Have you ever done something so incredibly stupid that you have to sit back and laugh or else you might just crawl into a corner and cry?
Last week I made the biggest Do-It-Yourself blunder of my life. It was so horrible and such a huge mess that I’m going to say it was epic. Epically horrendous. And I don’t use the word “epic” lightly.
I decided after painting my mantle black that it would be awesomespice if all the doors in my house were also black. I have a thing for black doors. Love them! I started by painting the back door black.
I loved it so much I tore through my house like a crazy lady painting every door in sight black. I was seriously digging this look. I know black doors can be quite polarizing, so if you hate them, I have good news for ya. Just read on.
I had just finished the 10th door (TENTH! Front AND back, so basically twenty sides) before I was awakened to my complete and utter stupidity. Are you dying to know how these pretty black doors could possibly be a bad thing?
The paint started peeling off.
And not just a little. It literally was peeling off in sheets.
At this point reality set in. I had just painted TEN doors. We are talking twenty sides of doors. Twenty sides that were now a peeling disaster.
What the? But why? How on earth could this happen? I have painted so many baseboards in this house with no issue. I have painted trim and sills and door moulding with no issue. Why now?
All I can figure is that the builder sprayed all the trim and baseboards with a latex paint but must have painted all the doors at the factory before installation using an oil-based paint.
Latex (water-based) paint will not stick to oil-based paint. Of course, I stupidly made the assumption that the doors were latex based on the fact that all the other trim in the house so far has been latex.
So, the question of the hour is, “How can you tell if your trim and doors are painted in oil-based or latex?”
I did a bunch of googling and the consensus for testing oil vs. latex is this:
Apply a small amount of denatured alcohol to a cotton ball. Rub the coton ball onto the painted surface. If the surface is latex, the paint will rub off onto the cotton ball. If it is oil-based, no paint will come off. Touch the area. If it feels tacky, the paint is latex and not oil-based. (Source)
So I started peeling. And peeling. And peeling some more. And then I ran into even more issues. Some of the paint didn’t want to peel off. It liked where it was and it wasn’t going to budge.
So now I’m sitting here with 10 doors that are half-peeled and half stuck with paint that won’t budge. I felt like I was staring at cow prints.
I have doors that are mainly white with specks and streaks of black that won’t budge. How on earth am I going to deal with this?
Some doors peeled much easier than others. I had two doors that were downright stubborn.
After a few choice words and lots of time pondering, I grabbed this Steel Safety Glass Scraper.
Worked great. I went through dozens of blades, but it scraped most of the paint off the door and got the job done much better than my finger nail was.
This door was exceptionally difficult. I got as much paint off as would allow, and then just left the rest.
I told Ben that these doors look like they belong in a house where someone was murdered. So creepy looking. Yikes.
Once the doors were scraped and prepped it was time to paint them again, this time the right way.
Fortunately I am a member of the True Value DIY Blog Squad and am extremely grateful to True Value Hardware for providing all the materials needed to fix these doors. They seriously saved my rear over this fiasco.
I headed over to my local True Value Hardware and picked up my supplies.
After browsing and searching for just what I needed, I grabbed a can of primer and a can of paint, as well as a few other things.
Here’s what I ended up getting for this massive door project:
A can of Kilz oil-based primer, a can of True Value brand latex paint in Semi-Gloss color matched to Sherwin Williams color “Alabaster” (the same white as the rest of my trim), a few small plastic paint trays, a few cheap paint brushes, a foam roller and a few extra rollers, and a wire brush (I ended up not using the brush).
If you want to paint latex over oil-based paint you have to prime your surface first with oil-based primer. I made sure the back of the Kilz primer specifically said I can paint over this primer with latex paint.
I bought all of the brushes and containers because painting with anything oil-based is gross. The stuff smells awful, sticks to your skin, and requires mineral spirits to clean it up. I don’t do oil-based clean-up. Not going to happen. I buy cheap supplies and toss it all in the trash when I’m done with it.
