Aug 25, 2010

I see a blue door and I want it painted black…

Black Shutters Blue Door

Ok, sorry to make you suffer through my bad Rolling Stones imitation.  We painted our door and shutters blue in July.  I was never a fan of the blue shutters.  All the paint experts claimed you can’t paint plastic shutters a darker color so we felt like we had no other choice.

Blue Shuuters & Door 

Well our neighbors had nothing to say except it was an interesting color choice.  Our real estate agent said black would be better.  I went back to the web and searched for fellow black shutter painters.  I read some forums and a few people had success, so I told my husband we would be repainting them.  The stinky part of all this is the cost of the shutter pins.  They are one time use and cost $40 for all our shutters.

Now that the shutters our black I am unsure about the blue door.  I hesitate to paint our front door black because half our neighbors have black doors.  I love blue but have a hard time executing it. 

I have some exciting stuff I’ve been working on.  I am having a hard time balancing homeschooling, job hunting, selling a house, and just life in general.  I hope to share my projects this weekend. 

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

Oh dear god. That blue is hideous. Really, really bad. The black is WAY better. And really, I don't see why you can't paint the shutters a darker color. That doesn't seem to make sense. Stupid experts. :-P

The shutter pin thing sucks - I know. My husband is obsessed with painting our faded maroon shutters (they're more pink than maroon these days) but can't bring himself to cough up the shutter pin cash (we have a LOT of shutters). Maybe next spring.

Have you considered a red door? Not a bright candy apple red, but a deep red. I think that would look nice with the black shutters. Or perhaps a dark blue?

Jennifer said...

So I was telling my scientist husband about the shutter thing, and he explained why you can't go darker with a light shutter. The manufacturers use vinyl formulated for the color the shutters will be. If you have a lighter shutter and try to paint it darker, the heat generated by the darker color will warp the vinyl formulated for a lighter color. That's why you can go dark to light, but not light to dark.

Probably you've already discovered this info for yourself, but if not, there ya go.

Janet said...

Jennifer, that's exactly what we were told too. I searched all over the internet for someone who went light to dark and had no issues. I finally found a site after we painted the blue. We have had 90 degree weather since we painted them black and so far so good.