The Painted Door and a Wreath

At the beginning of the summer I painted my front door. I mentioned it briefly in this post as one of the projects I didn't take a before photo of. I guess technically I didn't really take an after either because the photo below was really taken for showing off the wreath (focus on the door in the picture below).

The door use to be white. . .just like so many other doors you see. Using this post from Chris at Just a Girl as my jumping off point (yes, I have had this post bookmarked since originally posted in July 2009) for information on the type of paint and technique to use I finally got around to doing it. I chose to go with Mountain Ridge from Benjmin Moore as the color since I thought it went well with the brick on the exterior of our house and it popped a little more than black. When it finally came time to put up or shut up I also used this post from Freckles Chick for a little added information.

Now, I want to know if after reading their posts you feel like you could paint any door and do a bang up job. That is exactly how I felt. I had very little apprehension going into the whole thing. Is that how it happened for me though? Oh no. First, I couldn't remove the ugly builder brass exterior hardware so I could paint the door without it. Know what that also meant? I couldn't paint the hardware. I was so excited to paint over that ugly brass but no, the stupid thing wouldn't come off. I used all my muscles, the drill, and PE's muscles--the damn thing still wouldn't come off all because of one (ONE!!!) screw.

Second, when PE tried to loosen the screw it tweaked the hardware which buggered up the paint a little. (Completely my fault because I had already painted one coat.) Then I had to fix that which wasn't too traumatic since I felt like the whole door needed fixing anyway. During the course of my painting the first coat I had to call Jabba for a little direction and a pep talk. Then during the second coat I had to call her again and bribe her to come over and fix it with a third coat. The main problem for me is that I have painted the total of two small rooms. Jabba, on the other hand, has probably painted more rooms than I could count using all my fingers and toes plus PE's fingers and toes. She has mad painting skills. She had the door painted and looking fabulous in under 30 minutes. . .it took me over one hour to paint the first coat. **Pathetic!**

Now I have a fabulous not white door with ugly brass hardware. While I wish I had been able to paint the hardware, it doesn't look too bad.

Now I am talking about the wreath (focus on the wreath now. . . I posted a close up so it would be easier). I started with one of these green foam wreaths from Dollar Tree.

I then wrapped it with some jute that KLB's mom had left over from her days of macrame (should give you a little clue to how old it is). That was as far as it went for months. I wrapped two wreaths with jute three months ago and they had been sitting in a tote with various other crafty crap until a couple weeks ago.

Armed with this post, my jute covered wreath forms, and the only fabric I own (muslin from another project), I set to work. I don't own any of the tools necessary for cutting fabric in a straight line (for me it would require more than just scissors) so I just ripped it into strips. I then followed the directions in the post and made the rosettes. It does take a little practice but it comes together. I found it easier when I made a triple knot because then the center was easier to wrap the fabric around. I also didn't glue until the end. I just put the glue in spots where the fabric looked like it was going to unravel or not lay how I wanted it to.

I believe the photo above encompasses all that is SCP as it is a pretty craptastic photo. Even marred by the craptasticness of the photo you can still see which rosettes were my first attempts (the back ones). I hot glued the rosettes on the wreath and used a strip of fabric to hang it from the door hanger. I also made a wreath for KLB since I felt it was the least I could do considering she let me use the jute. In true Sparky fashion, I did not take a photo of that wreath. Oh well. I will try to do better with future projects (of which there are many).