The only oil-based paint I like or will willingly use comes in an aerosol can.
Because working with oil-based primer is so yucky I put plastic down everywhere just to be extra safe.
I worked on the 10 doors for 3 solid days (minus a few breaks for lunch, snacks, and unwinding to Parks and Recreation on netflix.)
Once all the paint was scraped off, I primed each door twice. I used the cheap brush to prime the indents in each door and the little foam roller to prime all the flat surfaces of the door.
After the primer sat for at least 30 minutes (per the instructions on the can) I used my good angled Purdy brush and a 4″ foam roller to paint the latex paint. I generally did two coats of the latex as well.
I ended up going back to white again even though I really enjoyed the black doors. I guess after more than a week of dealing with peeling paint, stinky primer, and flecks of black paint that are stuck to my tile, I’m kinda over it.
Also, I’m probably not going to end up giving each door in this house a fresh coat of paint, so if I went back to white I could leave the rest of the doors in the house alone. If I painted these doors all black again I’d be signing myself up for priming and painting every single door in this house; all 25 of them. No thanks.
If I had painted only one door I would have rolled my eyes and laughed at myself. Cleaning up 10 doors was like running a marathon. At times I didn’t think I’d be able to finish it.
But I did. In fact, I finished the last two doors this afternoon.
So, bottom line. If you are planning on painting any doors or trim, rub them with a cotton ball soaked in denatured alcohol. You’ll be glad you did your homework beforehand.
And here are a few side-by-side before and afters of the black to white doors.
So, tell me, do you like black doors?
Also, have you ever done a DIY project that turned out so epically awful? Please tell me I’m not the only DIY idiot out there!
*A special thanks to True Value Hardware for literally saving my rear. I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*
Welcome to House of Hepworths! This blog chronicles my journey from turning a cookie-cutter basic builder-grade house into our custom dream home. I do all the work myself so I can save a buck or two, and I share the process with you to hopefully inspire you to tackle projects in your home. I write about anything related to sprucing up our home, whether it be 
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I still really like the black doors. I think it gives a certain class to a home. I am too afraid to do black in my own home though. My house has mostly neutrals browns, greens, etc. Do you think chocolate brown doors would have the same effect???
I think if it was a dark enough chocolate brown it would look fabulous!
I do have chocolate brown doors (came with the house) and I love the way they look!
I love the black!! They have so much impact . I might have to snag your idea.
I have botched more things than I care to list. I have had cabinets peel, a school bus yellow bedroom wall, linoleum tile that shifted and caused a sticky mess, you name it and I have delt with it. The good part of that is I learned each time I doofed and now I can do those same things properly. They were all “learning experiences”.
Very true. I love DIY because I always learn something and make it better the next time.
I liked the black- but I get why you went white. I might have cried- and I don’t really cry. I’ve had some pretty good disasters, but wow I can’t beat this! lol I’m glad they look good now! Rachel
I really loved the black. I just don’t want to deal with 25 doors, so I went back to white. Maybe some day I’ll want to try again, but for now the thought of painting these doors again makes me cry!
Oh, yikes! What a mess! But you did a fantastic job fixing it all up!
I have to say, though, I LOVE the black doors! I have a general rule of thumb – anything that is going to get constant human contact that I’m going to paint gets primed. LOL For example, walls that don’t need primer to cover one of my color experiments don’t get primed. Doors do (I painted our downstairs family room doors black to pop on my red walls).
But when I painted our kitchen army green (gee, as I’m reading this, you must think I’m a color-lunatic, but it really does look awesome LOL), the paint I bought peeled off the walls in places! So, I’m a little familar with your disaster, but nothing on your scale!
Kristy @ Shona Skye Creations
http://shonaskye.blogspot.com
That is a good rule of thumb – one that I am probably adopting right now. I can honestly say though that I will never paint latex over oil ever again. I definitely learned my lesson the hard way.
