Messed up door copying influencers

Well done you for trying something new!

I doubt you’ve ruined it.
Perhaps a second coat will help as someone suggested.

Leave it for a time when your DCs are playing in the garden and you are in a better mood to try it again.

OP - you are amazing for doing this. You’re not sitting on your arse watching Netflix and you’re showing your kids that real life is messy hard work sometimes.

I would love watching a video that you made on social media showing the real side of DIY and debunking the “we transformed a room in 24 hours” gubbins.

Leave it for a week and then go back to it - using the great advice on this thread - bit by bit over time.

And have a glass of wine this evening. You deserve it!

Don’t worry paint is very easy to refinish. Worse case scenario sand it back and go again, I wouldn’t use Sandtex it has texture in it if I recall correctly? I’d buy a Little Greene paint exterior eggshell (that has a primer in it), this will give you a nice finish.

You have my exhausting DIY sympathies OP 💐

I’d ignore it for the next week and try again when you have time/energy. If it makes you feel better I did a shit job painting and varnishing our front door in the flat we used to live in. Worst of all the varnish I used was the wrong kind, and so strong smelling someone called the fire brigade (!!!) because they were worried there was some kind of solvent leak in the building. Cue 5 firefighters tracking the smell to my front door and me having to explain my terrible paint job to them. They were lovely and very understanding, but I was mortified!

I left it for a month and then sanded down and started again, with less potent varnish. The end result was passable as ok.

i think you’re brilliant for trying!
it’s fixable. Don’t put yourself down. Your children saw mummy doing grown up stuff and will be very impressed. Keep going! X

Don’t be so hard on yourself! I’ve done several of our front doors over the years and whilst it’s not easy, it’s not that hard and whilst it does take a lot of prep it’s perfectly within most people’s abilities!
The first coat always looks terrible! Have a break but Don’t give up!
Another thing id say is that you are looking at it closely and people won’t do that when it’s finished. If you go around looking at most people’s paint work closely you will notice it’s not perfect at all. When I started DIYing I noticed that even people who paid a lot of money for decorating didn’t end up with a perfect finish. And it’s fine because it will never be looked at as closely as when you are painting it!
A hand painted finish it very in at the moment- people pay extra for hand painted kitchens now rather than factory spray painted ones which have a more flawless finish. So your brush lines are charming and would cost extra!
No one would watch diy content if they were there doing it in real time, of course they cut out the boring bits.
As for the kids - some of my favourite memories were passing my dad things and “helping” while he did diy. it’s good for their confidence to see you do things. Especially taking action to improve your home.
good luck!

It'll come straight off with paint remover. My brother used to paint figurines. If he messed up he'd just dunk them in a cup of paint stripper and it came straight off. You can get stuff specifically designed for this. It'll take ages to weather off.

Honestly dont stress. Sandtex paint is fine.

For DIY, Youtube is your friend.... just look up door painting for the method to use.
Leave the paint to harden for a couple of days, then sand down with the finest cheap sandpaper (120 grit or suchlike), just to create a rough surface for a topcoat.
Use a fine sponge small roller and follow Youtube instructions about which panels to paint first.
Do it on a cool, calm day (no wind) with no interruptions as speed is crucial. You cant leave halfway.
And remember prep is everything! You've got this!

For the paint splatters, just get a cheap stiff wire brush from B&M and scrub at the spotting with w/up liquid.
I've been known to sponge on brown shoe scuff coat onto brickwork after wire brushing it. 😂

Sandtex exterior satin sounds perfect.

Stir it really well before the next coat. Also sand the door very lightly by hand first and wipe the dust away. More thin coats are better than a minimal number of thick gloopy ones. Use mainly vertical strokes.

Expect it to take longer than you think to dry, and like nail varnish it's not 100% dried out when it's touch dry to keep opening the door so it doesn't stick.

It doesn't matter what it looks like right now. Don't think about it until you've got the second coat of Sandtex up.

Quick caveat - are both the paints water based? If so you're fine. If you have put water based paint over oil based that may need a bit more thought. A big clue is usually whether the tin says to wash brushes in water or in specialist brush cleaner.

