow that looks great! My husband and I just bought a house and we tried borrowing my parents paint sprayer but theirs clogged up :( Now we’re in the market for a new one so I’ll have to check this one out!

  3. Megan says:

    Thanks for the tips! I have been wanting a sprayer for years…this may be the project that makes us finally pull the trigger. Yes, it is sooooo time consuming. The doors were painted in our heated garage, so I have no idea why they are acting wonky. We used all the same hinges and knobs. Frustrating!

  4. Megan says:

    I love when my projects coincide with others! Did you have any trouble rehanging them? We are in the midst of rolling our previous wood doors to black. Between the finish showing every roll and speck of dust – we may be going white (and my husband may be filing for divorce:-). And if the paint issues weren’t enough, they are not going back on quite right. Ugh. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

    • Julia says:

      Do you have a paint sprayer? It would go so much faster! And interesting about the doors not going back on quite right. Did you update your hinges? Do they match the old shape exactly. Or, if the doors were hanging out in the garage, they might need a day to acclimate back to your homes’ temperature.

  5. Katherine says:

    Which of the 2 wagner sprayers would you recommend purchasing? We aren’t the avid DIYers that you all are, but have a need for a sprayer to help in painting some furniture.

  6. Heather says:

    Is that a peep hole on the nursery door?

  7. Meagan Briggs says:

    So fresh!

  8. katecooks says:

    My boyfriend and I are moving into a fixer-upper and EVERYTHING in this two-story home will need painting — walls, doors, ceilings, you name it :)

    As the whole place will be empty (we are replacing floors/baseboards, etc.), would a paint sprayer work everywhere? Or are there benefits to brushing? I want this place to look fabulous, so if extra hours doing everything by hand are needed, bring it on.

    • Julia says:

      Brushing and rolling are faster ONLY if you have a fully furnished house. We sprayed my last studio for this exact reason. The carpet was going and the room was empty. Spraying is definitely faster if you don’t have to worry about floors and furnishings. Tape off the windows and enjoy the fastest paint job of your life.

  9. April says:

    This is probably covered in pasts posts or ya know..google or somewhere, but can you use a sprayer for walls as well? I have so much painting to do. SO MUCH. At 22 weeks pregnant those paint rollers or hours of brushing isn’t exactly calling my name!

    • Julia says:

      Oh my gosh, YES! We actually sprayed my studio in our last house. We were tearing up the carpet anyway so didn’t have to protect it. Just taped off the window and went to town. So fast. It’s my favorite.

  10. Anya says:

    Good call on ditching the shiny brass doorknobs! Did you consider any other colors before choosing black hardware? A brushed gold similar to the mirror and hooks in the entryway would’ve have looked really nice.

    • Julia says:

      We considered it all! I suppose that’s for another post, but the hardware isn’t just for this little nook. It’s for every door in the house. I’m excited to share our favorites and what we decided on.

  11. Deanna says:

    I notice you painted the doors in the garage. I have some doors I’d like to paint but was thinking the garage might be too cold for painting now that Michigan winter has started. But Utah must be similar temperatures. Is painting in a cold space not an issue for drying/curing? Thanks!

    • Julia says:

      We put a little space heater in the garage for this project, but if you don’t have one of those, putting some Floetrol paint additive (we picked up some at Ace for our crib painting project last year since it was so cold!) is designed to help paint cure in cold temperatures.

  12. B says:

    Oops, forgot to ask: could you have used the other sprayer for this job? Why brush paint Greta’s instead of spray? I’m such a paint novice – so many questions!

    • Julia says:

      Good question! When we were painting the doors in Greta’s room and the guest room, our friends were painting their cabinets and we let them borrow our 590 sprayer. Or we would have!

  13. B says:

    What a difference! It’s such a basic change that freshened and (almost) completed the whole area. Inspiring me to get moving and touch up my walls like I’ve been meaning to for months.

    PS I didn’t comment on the sponsored post debate from a few weeks ago, but have to say, this is what sponsored blog content should look like! As you say in the disclaimer, it’s a partnership – you and the company worked together to complete this ordinary home project. Keep ’em like this please :)

    • Julia says:

      Thank you! This is the direction we are headed with sponsorships. Working with companies that naturally fit into our projects and give us complete freedom over how we use products. It feels like us.

all the latest

We believe we should all love where we live.

We’re a couple of homebodies, working to uncover the home our home wants to be. And we’re so happy to have you here. 

HI! We're Chris + Julia

read more

Load More

Reader Faves

SHop all

What We're                     Right Now

What We're                 Right Now

Looking for our favorite things? A place to shop our home room by room, or just catch up on what Julia's wearing / loving right now? Browse the CLJ shop. 

Loving

looking for inspiration? 

A reader recently asked me if I’m starting to fully embrace traditional style and whether we still consider our house to be a “modern Colonial” and why. It was a really great question and so timely — I had really just been thinking about my approach to this home and how my style has changed […]

Can We Send You Our Love Letter?

Another way for us to stay in touch! Joining our weekly newsletter gives you access to exclusive content, never-before-seen photos, your questions answered, and our favorite DIYs. Sign up below!

Follow Along on Instagram

Welcome to our online community where we've posted home, DIY, style, renovations, and family since '09. Renovating our #cljmoderncottage in Idaho and headed for new adventures in Raleigh, NC. #cljfam #cljtransformations

@chrislovesjulia