Oh, Allison, that makes me want to cry FOR you!! This is totally something I would do. I’m so sorry you went through all of that, but thanks for giving us all the heads up on what to do before we get into a project like that ourselves. I am painting my front door soon and will be heeding your advice!
I just discovered your blog, and it’s great! We renovated our builder grade house *almost* to the point of being satisfied… and then we moved five weeks ago. So I’m in the trenches right now myself. This peeling doors post makes you a kindred spirit, I think! I am currently doing research on a paint by Benjamin Moore called ADVANCE that is supposedly an alkyd (oil) based paint that cleans up with soap and water. It’s supposed to level well and be durable. I want to refinish/paint my kitchen cabinets with it. But I digress…
Thanks for having such an interesting blog to keep me up WAY too late here in ATX!
I’m in ATX too!! Maybe we’ll bump into each other some time. How awesome would that be?!
I haven’t heard of the Advance paint. I will definitely look into it. Thanks for the heads up.
Jodi and Allison,
I just painted my daughters “trashe to treasured” craigslist find bed in the ADVANCE paint. I had gone into a Benjamin Moore carrier in RR and asked for a different paint that I had read about using on furniture. The sales guy suggested ADVANCE because of it will harden up like oil enamel and cleans up like latex. After painting her bed and desk, it does clean up well but it takes a very long time to “cure” and stop smelling. It’s been 2 weeks now and her desk has almost stopped stinking. I didn’t put polyurethane over the desktop and now there are homework marks it. After I get those cleaned off, I’m going to try a wax finish on it.
Wow, good to know. Thanks for the tips about Advance.
I just painted all my doors black!
We used Zinsser primer (oil based) first though. I use it on so many things! I actually use oil base paint for my kitchen cabinets too! I like it so much better than latex.
I am sorry you had this happen.
I would have freaked out. Like bad.
Your house is still beautiful.
Ash
Holy cajoles, that must have been a nightmare! I botch a lot of projects, but this one might have done me in, especially with the oil based paint. That stuff is horrid, if I have to use it I toss my supplies too. Good job powering through and sorry you didn’t get your black doors!
You poor thing, yep I’ve had my share of crappy results. But at least you know now. You could have left it a week and said it was Halloween decor.
I considered it, but my sister is having a big party at my house this weekend so I had to get the doors fixed asap. It was torture but I powered through.
Hello! I am new to your blog and to the blogging world. Wow! I completely feel for you. I think I would have had some colorful words and put myself in a time out. I would have been a complete mess! I can only imagine how exhausted physically and mentally you must be.
In any event, I love the black and the white versions. Applause to all your hard work.
You get a big “poor baby” on that one girl! No Fun
(( They look really pretty now. They better right?
We had hunter green trim on everything in this house when we bought it and nothing would stick to it. I finally had to spray prime it with a shellac based primer and then I could prime and paint it. The spray was enough to seal it. Otherwise, the green dragged into anything I tried to paint it with using a brush.
Oh man, that’s terrible!!! Um…so this has me wondering if the door I just painted black is going to stay that way. *yikes*!!!
I like the white best. I am impressed you fixed everything so quickly and your house is back to normal! And Parks and Rec is a great way to unwind.
omg I would have cried too, but they look so nice and fresh now, but I did like the black, that was a great look
YIKES. What a horrible experience – every DIYer’s worst nightmare! You really did a great job to get everything back to normal though, but I’m sorry that this all happened! I guess you have to chalk this up to a learning experience, right? It’s not a mistake you’ll make again.
I love the back door in black. I think I still prefer interior doors to be white though. I think I would’ve just sat on the couch crying if that happened to me, great job powering through and getting it all sorted out.
