DIY: Painted House Numbers and Doormat

Recently I did a mini makeover of the back entrance to our home.  This entrance is used by almost everyone because our driveway brings you to the back of the house.   I can’t believe we’ve been here ten years and I never thought to make this area  feel welcoming!

Here’s the before:

I started by painting the door the same red as our front door – Rustoleum Regal Red oil-based paint.

 Then I purchased this  natural fiber doormat for $12 from Home Depot.

I decided to try a ticking stripe pattern using paint.    I masked out a series of thin and wide stripes .

 Then I spray painted the mat using Rustoleum Heritage Red (I had this on hand and figured it wasn’t too different from the Regal Red on the door).

2 tips:

1)  Brush off the loose fibers  as much as you can before you tape.

2)Work  quickly with the spray paint as the tape doesn’t adhere for long to the fiber mat.

Next, I decided to dress up the door a bit more by painting on our house number.  Normally, I would do a wreath but there is no overhang on this entry and it gets full sun all day so anything faux would fade and break down fairly quickly.  Painting seemed like a good option.

I found a great tutorial at Jonesdesigncompany.com and downloaded the template for the numbers.  I enlarged it by 30 percent because with just a 2 digit house number I wanted to go a bit larger – about 4 inch tall numbers.

Following the tutorial, I rubbed chalk over the outline of each number.

Then I positioned it on the door, and, pressing hard with a pencil, outlined the numbers.

This left a nice chalk outline on the door for painting.

My oldest daughter wanted to try her ever so steady hand at painting the numbers.  We used the finest brush I had and some black satin oil-based paint that was in the basement (exterior latex paint would also work fine).

It was a quick and easy project and practically zero cost.  Of course, you can also do this by purchasing vinyl letters but in my situation, with the door exposed to the elements, I think the paint will hold up better over time.

The final touches were an urn filled with some hens and chicks which can stand up to the heat.  I think a larger urn with a variety of succulents spilling out and over would look nicer but this is what I had to work with.  I also added a set of black shutters to frame the window (the same type as what’s on the front of our house.)

Both the painted doormat and house numbers were easy and inexpensive projects and instant gratification.

Hope you are inspired!

Debra