Painted my awful UPVC front door - before / after pictures

[missfliss]

New front door was going to be £1k ish.

Saw all the Frenchic paint forums and decided 'what the hell' we are mid loft conversion and so no more cash to Chuck around.

Cost: sugar soap, sandpaper, masking tape, paint £19

It looks pretty good ! Certainly much better.

Took 3 coats of Frenchic al fresco paint in 'after midnight'.

Sharing if it helps

You can get them sprayed professionally for £150...I'm going to get mine done ..I think that looks a bit home done sorry 😬

@oohnicevase go for it !

Wow, that's amazing! I bet you panicked after the first coat though!

Would you paint the cat flap on the inside side? The BEAM of white from the cat flap distracts on the inside. But then, I do not live inside your house!!!

@sawollya yes I know what you mean re cat flap. Problem is that their is a microchip mechanism on that side that I didn't want to put paint on. It was honestly such a ballache getting there damn thing put in that o didn't want to risk it :-)

Thank you missfliss. I can crack on now & your door looks great by the way

My friend did her front door similar colour to yours and it looks absolutely fab. Well done

I liked it after the first coat, looked like it had been painted by Van Gogh 😁

Wow! That's amazing. I wish I wasn't so shit at painting. Everything I do is a mess!

Looks great OP!! Love the colour

It looks fabulous! Great result.

I need to touch up some white on some metal
window frames where someone stuck between curtains to them and when I removed the sticky residue the paint came off too...

Will look if this stuff would work for that.

Good job OP, it looks great! Really suits the doors pillars/architrave as well

This is on my diy to do list atm! I've read good things about the Rustoleum all surface paint, but will have a look at the frenchic as well. Looks good!

Has anyone used Frenchic paint on their kitchen cupboard doors?

Never heard of this brand of paint, we did BIN123 primer (I think it was that, the one people recommend for UPC doors anyway) and then you can put any normal door paint over.

It gives you a wider colour selection, it wasnt all that much of an extra step and the end result was great- I'd say we got a slightly better finish than the one in the OP pics, though it has started to flake in one or two places two years later. However we had major construction work in the house with builders hauling all sorts through the door so it had a tough go. We also did the windows as we couldn't afford to replace them, and used tile paint on the bathroom which was going to be replaced (and has been) but I was amazed how good it looked.

I'd seen all of this on Pinterest, the only reason we went for it in the end was because we knew it would take us a few years to save to replace things and figured even if the finish wasn't great it was temporary.

The tile paint blew me away, though the smell was the worst thing I've ever experienced and as such we did one coat less than we probably needed. But the finish was great.

I think with all of these things, if you're planning on saving for a new door / bathroom etc but it will take a few years it s absolutely worth giving it a go. If you're viewing it as a permanent alternative to replacing things that are driving you mad, you might be more likely to be disappointed.

@missfliss If you did want to paint the catflap I'd think it would be fine, I've done mine with no problem

This is absolutely fantastic- you must be really chuffed!

It looks fab. It gave me an idea what to do with our PVC windows. After changing our doors last year to beautiful grey, white windows do not look that good next to it. Unfortunately, all paint is sold out at present (except, bright red).

That looks great. I have a tin of paint sitting here ready to do our horrible upvc brown windows until we can replace them with wooden sashes. Different brand of paint though, I got Zinsser exterior colour matched to F&B French grey

Looks great. We did our metal skinned door with Valparaiso and it looks lovely. Very bright colour inside and out. Totally transforming.

Your door surround is absolutely stunning, whoever took out the original wooden door and replaced it with plastic should be locked up, great job on the paint work

@lellochip you will be happy to hear I am painting the cat flap :-)

It looks great!

Do you plan on eventually replacing the door?

I've been wanting to paint my plastic door since we moved in last summer but DP has been insisting that it's the next thing we'll do... for a year now! I wish I'd just painted it when I first wanted to, then at least I could see if I liked the colour against the rest of the house, etc...

Thanks for sharing. I'd love to do this with our door but I'm so worried about messing it up!

I also looked into getting a new door and the cost was absolutely extortionate.

@SparrowInTheHedge no plans to replace to be honest. A locksmith friend of mine is going to change the locks / handles and door furniture so hopefully we can live with this for quite a few years to come and sand down repaint as necessary

Fantastic! What a new lease of life for your door, and so much cheaper! Really love the colour too.