Sarah
I love black doors. It’s on the ever growing “to do ” list. We’ve DIY’ed three houses. So yes, we’ve had nightmares. In our house now we’ve got no less than five major projects going on… Painting the kitchen cabs right now and even though I used ‘fancy’ primer, I’ve got a few peelers. When we installed our countertops we cracked one… Our kitchen tile- hubs wanted to use premade thin set on 18″ tiles… So they started popping up in the centers. We’ve busted a bunch out, super fun. But left the others sk a few ‘pop’ when you walk on them. I hate the tile now so we just deal with it until we can get rid if it. But the biggie. We ripped out our shower stall on a whim. Knocked into the master closet to make a huge shower with bench. Beautiful slate. It’s three. Years. Going. We can’t find a shower door that isn’t brass that will fit- we need custom. Didn’t think of that. So weve been using a clear plastic shower curtain.We’ve had to regrout, recaulk about 10 times. Hubs convinced himself there was water behind the tile and was about to rip out the walls…
Candice, wow you have had some serious issues! I’m glad you are getting them all sorted out though.
OMG!! That’s horrifying! I think I would have a panic attack if that happened to me! Good job thinking on your feet and attacking the problem as fast as you did! Kudos for your hard work and turning it around like you did! I love your blog! Thank you for sharing your stories and projects!
~Cathy Mini~
Thank you Cathy!
What a nightmare. I have actually had this happen to me (with only one door). But I don’t think the root cause was the same. I think mine peeled b/c the paint was very old. Anyway, I just painted all the doors in my downstairs hallway black and I love them!
http://www.designocd.com/2011/08/paint-fiasco/
I am amazed that you had the energy to finish all of the doors! I would have sat in a sad puddle on the floor and left it for weeks, cussing every time I caught a glimpse of the peeling black paint.
In fact, I painted my foyer in the spring, and left the very top “cutting-in” section undone because I needed more paint. True to my nature as a master procrastinator, I waited weeks, maybe months to paint that final section on top. Because, you know, other (more fun) projects present themselves every day! When I finally forced myself to finish the job, I realized the second batch of paint was not exactly the same color. So now I cuss every time I look at the foyer and I’m getting close to biting the bullet and repainting the whole dang thing. So hooray to you for fixing your mistake completely! (and sharing the whole experience with us)
Oh I hate that! I recently had to get some touch up paint but my brand was discontinued so I had it color matched. It’s the same color but the sheen is slightly different and it makes me cringe. Ugh.
Oh. My. Goodness!!!! That is unbelievable. I kind of had the same thing happen on our porch railings- but I didn’t know that was the reason… I haven’t painted it again b/c it was so tedious and annoying- but now if I know to get that primer, maybe I will… the neighbors would probably like it!! I liked both looks- but I probably would have gone backto white too if I was in your shoes! Craziness!!!
OH MY GOODNESS!! I just can’t believe the fiasco you had. I am so sorry ! That is never what we have time for in life is it? Well you can now say that all your doors have a fresh coat of paint and they look great! All my doors need a paint update so thank you for the tip! I will say you persevered in this project! Hoping your next DIY goes super smooth!
My entire house got backed up for more than a week. Dishes piled on the counters. Baskets and baskets of overflowing dirty laundry. Dirt all over the floors. Whenever I tackle a big project it sets me back in my “housewife” areas for weeks.
Oh no, that was too bad! I liked the look of the black doors against the grey walls (not so much with the yellow walls, though). You could have left the paint left-overs, that would have been a great Halloween look! (Always trying to see the silver lining here *g*).
Great post – I think these stories really help those of us who are afraid of mistakes get over our fear. Also, I thought exactly the same thing about the Halloween decor – you could have slapped a set of creepy eyes on that one half-peeled door.
Oh girl…bless your heart! I’m impressed you were able to make this post sound so positive. I’m afraid you would have heard the whining in my voice if I had to write it. ha! Thanks for saving the rest of us.
Wow…I felt your pain reading your blog. That was a lot of work to paint then have to re-do the job, I would have been in tears. Thank you for sharing your experience, so those of us who would like to tackle a paint job will not make the same mistake. I did love the black doors, a very classy look. I painted our house and garden shed doors black and loved the look. BTW…love your emails…THANK YOU!
