Even in the midst of one project, my psycho brain is already thinking about the next one. I was elbow deep in painting my interior front door black (you can read about it here. Fascinating stuff. Really.), when I realized the outside of the door was in desperate need of attention too! And like a jealous sibling, she started whining until I spiffed up her side as well.

We started with this:

Beautiful double doors hidden behind large storm doors. We ripped those out before moving in (who cares about insulation when it’s ugly?!), and were left with this:

An astronaut popped in while I was taking the picture. Don’t you hate when that happens?!? You can’t tell much by my awesome photography, but the door was a flat paint that had lost all it’s mojo. It had a chalky finish that looked like it needed to be washed. And the dated kick plates weren’t helping matters much. (I’m forced to use these random shots because I forgot to take ‘Before’ photos again!! bad blogger!)

After taking the brass plates off, and a few coats of a brighter red exterior paint in semi-gloss, we were left with this:

MUCH better! But you’re still looking at this, aren’t you??

I could have spray painted that brass back to the 80’s (like I did here), but I didn’t like the shape of the fixture. So after Mr. Sugarplum finally replaced it, I freshened up the trim and added a couple of ferns, we had this:

A little Windex helped matters too.

I don’t know why one fern looks like Sarah, Plain and Tall…and the other like Danny DeVito…but it annoys me. Oh well, it’ll be dead soon enough. So now, both sides of my door are happy, and I’m on to the next project! Have you made any simple changes to increase your curb appeal? We like quick, cheap upgrades around here, so do share!