An “Ugly” Front Door Transforms with the Most Charming Pastel Makeover

ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER

HOME TYPE: Townhouse

PROJECT TYPE: Outdoor Spaces

STYLE: Coastal, Colorful

SKILL LEVEL: DIY

RENTAL FRIENDLY: No

Essentially, Emily Bridges’ (@livingbesidetheseaside) entire two-bedroom renovated home in Brighton is a DIY project, but one of the projects she’s most proud of is painting the exterior herself.

“I paid about £120 in paint instead of well over £1000 for a decorator to do it,” Emily says. And the circumstances were pretty perfect because there was already scaffolding up outside her home, and she wouldn’t have to climb up a freestanding ladder to do it.

With the help of a friend on the first day and despite “a little teary moment during coat two on the back of the house when [she] was just so fed up,” Emily took the home from dreary (and dirty) to cheery.

Emily says the front door, especially, felt like the final piece of the puzzle. “It was so ugly before: stained, old UPVC,” she says.

She selected pastel-colored paints.

“I waited until all the building work was done as I knew it would just get trashed, and it still gives me joy every time I come home!” she continues. Emily selected a soft seafoam-meets-mint green (Dulux’s Bamboo Stem) for the exterior paint and a salmon pink (Dulux’s Sunset Kiss) for the door paint.

“I had budgeted for a new door, but they are SO expensive that spends elsewhere meant I couldn’t really justify it,” Emily writes on Instagram. “Replacing the handle fixed the part that was breaking, and paint did the rest!”

The entrance got a tile upgrade.

Emily was originally planning on keeping the tile from before. “The old plain red ones were boring but fine,” she writes on Instagram. But after a draining issue caused them to have to be ripped up, she took the opportunity to choose new tiles that add a little pattern.

To complete the redo, Emily added a dragonfly door knocker that she scored on Facebook Marketplace. For more front door fix-ups, check out this gorgeous gold one, this turquoise paint job, and this bold red one.  

Inspired? Submit your own project here.

Further Reading

We Tested (and Rated!) Every Sofa at West Elm — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need

I Just Discovered the Smartest Way to Store Paper Towels in Your Kitchen (It’s a Game-Changer!)

See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room