Oh man! You poor thing! I would be a nut case after that fiasco. You know cussing, throwing things, etc!! I have to say though, that the black doors were gorgeous! I learned a long time ago about the merits of a primer called “Gripper”. The names says it all. It’s a water base primer so no stinkiness. It’s put out by Glidden. Thanks for warning the rest of us!
OMGosh….I’m so sorry you had to go through that….I might have kicked the doors down if I had to go through what you did!
I like the darker door but not necessarily black….maybe a dark grey?
Oh my!! I would have been in the corner crying…
Plenty of botched crafty adventures and DIY catastrophies. So many that I can’t figure out which are the worst. I do love the black doors though.
FYI… Ben Moore ADVANCE paint is a dream!!! I’ve got oodles of dark stained wood trim & doors that I’m priming (with a nice bonding primer called Stix, so no sanding!) and covering with ADVANCE in classic White Dove . Husband detests brush strokes, so I figured I’d trust the Petersiks and give ADVANCE a try. (John & Sherry used it when they painted their kitchen cabs.) It’s A FABULOUS product!
I will give them a try for sure next time! I have never used Benjamin Moore paint but I’ve heard so many good things about it. Thanks for the heads up.
I LOVED the black doors! I can understand your reasoning for going back to white. What a disaster! I would have cried and cried. I think I have a few layers of oil-latex on some of the trim in my house. I have one section that will peel pretty nicely, but I haven’t really wanted to explore it further. Painting trim sucks.
I want to paint the interior or our exterior doors a kelly green. My husband thinks I am a nut job. I said, “I am an artist! If painting three doors kelly green will bring me a bit of happiness, don’t you think I should do it?!?!” He gave me his “you are a nut job” look and didn’t answer, so I guess that’s his blessing, no? My friend did this in her house, and it is just such a nice shot of color and fun.
That sounds beautiful. I hope you do it!
Bless your little heart. I would have cried, cussed and headed for the Patron!
You are simply a SAINT!
Had a similar experience when I painted the paneling in my basement. I primed with “sticks to anything” primer, painted two coats with a primer/ paint latex. Looked good. Then it started to peel in big latex sheets, like yours. Of course, there were the stubborn spots that had to be scraped off. I had to “unpaint” the whole basement before starting over. I do love the black doors, but don’t have the courage…
I love the white doors, just a nice clean crisp elegant look. Glad you got it all worked out. Had you painted them all read, would have been great to leave up til after Halloween, one of those doors looked like it belonged in a horror movie.
OMG…you are a trooper…I KNOW I would have curled up in the fetal position and cried!
I’d have probably left the peeling black paint til after Halloween and say I did it purposefully and that I’m uber-committed to my Halloween decor… then cackle…
then go in the bathroom and cry.
I definitely get scrapping the black after all of that though.
Wow! I probably would have bawled like a baby after all of that. haha
To be honest though, I like the white much better. Except for the back door, it looks great black. Maybe you could just do a few black touches here in and there if you still wanted to go that way.
I just seen that tip on HGTV the other day and was just thinking how simple and handy that tip was.
xoxo,
Melissa
Good for you for sticking it out and doing things the right way. Thanks for sharing your tips. I’ve pinned it in case I ever need this useful information. I certainly want to learn from your mistake rather than repeat it.
Thanks so much!
I do miss the back door being black. I may end up painting just that one door black again but leave all the rest white. I also painted my front door black but it wasn’t an epic fail. I’ll blog about it really soon. It looks so great black.
Oh. mylanta. Allison!! What a disaster — I can’t even imagine dealing with that! They looked amazing black, but are also beautiful white! So glad it’s all over for you, and thank you for sharing that tip to maybe save some of our tushies!
~ Mara
I hope my pain will be someone’s gain! That’s why I blog – so I can help others, with the good, the bad, and the epic fails.
Yikes! I have been wanting to paint my doors black for a while! I love the way they look! My front door is currently the only painted door in my house (the others are just plain brown wood), so I will definitely check to see if it’s painted in oil or latex. Thanks for sharing how to do it!
