Messed up door copying influencers

[Anonymousfds]

Please be kind I’m really feeling low right now. I’m trying to make my home look better as I feel really depressed that the house had been neglected. I followed the instructions given by this lady on tik tok who has transformed her home. She’s in her 60’s and a novice not professional. She made everything look so easy and I thought I can do it rather than pay someone hundreds.

I spent £55 on a sander which she recommended any electrical cordless one which I got, sanding pads £12, primer £27, door paint £35. Plus painters and rollers. Already I’ve spent more than was quoted to paint door. The door looks awful. Even though I put masking tape around it the paint has splattered onto the brick wall around it. I put sheets down but there’s paint over the patio. The paintwork looks awful. I really feel fed up. Spent a good amount of time yesterday sanding, priming etc. I don’t want to waste today as well. I have young kids so they’ve been neglected whilst I do this. I feel I’ve had no downtime this weekend and back to a bloody stressful and demanding job tomorrow. House is a mess as I didn’t do my usual cleaning on Saturday. I’m so fed up I feel like crying and did last night!

plus youngest has a class party today service parents are expected to supervise at. Why did I even bother trying to make my house look better? I’m a useless loser who can’t even paint a door

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.

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]🙂

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 😂

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

Oh bless you. At least you tried which is more than I would have done!

Neat dettol is great for removing paint off bricks, glass etc. Don't beat yourself up, getting a good finish on a door is much more difficult than a wall.

Advice for next time...

Have the right tools.

Buy good quality primer and paint.

Preparation is key - wash with sugar soap solution, rinse off, sand, fill any holes/cracks, light sand, wipe down (to clean off dust etc).

Use masking tape to keep paint off unwanted areas. Put down something substantial to cover surrounding area eg cardboard, or a cheap shower curtain works really well.

Now you can start painting!

Prime.

Leave to completely dry (check drying time on tin).

Light sand, wipe down.

Paint first coat, leave to completely dry.

Light sand, wipe down.

Paint second coat, leave to completely dry.

If a third coat is needed, repeat light sanding/wiping.

Good luck!

Edit to add: Zinsser 123 is THE best primer. Expensive but so worth it.

Highly recommend builders wipes to remove the paint you have splattered. It happens.

These from Amazon are so good that when I did my kitchen I didn’t even bother trying to be neat, I just got it done and wiped the excess off afterwards.

https://amzn.eu/d/022dWFki

Agree with other posters who say you probably need to give it at least one more coat, if not too. Everything is salvageable just not today when you’re feeling pissed off and deflated by it - that’s a recipe for rushing and making it worse.

We employed a guy who said he was a trained painter to paint our kitchen cabinets, he had painted the fence so thought ok.... was so bad! looked terrible. We now have new ones. So it cant be that easy to get right.

Someone said to me once that they were painting their new internal doors to save money and reckoned they’d do as good a job as a professional painter and decorator. In their words “how hard can it be”.

The doors didn’t come out well.

Why did I even bother trying to make my house look better? I’m a useless loser who can’t even paint a door

Would you speak to someone you love in this way?

As someone who DIYs a lot, I made some unreal messes in the beginning. Now I know more I can make better judgement calls and sometimes things look awful during the process. Sounds like you didn’t have a good paint. Good for you for giving it a go and don’t let it put you off trying again.