How to Paint a Wood Entry Door

Find out how to put a new layer of paint on a wood entry door. If the existing paint is smooth (not cracking or peeling), you can sand it down to take the sheen off before applying primer and top…

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LESLIE: Alright. Kay is on the line now and she needs some help painting a door.

Kay, tell us about your project.

KAY: Yeah. And I listen to you every week you’re on.

TOM: Well, thank you so much.

LESLIE: Oh, thanks, Kay.

KAY: I wanted to take my wood door – it’s a very old wood door. And we lived here since ’69 and I’m trying to keep it original. It’s red now.

TOM: OK.

KAY: My husband painted it only one coat and I think it was blue.

TOM: OK.

KAY: It needs another coat to make it real red but I want to paint it white.

TOM: Well, I mean the color is a personal preference so to paint this door, the best thing to do is to take it off of the hinges and lay it flat on a couple of sawhorses. And then you want to sand the old surface. You want to make sure you get rid of any flaking paint, any cracked paint, because you can’t put good paint over bad paint. You’ve got to get all that stuff off.

KAY: It’s not cracking or anything. It’s smooth as can be.

TOM: Alright. So then he must have done a great job when he painted it last time.

KAY: He did. He sanded it down to the wood. It was all, you know, original wood, so it’s really smooth. That’s why I wasn’t sure and I don’t know if I can get the paint off like if you – and I didn’t want to scrape it.

TOM: Well, I don’t think you have to take all the old paint off. If it’s adhering well, then you’re good to go on it. So sand it down and then I would recommend that you put a coat of primer on. Because this will make sure that the new paint adheres as well as the old paint did.

Primer is kind of the glue that makes the paint stick. So, put the primer on.

KAY: Will KILZ work? Because I’ve got a gallon of KILZ.

TOM: It’ll work fine, yep. You put the KILZ on, let it dry and then you could put your top coat on that.

KAY: To sand it, what do I have to do? Knock the sheen off?

TOM: Yeah, knock the sheen off. Exactly right. You don’t have to sand it down to the raw wood but you have to get that sheen off. So a medium grit, like 100-grit sandpaper, would work really well, OK?

KAY: OK.