What is the color of the paint that is on the walls, that has a yellowish color to it?
The yellow paint in my foyer is called Honey Bear by Dutch Boy.
We just moved into a house – and the previous owners made this mistake. And we’re the ones paying for it. Every door in our house is peeling – even our front door. It’s awful. My question, how did you deal with the paint that was still on the doors that wouldn’t come off? Did the primer and paint cover it or can you see lines from where the old paint was still on there? Did you have to sand it off?
I peeled all that would come off then painted right over the rest. It covered it really well. You may want to sand the edges if you can see any. Or prime one coat, and if you see edges just sand those down. I lost patience and didn’t sand anything and it looks fine.
Oh, wow, what a pain in the rear! I really like black doors, but I think I would get tired of them if all the doors in my house were black. Black exterior doors are my fave so definitely paint your back door black again! Our front door and the door that leads into our house from the garage are both black and I love them!
Yikes! Live and learn, eh?
I have to say though-I love love love the black
Maybe you could just redo the back door?
That looked awesome with the glass door- a great picture frame for the outdoors.
Wow- I feel for you! I had that happen to me when I repainted my front door to my previous house, but the paint just misbehaved while I was painting instead of abandoning ship like yours did.
I love the black, but I totally understand why you might be a little sick of it and want to go back to white!
Oh, what an awful (awful) lot of work! I love the black doors. You could have left them all a peeling mess until after Halloween, they were pretty creepy looking! I love your posts. Thanks for sharing all you do!
Wow, what a mess! I think I would have grabbed my car keys, taken a right turn out of my driveway, and just kept going!! Good for you for pushing through.
I like to tackle a lot of DIY projects in my home, so I`ve gone through a few “oopsies” in my time. Back in the sponge painting craze, I sponge painted the walls in my rec room in the basement with a combination of very bright fuschia and very bright blue, so essentially I had alternating spotches of pink and blue all over my walls … it was a psychadellic mess!! Live and learn …
Yikes…what a disaster! I must say that I do like the look of the black…especially on the french door leading outside. Perhaps, after some time and when you finally clean all the paint from under your fingernails, you could paint that door black again. On the up side…all of your white doors are nice and clean and brand new looking!
This reminds me of the time I was installing trellis over the top of my fence and spent the weekend cutting over 24 posts 4 inches too short. I had to either cut all the trellis panels – too finicky – or start over. Why didn’t I double check my measurements? Then for several years I held on to the posts thinking I could turn them into raised beds or stairs or something, but it never happened…they were stacked in the garage as a constant reminder..
I feel your pain. The family we purchased our home from painted the entire house with latex primer over oil based paint used by the first owners. Luckily only the bathroom is peeling for now! I’ve been scraping the walls of their second latex color and am about to start sanding the first.
Oh man, that really is the worst. I can’t imagine dealing with that. I definitely have sympathy for you!
Oh Allison!! I was so not even laughing…I have had some disasters of my own..Girl I think I would have cried after this one thought….I remember one time putting a cabinet together and trying to be the hee-woman I think I am…I tried to move it and it fell over and busted into a million pieces…I can laugh now but I wasn’t then!! You’re house looks great once again
Oh man that’s terrible! I did that with a bookshelf once. It just totally feel and crumpled. I just kept on dragging it – straight to the garbage can.
Oh noooo!! I am totally feeling your pain after ALL THAT WORK. Halfway through reading this post I was thinking that maybe you could start a new trend – chippy (peelie) painted doors? Yes? I’d buy it.
Oh my… that is a ton of work. I’m so sorry you had to learn this way. I would have done the same as you and gone back to White. Thanks for passing on the lesson!
Oh wow. I would have cried like the little baby I am! Kudos to you. Wow. I appreciate the cotton ball tip. Honestly sometimes I forget Oil based paint exists.
