{reDesigner} Nancy Kay: Are You Ready FAUX a Garage and Front Door Makeover!

I'm so excited to share with you the transformation of our front door and garage doors! We decided to keep the front door for now, but we needed new garage doors, no doubt, it was time to replace them! I don't want to have to replace the garage doors again, for a long time!!! The original garage doors were made of wood. The bottom section had begun to warp due to water! The house was built in 1999. We bought the house in 2007! Everyone in the neighborhood was replacing their garage doors. It was just plain TIME to replace them!

With that said, I'm not gonna lie! I really did want to replace the old garage doors with new stained from the factory wood carriage doors! I just love that look! I would pick out the color of the stain and they would be installed and done! It was the look that I wanted and would match the plans we had for the rest of the house exterior, too! I could see it in my mind! Do you do that too? You can see the finished look in your mind and then, you just have to figure out how to get there!?!

So we headed to Home Depot - we started there because of a sale! I was so excited that they had them! The door I saw in my mind, the look that I had envisioned! OH NO! They were way over budget! NOPE - this is typical for me! I have very expensive taste - but just don't want to spend the money unless its absolutely necessary, but usually drawn to the expensive beautiful stuff! Thankfully, my husband knows me so well, and has talked me through so many of these situations! He's so patient, he listens to me and walks through what "could be" and how it "could work out"! THIS TIME THOUGH... I was really disappointed. How will I ever get that wood door look if I can't get the real wood door!?! I DID NOT WANT WHITE GARAGE DOORS! PLUS, what will I do with the front door! UGH! *DEEP SIGH*!

Well, my honey kept talking and walking me through the process! He reminded me of what I had mentioned to him before we decided to replace the old garage doors, the FAUX option! I was going to FAUX the front door anyway to match the garage doors! That's right! Honestly, I had considered trying to do this to my old garage doors at one time. I had even purchased a video from Jennifer Allwood, on exactly how to do this exact thing! So we did the responsible thing and opted for the Beautiful Clopay Coachman Collection insulated metal doors, which were nearly half the cost. We decided that we would get the carriage door style with the heavy decorative hardware. They were perfect, the look that I wanted with a high R-Value AND wood grain embossed metal. This would make it easier to do since I would have to do the faux wood look myself! That was the compromise. The one thing that we overlooked when ordering is the recommendation on the video to order the garage doors in a color that was close to the faux color that we would use. This is so that when the door is opening or closing, the color between the sections isn't so obvious, but that's ok! It doesn't bother me. The door isn't opening or closing for that long!

So, when we had our house painted in the Spring, we had the painter apply the base coat on the front door and garage doors. That's right folks - Sherwin William's SMOKEY TOPAZ. I wonder if our neighbors thought we were a little bold for choosing that color for our front and garage doors! My kids actually said they liked it! SIDE NOTE: Only regret is that we didn't have the painter put a primer on the doors prior to the Smokey Topaz base coat. I think it's ok now, but this would have made it a little easier on some touch-ups we had to do to the base coat.

We followed Jen's video and did the dark walnut stain with a satin topcoat! It was a three day process and we had to make sure that we were staining in the right temps, not too cold and not too hot! We did wait for the stain to set up for a few weeks, because of rain, before putting the top coat on!

I did the front door first! It was a smaller area; this allowed me to get used to the process and materials first. I needed to learn how to do this stuff! Plus, the front door didn't have the wood embossed metal. So I created a line across the top and bottom of the door right where a board would be. This created the illusion of a board on each end. I also created the illusion of the grain running horizontally on the "boards" across the top and bottom and vertically on the sides, just like a door constructed of wood! I think it turned out pretty well! I was ready to get a new front door, but I'm going to keep this one for a while!

I have to say, all in all, I LOVE how the doors look!!! That vision in my mind - It came together and was right there before my eyes on MY HOUSE! YES!!! (Confession: I knew if it didn't work out - I could just repaint them!)

Now we just need to do the shutters and the corbels! Always a project waiting! :)

Here are a few of the "before" and "after" pics along with some video!!! Enjoy! Please leave comments and share! Stop by again!

The Single Door with the base coat! Hardware still on here!Love to hear what you think! Please leave Please leave comments and share! Thanks for visiting!