Silicon sealing too, that’s a skill. I can do it to an acceptable standard, but not like our bathroom fitter did. I’m going to get him back in to renew what I’ve done.

Everyone else thinks it’s fine, but every time I look at it, I think it’s shit.

DIY (including painting) is often a nightmare.

I always remember installing my first flush electrical socket from an instruction book (pre-internet). It said simply 'chop out a recess in the brickwork for the backbox'. It did not say you would have to hit the chisel harder than you've ever hit anything in your life, the brick would fracture unpredictably, and in weak mortar could dislodge whole instead of breaking. In my old house, I hit an engineering brick randomly placed in the stretch. Impossible to break. I bought an expensive socket-sinker drill kit. Because of the age of the house, it blew a huge area of plaster off the wall, the pilot bit wandered and the kit was too shallow for the plaster thickness. I gave up and sold it. I now spend hours with a 6mm bit and a scutch.

I tried to tighten a dripping radiator joint the other day. 'Just nip it up' they say. It was so stiff the copper pipe started buckling and the nut didn't move. Rad valves don't have any flats you can steady them with. The TRV housing split with age and came off. I will have to drain down and replace the whole valve.

Recently I filled a gap with professional non-shrink filler. It shrank.

It sounds like you tried to rush it, if you put another coat you need to paint much slower and take your time, it won't splash everywhere for a start.

As above, first coats look dreadful and worst when wet. Just breathe and give yourself more time, you haven't done anything wrong. You need a bit of touch up and clean up.

Painting a room white can be a bastard depending on the colour you are painting over.

It’s okay, these things happen. And remember… it’s only a door! You tried to do it yourself, it didn’t go to plan, so just leave it at that. When you can afford to, get a professional in to fix it. I’ve made many a mistake like this and now I don’t even bother - I’d rather just save and get somebody in to do it properly to save me the time and stress. The last thing for me was I tried to paint a room white…. Just plain white… and I couldn’t even do that, somehow it was worse than before I started. I hope that makes you feel a bit better!! Had to pay through the roof to get a painter in as it was the week before Xmas!! Draw a line under it, live with it until a professional can fix it, and don’t attempt similar tasks in the future.

I really like watching painters and decorators on social media - however I’ve come to the realisation these people do it everyday as their job, so there is no way I’m going to start painting a room and get the same finish as them. Also, many of these creators showing you how to do things are using products they’ve been paid to use so it’s usually an ad. Many of them don’t always disclose this.

Full kudos for having a go OP, you'll get there and I bet it will look fab when it's finished.
When h painted our front door it took undercoat and 4 layers of paint over 5 days drying time.
The prep alone took 2 days prior tp painting.
The previous owner who didn't have a clue, he had taken a bare wood door and varnished it with a weakened solution of varnish so the result was patchy. Then painted it with something resembling fence stain brown.🙄As paint doesn't sit on varnish without a lot of prep and sanding, the 'fence paint' had leeched into the weaker areas of the 'varnished' wood. Then if that wouldn't have looked shit enough [ugly shit brown], they painted in AGAIN with another coat of the fence paint. This obviously didn't work either but by then they gave up with a horrible brown patchy door, even 'painted' the wall letter box with the weak varnish. It looked as if it had been dipped in a slurry pit.😆
This is what we saw when we first view the property and the estate agent joked "You might want to repaint the front door". I must admit I wondered about any other diy the previous owner had done. It was....interesting to say the least and involved 3 large skips - for a bungalow😄
It is now a beautiful shade of satin Oxford Blue with satin white frame. I love arriving home and it looks a million miles from the first viewing [and with a new wall post box]🙂

Don’t feel bad. You wouldn’t expect to be able to draw like Da Vinci because you bought a pencil, or run a marathon because you bought new trainers. This is one of the big deceptions of social media, it makes us believe if we buy the tool we’ll be able to do the thing immediately , but it isn’t really the case. Doors are tricky! Give it another sand when you have a spare hour , and another coat of paint. It may take a few coats. But today just leave it and chalk it up to experience. At least you gave it a go, and invested in the tools which you still have so weren’t a waste of money.