That really does suck – painting doors is hard work we have just done all our interior doors black and I LOVE the look it gives with my newly painted grey walls!
I love them in black….But I understand………..Thanks for the information on testing paint. Dee
Oh my gosh! You are amazing for sticking it out and repainting them all. I do like the back door in black, but can see why you’re not into that anymore!
Thanks for the tip on testing paint, like you, I wouldn’t have done that first either!
{{hugs}} to you!! This would have happened to me if I decided to paint my doors–I just know it! The black is so beautiful and elegant. You should have at least kept the back door black.
WOWZERS! You have lots of patience! I like the black doors, but they def don’t go in my house! I’m currently working on a DIY art project that I’m starting on for the 3rd time…
OMG! I would have a complete melt down if this happened to me after painting 10 doors!! I really do like the black doors, I wish you would have found out sooner about the paint
Thanks for sharing your story, I’ve done plenty of things like this – we’re just human and DIY is about trial & error?!!!?
Oh no! And they looked so good black! I’m so sorry that happened, I would have just had a meltdown and cried!
That’s really weird, but you have fixed it amazingly. Bad experience always gives you a good
lesson at the end.
Nicely done, keep it up.
OMG! You get 10000 points for patience and recovery on that one. I must say, though, I love the black doors. So much so that I plan on painting my front door black. Thanks for a the wonderful and helpful tips.
OH, I laughed/cried with you as I read this! What a nightmare! I painted all of my hallway interior doors black over the summer, and I absolutely love them! All of the doors inside the bedrooms are still white, but that doesn’t really bother me. Thankfully no peeling problems. At least you got nice fresh doors!
I’m soooo sorry you had to go through this, but I’m sooo grateful, too! We just bought a house built in 1979, and the “condemned asylum” hallway in the basement is painted in a hideous maroon-brown color that I can’t just paint over because it is peeling like crazy
Every time I’m down there, I’m like “what is up with this crappy paint?” , but DUH, the original trim paint is probably oil-based. And now I know how to check. Thanks!
I love the black doors! I get it that you don’t want to go back and change them. I feel sorry you had to go through all the trouble so we know what to do if this happens to us. Thanks!
Oh Wow! So sorry about your disaster! That stinks! I personally like white doors better, but the black do look really nice!
I’m Sooooooo sorry!
Just my two cents: if you aren’t going to paint them all black again, at least paint the one glass door black again. It made your outdoors look like it was picture framed and was so much prettier and interesting. Of course, I’m not brave enough to paint my own door black that way, but that particular door looked great like that.
Not sure if someone mentioned this already, but if you have nail polish remover with acetone in it, that will do the trick for testing if it is latex or not – but it has to be acetone-based, otherwise it won’t work!
PS. The doors look great either way
I was repainting my doors to put the house on the market & discovered the paint was peeling off. I figured out what the problem was but my new boyfriend that thinks that he is a DIY expert & how could I know something disagreed. He finally saw, after a lot of “discussion” that I was right but of course I never heard the words. A very frustrating project. I still dread asking for his assistance even tho he is awesome at what he does – as long as it is HIS idea. He designs & builds for a living but I can’t get anything done at my house!!!
Oh Allison,
I am glad that even you really crafty ladies with blogs run into this sometimes…..makes me feel better in some way to keep on going with the DIY, even if just in little ways!
I read this with my mouth hanging open. So sorry for you. I like the doors both ways, actually, and can see why you went back to white. Good for you for powering through that. You are a DIY champ. Pretty much everything I do has some sort of fall-out. Most recently I took a leftover cabinet door from when we built our house (7 years ago, btw….procrastinate much????) and turned it into a tray for a centerpiece on the kitchen table. VERY FEW things in my house are really lovely wood that I paid full price for but my kitchen table is one of them. On this cabinet door to make it look like a tray (and function like one), I drilled in handles. Well, I didn’t think to sink the screws and when my husband dragged the tray across the table to wipe the table down…….oh yes, all 4 screws dug huge horrifying scratches in my all cherry table top. Way beyond the finished tabletop down to the raw wood. Needless to say the tray went in the garbage along with the 3 hours painting and constructing it
Oh Laura, that is awful! I feel for you. That is just a stinky story all around – your table is ruined and you had to toss out your new tray. Boo.
