Birds on a tree branch

This project was one of my first few bigger projects done almost 8-9 years ago in my daughter’s room. It was cool for her as a pre teenager and still works as an adult’s room.
This project was to update and freshen the look of the heavy sliding closet doors. And of course to not have it look like the ‘before’ in the new room. Here's what it looked like before:

And.... Ta Da!! The After

The color on the walls in the room is ‘cool pool’ by Valspar. This room gets a lot of natural light through a large window and so the brightness of the color is not overwhelming. I had a bit of internal debate in choosing the color for the closet doors…my choices ranging from white to a contrasting yellow to purple. I finally settled on a color two shades lighter called ‘lazy days’ taken from the same palette as the wall color. I chose a satin finish but a semi-gloss would be good too.

The sliding doors are heavy but probably with a hollow core and around 40 years old…the finish on it looked as old too. I began with a thorough sanding and cleaning with a tacky cloth….. I cannot stress enough the importance of sanding in any repainting project. Not only does sanding give a clean raw state to begin work on but also ensures that the paint or technique used will adhere well, allow a cleaner painting job, and last longer without peeling or chipping. So spend a little extra time sanding and prepping your surfaces before beginning a painting project. An alternative would be to use an appropriate primer before the painting project. This is an acceptable shortcut but remember that you are adding on more layers on top of the existing ones.

Now onto the fun stuff…

I painted the doors with the chosen color using a foam roller brush. I did take the doors off the hinges and laid them flat on a work bench to make painting all the edges easier. The doors seemed to soak up the paint just as quickly as I could put it on. It took me four coats to get an even paint finish. I should have primed. I let the doors dry a good 48 hours before I hung them back in the room. I did the decorative painting of the birds on the tree branch free hand but there are many stencils available that can be used too. I referenced google images for ideas and patterns. To ensure I liked the way the birds on the branch looked, I drew the entire picture in a faint outline with a pencil and these lines were easy to erase after. I used acrylic paint for this decorative painting part. I love working with acrylic paint…it goes on smooth, mistakes are easy enough to fix, and a wide variety of colors are available.

I think the changes are dramatic, are a big payoff to the room for a little effort, and most importantly my daughter loves it. What do you think? Please write to me your comments and share any similar projects you have done.