I know how you feel OP. I'm in a similar situation with a neglected house but no time and money. I did paint my front door with Frenchic paint as it said it didn't need priming etc. I gave it a light sanding with sandpaper, a wash down with sugar soap and then gave it two coats of paint. It surprisingly didn't look too bad.

As I am useless at DIY, I tend to rely on ChatGPT and Goblin Tools for help. With ChatGPT, I ask it to explain it to me as if I was 5, and it covers all the steps. If you tell it you want to do it as cheap as possible, it will amend according to your budget. With Goblin Tools, you put in what task you want to do, and it breaks it down for you in as much detail as you need.

Sandex is a good quality paint. I guess you have water based paint, rather than the old fashioned oil? Water is what is available now. I've used their oil based, took 6 days to dry but I think that must have been an off-tin! But it's a good, durable finish and still looks ok now, 7 years on.

Water based paints are better than they used to be but they are tricky to get a nice, clean finish without brush marks. Synthetic brushes and wetting the paintbrush first can help, but the issue is you're using a paint that dries really fast and outdoors so hard to go over any mistakes, drips etc.

If you can face it I would sand all that down again (it will not sand off easily, as water based gives a kind of rubber texture) and start again. There's an additive that can be used on water based paints that slows down drying time, giving you more wiggle room for a good finish. If the door is mainly flat, a roller may be a good option too. Alternatively, get an oil based paint but paint first thing in the morning, 2 mornings running because will take all day to dry enough to close the door!

Cover the brick work around the door with masking tape to catch splashes and something to cover the floor. An old towel, flattened box - all good.

You dont have to beat yourself this much. Yes, you misjudged a lot but take it as a learning curve.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Everyone underestimates how long it takes to do DIY the first few times.

Painting an exterior door is a 3-4 day project. A professional would quote at least £500.

So a least an hour to mask off and to protect surrounding areas with covers.

At least an hour to sand and clean the door. More like two.

At least an hour to prime paint.

Then leave to dry for 5- 6 hours.

At least an hour for first coat.

Then leave to dry for 5- 6 hours
Lightly sand back again.

At least an hour for second coat.

Then leave to dry for 5- 6 hours
Lightly sand back again.

At least an hour for third coat.

And if a dark colour, four coats will be needed.

So it's physically impossible to do it in a day!

As it is the back door I’d leave it for now - get prepped for the week ahead (including some rest) and try again on another weekend.

I think you were really brave to try to do it yourself - you should be proud of yourself.

Also all those tools you bought can later be listed on EBay or
Facebook marketplace when you decide you don’t want to use them anymore.

I only did outside but I keep meaning to do inside!

I followed the Frenchic advice and bought the paint from them. If you’re on Facebook there’s loads of info on there from other people who’ve done their own doors. The paint is a dream, it’s chalky and goes on smoothly and looks as good today as a year ago. I sugar soaped, sanded, rinsed, painted, painted, painted. Just used a smallish brush but you can use a roller. It took a weekend off and on in good weather and I listened to a lot of podcasts. I started with masking tape on the glass but ended up taking it off as the paint is pretty easy to manage.

I’ve got horrible uPVC windows on the front which I’d love to paint but it’s going to be a humongous faff and I can’t really face it yet but I’ve got some of the door paint left so I might do the fuse box.

Good luck with yours!

From my experiences of DIY preparation iis what gives you what you are looking for as well as quality brushes,rollers and paint.This as you say is your first attempt and you will learn as you go on.Influencers cut down the time it has taken to complete the project so you just need to plan when you have even a couple of spare hours here and there and build up your project.Sounds like youve tried to do it all too quickly.Juggle it around children,housework etc then at least your keeping on top of your routine.Dont be disheartened you have done brilliantly giving it a go.

It took me about ten days to repaint my front door in the end.

Decided to strip all the paint rather than just sand it a bit and crack on. My god it took forever. Litres of paint stripper. A heat gun. Had to get a proper mask. Never ending.

And all the furniture off and on and making sure it didn't rain.

Anyway it was worth it in the end and now it's hot pink.

But as a not-naturally-DIY type person I can fully sympathise with your plight. Ni need to be so hard on yourself, just do you best and move on.