Painting Garage Doors

Today I am going to share with you an easy and affordable way to refresh your garage doors and improve the curb appeal of your home. I am sure you have already guessed from the title, but a super easy way to update the look of your home is by painting garage doors! This simple thing can completely change the look of your home and make your faded garage doors look like brand new again!

Our garage doors were looking mighty ragged. They were still in superb condition as far as the garage doors themselves were concerned, however the paint had faded to a yucky brown. To give you a little background, when we bought this house, it had a brown roof, gutters and shutters with tan siding. I am sure it looked good originally but over the years the finish on the gutters, garage doors and shutters had oxidized to a not so great color. I was just over the brown color on the house and wanted it gone.

So when we got a hail storm that came through last summer and we found out we would be getting a new roof and gutters courtesy of our insurance company, I was overjoyed! This was our chance to change up the color of the house. Luckily we had a neutral enough siding color that goes with pretty much anything however we were stuck with the Terratone window color. Whatever we picked had to look good with both the roof and window color. I decided on a gray color for the roof, shutters and garage doors. As you can see, the brown doors did not go great with the gray roof!  Our neighbors probably thought we were crazy! Ha!

We did a little research and decided to paint our garage doors to help them fit into the color of the new roof. I figured this would be a pretty easy job but wanted to make sure we were doing it correctly. It was a weekend project for us but you could get it done in one day depending on how early you start and how big your garage doors are.

Here are some helpful tips that we have for you after painting our garage doors:

1. Pick out the correct paint for your garage door

Our garage doors are aluminum with the factory paint so we wanted to make sure we got the right kind of paint. We initially thought we would have to primer the doors first since they were a dark brown color, but after talking to some ‘paint experts’ at Menards, they told us we could use a primer and paint in one. We went with Dutch Boy MAXBOND exterior paint. They told us that as long as we did not have chipping paint on the doors this paint would work great.

Another reason we picked this paint is that it could be color matched. After going through many paint samples and finding the perfect shade to go with our shingles and the Terratone window color, I really wanted to be able to color match it. The other exterior paint options had some very limited colors which would not have looked as good.

The paint/primer went on very smoothly and dried quickly. It gave us good coverage even after the first coat. All in all we were very happy with this paint. We will see how it wears after time. 🙂

2. Gather your supplies

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Here are the supplies you will need for this project. Most of you probably have these already on hand so that will help to keep the costs down.

• Paint (see paragraph above)
• Drop cloths – Plastic or canvas
• Paintbrush
• Roller
• Paint tray
• Painters tape
• Scrub brush

3. Pick the correct day and time

Make sure to look ahead at the forecast for the day you are going to paint. You do not want it to be too hot or too cold or raining! You want it just right…like Goldilocks. 😉 Do not paint in direct sunlight as it will make the garage door too hot. This will make your paint dry faster and could leave you with streaks or unwanted brush strokes. Our garage doors face west so they are in the shade until mid afternoon. This let us work on the doors in the morning and early afternoon without having to worry about the sun.

4. Wash your garage doors

You will be surprised how dirty your garage doors are! Make sure to wash them first or your paint will not adhere to the doors. We just used some hot soapy water in a bucket and used this scrub brush. It has a detachable pole so it is nice to use for hard to reach places or floors. For this job, I detached the pole and was able to scrub the doors down really well. Make sure to clean the seams in between the garage door panels where they raise up. The seams are easier to clean with a rag instead of the brush.

5. Tape off trim and handles

We were keeping the garage door trim the same color as the windows so we taped off the trim with painter’s tape. Normally we like to remove all hardware when painting but we were unable to take off the handles from the garage door so we had to tape them off as well.

6. Use a combination of a brush and a roller

The best way we found to actually paint the garage doors was with a roller. Our garage doors have a lot of texture on them already so we knew a roller would give a good enough finish. If your garage doors are smoother, you could always spray them if you are worried about the roller giving it a texture.

We have used this same lambswool roller for years!  It is the best! We have not found any surface that it does not do a great job on. There is a little work involved in the clean up but it is worth it. We have a great tip for cleaning your roller that I will be sharing soon. It makes your roller like brand new again.

When you are using a roller, it is hard to get into the insets in the panels. That is where the paint brush comes in. We like these paintbrushes and use them for all of our projects. Mr. Wonderful and I worked on this together to make the job go faster but you could also do it on your own.

He would paint the edges of the insets of the panels first with the paint brush then I followed with the roller. It was also easier for him to paint around the handles and trim with the paintbrush vs me with the roller. Make sure you don’t leave any runs or globs of paint. Also to save your back, start by painting the bottom panel with the garage door raised to your height level. Then just lower the door as you work. You may need a stool to paint the top panel if you are short like me!

7. Painting in between panels

When painting the seams, we first painted the front of the panels in a section then raised/lowered the garage door until the seam was opened enough for us to paint it. This was a job best done with the paintbrush.

After we were done painting the first coat on the door on each section, we left the seam to dry a little so the paint on each panel would not stick together. When we were done with the whole door, we left it partially open so these seams could fully dry.

8. Paint two coats

Even though we got good coverage with the first coat, we still needed another coat. Regardless, we always do 2 coats of paint otherwise inevitably there are spots that you will notice later that you missed while painting that look too thin.

Here is what the first door looked like after the second coat of paint was dry. Big difference, right? It changes the whole look of the house!

The finish is spectacular and I love how the gray doors brighten up the house. Here is both doors done. Plus, the gray doors go a lot better with the roof, amirite? It is OK neighbors, we have a plan! 😉

Next up, I will tackle how we made some new board and batten craftsman style shutters and our updated porch. Then you can see some overall before and afters of the whole house. 🙂 Do your garage doors need a refresher too? Go for it!