Everyone loves a good before and after — especially when it was all done with paint! You have to come see the before picture. I’ll show you how I painted our french doors black and how I stenciled the floor using a large-scale stencil.

I painted the door and stenciled the floor for about $100.

Here’s a before and after:

I’m so excited to walk in the front door of this new entryway. It has been a dramatic change with only paint and a few touches. I’ll show you what it looked like when we moved in a year ago.

I love the structure of this house, I just couldn’t get past the baby poop brown color. Every time I pulled up to the house I imagined painting it white. And then one day I just started!

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1.Paint the walls.

Marcello helped me start painting, but my father-in-law really did most of the work. He worked tirelessly. I don’t know where he gets his energy, but I’m grateful!

White walls made SO much difference. It looked like a new house! I painted it the same color as the trim to save time and money. There was already about four gallons of it in the garage.

I changed out the light fixture for this more modern one that’s only about $100. I didn’t want a lantern or anything too rustic, so this one was perfect and very affordable.

We also changed out the very outdated door handle for a smart code keypad. It was so rusted and loose, I’m pretty sure someone could have kicked it off. We actually updated all the door handles in the house to these black ones. I was surprised how much it updated the house.

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2. Paint the front doors.

This part took some trial and error. Before I confuse you, here are the correct instructions:

• Clean and wipe down doors.
• Roll on black enamel paint on larger surfaces.
• Paint where you can with a Wooster brush.
• Skip taping and paint mutins (panels) with an artist’s brush!

Not bad, right? The artist’s brush worked as well here as it did that time I painted my kitchen cabinets without taking the doors off!

I wish I would have tried that in the first place, because I sure did make a mess. I thought I might have had a DIY fail on my hands, but I was able to save it. I did it around the door handles and everything.

How NOT to paint French doors

I thought I could save time by sliding paper behind the mutins and paint light enough to slip them out. But I did not in fact paint light enough and they did not simply slide out. They did this:

And left paper stuck to the door. AND the paint started to peel because it wasn’t dry yet! AHHHH! Some of you laughed along me and my struggles on Instagram stories :)

The artist’s brush fixed my streaks and took a lot less time than blue taping everything — which also would probably make the paint peel. And this paint did stick to the plastic mutins.

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3. Stencil concrete floor.

This is a case of oneprojectleadstoanotheritis. I was so pleased with the white walls and front door that I wanted to stencil the floor.

It was kind of a plan of mine, but when I saw the mess we made painting the walls with no drop cloths, it was also kind of necessary. Ha!

I have stenciled before. I did the boys’ bathroom with navy and white in our last house and it was tedious and difficult. Worth it, but difficult. I also stenciled Clara’s room in ballet pink and it was beautiful.

My point is, I wanted the easy way out this time and chose a large-scale stencil. I chose the largest one available for bigger impact and less work!

This is the Athena Tile Stencil. I bought the 21-inch size.

It’s not perfect, yet I’m very pleased with it. It adds character and interest that the space was lacking.

Stenciling floors isn’t as hard as walls. It’s pretty intuitive.

How to stencil a concrete floor

• Get a clean surface.
• Place the stencil parallel to the wall.
• Dab floor and porch paint on from above with a sponge. Not side to side.
• Gently pull up the stencil.
• Wipe off the stencil and allow it to dry a minute.
• Repeat the pattern.
• Touch up with a sponge brush.

I don’t like it when stencils don’t go all the way to the wall or edge. I fold then stencil up like this and maneuver it around so the pattern is complete.

In addition to using a large-scale stencil, I also tried a sponge for the first time. I bought a pack of six of these for a dollar at the Dollar Tree. Why did I waste so much time using a sponge brush on my last projects! This was a great time saver.

I used a sponge brush to touch up where the stencil didn’t line up perfectly.

I’ve got to be honest, I can look up the color I used, but I basically picked a random cream as I stood in line. I knew it wouldn’t matter too much as it would be trafficked and muddied. And on top of this steel blue/gray color anything would work.

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4. Adding in details.

Finally I added in some details — wreaths, pillows, welcome mat and plants.

You can see how I did this board and batten wall in our entry by myself with no power tools for $100 here.

We planted bougainvillea in front of all the columns in hopes that they will climb the walls. It’s pretty hardy and aggressive, so hopefully it takes!

These gray buffalo pillow covers are two for $13. I even bought a pair in beige too to put in Clara’s room! Great price. I already have a dozen pillows I’m not into anymore, so I used them as inserts. Sometimes you can even find sale pillows for less than inserts.

Leave me a comment, let me know what you think and what you’re working on. It absolutely makes my day to hear from you!

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Shop the post

Light
Stencil – 22″
Pillows covers
Plant hanger ($7 for 2!)
Bench – came with the house
Wreaths – TJ Maxx
Welcome mat – TJ Maxx

This site contains ads and affiliate links. 20 percent of proceeds earned from my blog are donated to charities for children and clean water.

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Come follow along on my Instagram for more pics and tips, and be sure to check out the House Mix Pinterest page, too!