Paint An Exterior Metal Door
Did you know you can paint an exterior metal door? Yes! And it’s easy. I painted our front storm door a few years ago and it has held up really well, no chipping or peeling. So I decided to paint the metal storm door in our carport and I’m sharing the paint details, plus……. how it looks two years later.
The metal storm door for our carport entryway door was a mess. There are dings and dents in the metal at the bottom. I thought painting it would help camouflage the dents. Also painting the wood door and the storm door the same color should make the entryway look better, right. There isn’t anything I can do about the electric meter, cable lines, and other mess on the brick wall. Or at least I haven’t thought of a good way to hide those things yet.
Okay, getting back to painting the exterior door. The color I selected is Havana Coffee. The paint is Behr Premium Plus Ultra Exterior paint and primer in one. Even though the paint contains the primer I decided to double up and bought some Kilz primer for the job.
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First order of business was to tape off around the glass panes/inserts with painters tape and lay down a drop cloth. I tend to be a messy painter. Since I wanted to paint both the interior door and the exterior metal door I decided to tackle both doors at the same time.
I asked that the primer be tinted and they told me it couldn’t be tinted the same color as the paint. I’m not sure why? Maybe they would have to add too much color for the mix?? Anyway this is the color of the tinted Kilz Primer. Not a pretty shade or even close to the Havana Coffee color I selected.
The Havana Coffee is a very deep, rich, brown. Really pretty.
The major issue I had with the paint job was allowing the doors to dry enough that the paint wouldn’t stick when the doors were closed making the fresh paint peel off. The exterior metal door wasn’t a problem but the wood interior door wanted to stick to the weather stripping. I never found a good solution for the problem but I did read about one later. Wiping the paint with Vaseline where the door meets the frame sounds like a good idea to me. I’ll try that tip next time I paint a door.
The paint looks great and the ding in the door is still noticeable but it isn’t glaring. With both doors painted the same color your eye doesn’t go immediately to the dented door. This photo was taken two years ago when I finished up the project. You can see this project on the Behr paint website. It is part of the Behr Designer Series.
I took this photo a few weeks ago. As you can see the paint has held up really well. The only area where the paint chipped just a bit is the door handle. I guess that makes sense since we use the handle everyday, numerous times a day. We use the carport entrance as our main entryway as do all of our friends and family. We hardly ever use our front door.
See how nice the paint looks?? I painted the vinyl wrap around the wood casing along with the weather stripping too. No chipping or peeling. You can see my front door and metal storm door project here…Painting a Metal Storm Door.
Have you tried painting a metal storm door or exterior metal door? If you have I would love to hear about it. If not have I gave you the information you need to give it a try? Leave a comment please and I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. Kathy
Sandra Bollendorf says
Looks really great! I like the color you chose.
Jo Anne says
Pretty! Good job. You picked the right color!
Dee Bell says
Looking good! Thank you.
Sue says
You picked a great color. I see it matches your light too
Fonda says
I think the reason that they couldn’t tint your primer the same color as the paint is that the base is different. When you choose a color to paint with, the paint person gets the paint base required to make that particular color. I would guess that there are different bases, but I don’t know how many. So, the primer would not be of the same base and, therefore, could not create the same color as the paint. I think this is how oops! paint happens. The clerk chooses the wrong base for the paint to be created. Once the paint has been mixed and the paint can has been opened, everyone sees the mistake, and the clerk has to find the correct base and mix the paint anew.
karen Coakley says
I PAINTED MY FRONT DOOR, IT WAS A WHITE METAL DOOR, NOW IT IS A BRIGHT YELLOW! mY HOUSE IS RED BRICK WITH A RED METAL ROOF. LOVE IT. I ALSO PAINTED MY CLOSET FOLDING DOORS TO RESEMBLE A BARN DOOR. LOOKS PRETTY GOOD EVEN IF I SAY SO MYSELF.
Lynda says
The door looks great but more importantly, I LOVE your Elephant! 🙂
Naomi S. says
The doors look great, Kathy! And the brown is perfect with the brick.
I have been contemplating painting my exterior doors, too. They are a country blue which I feel is pretty out of date. The house is a light grey and white and I can’t decide what color to use. I always favor blues and greens but according to feng shui tradition which I have studied the most “auspicious” color for a front door is red. Uck! I am not a fan of red. Dare I go against the ancient protocol? Or could I find a shade of red that I wouldn’t mind?? I’ve been dithering over this question for a while now and my doors really need help. Do you ever arrange things or use colors according to the feng shui methods?
Thank for this post; I think it will be helpful to me once I make up my mind about color.
Valerie Baker says
Your doors look fantastic and beautiful color! I used home made chalk paint to paint my wooden, front doors and then used the same chalk paint to paint the metal storm doors, finishing both with Annie Sloan wax. Except for some wear at the handle (of the storm door), they have held up well. I think it’s been two years, if not three. I was surprised on the storm doors, as I didn’t know what to expect with chalk paint on metal.
Kathy Owen says
Wow that’s great. Chalk paint is amazing! Thank you for commenting on the color. I like deep rich colors.