There is nothing new to say about ‘feeling so terrible for you’. The combination of comments is truly how I feel. BUT know this: YOU ARE MY HERO for encouragement to ‘keep on keeping on’.
Wishing you Blessings.
Lesa, aw, thank you! You are too kind.
Allison, I don’t have a blog yet, but saw a PIN of your disaster on Pinterest. I am now following you in my google reader in case you have any more problems I’ve already been through in the future. LOL!
The same thing happened to me a long time ago after moving into a new house. Luckily my Dad is a chemist who had paint chemistry experience and a friend who owned his own paint company. The solvent you need to remove semi-gloss latex paint off of semi-gloss oil base paint happens to be one of the ingredients in 409. (Which is why repeated use of 409 on flat latex paint to clean little finger smudge marks, will cause the paint to thin and eventually chip off). I sprayed 409 on the huge area, walked away out of disgust, came back later with the blue scrubber sponge you use in the kitchen and a table knife and it all came off with no problem. I only used the knife to get the paint out of the creases on the molding around the windows and doors. I had it all over the doors, the windows, the baseboards, everything. It’s a mistake I’ll never make again.
You did a great job cleaning those black doors up. They look great! Sorry I didn’t hear about your delima earlier or I would have let you know.
Oh I wish I knew this before! I will definitely remember this tip if I ever make such a bone headed move ever again. Thank you so much for sharing this tip with us!
Thank you for telling us about 409. We’ve used it to clean trim for a while now – so we won’t anymore! What do you use to clean smudges off of door frames?
I’m sorry if I’m repeating what anyone already said, but there are too many comments! Everyone has an opinion about black doors, I guess, but here’s one more: I painted my basement doors black and I LOVE them! (http://www.shoestringbean.com/2011_09_01_archive.html) However, I never imagined anything like this could happen! Fortunately, we built our house ourselves, and the doors we bought came primed and I painted them all myself originally, so they were done with latex. Anyway, I left all the doors on my main floor white. I think painting your back door black again is a good compromise. It looked fabulous and I am kinda into the look of the odd door (like when they paint the pantry door something else).
PS: DANG! Your house sure looked clean for all that painting! You’d have never noticed the doors for all the mess surrounding a week-long project at my house!
What an ordeal for you! I love a good primer, but sometimes I do want to skip it. After reading this, I’ll definitely be testing my surfaces and not skipping primer!
hi Allison, I just stumbled across your blog while researching curtain rods…I am SO doing the curtain rod/conduit pipe idea…what a good one ! am so sick of my sagging 8 foot very expensive curtain rod! just wanted to say your house is gorgeous, your dog is adorable and the doors look amazing in the white also !
xo Anna from NYC
Thanks Anna!
This happened to me!!! My husband used a pressure washer to get the paint off. (I had just pinned this and turned right around and made the same mistake!)
Oh no! I’m glad he was able to fix it.
Hi! I just wanted to tell you thank you for this post! It gave me the nerve to paint my doors black, and I love them!!! Its been a week and no peeling, so I’m praying to the DIY gods that I did it pretty darn good. Thanks so much! I enjoy getting your updates in my inbox!!
Whilst I feel for you and your misadventure, your account made me laugh out loud, such a great mix of humor amidst the teeth gnashing. Really enjoy all your posts, and you should be writing comedy too!
Hahaha awesome! Thank you. Maybe I will some day.
I am so sorry to tell you but I gasped through each picture, feeling sorry for you. Then I laughed… I wouldn’t have had the patience to deal with that. Thank you though for the warning…, with proof!
We recently sold my house (my mom and I) and we bought all new interior doors and just left them as they came from the store. We didn’t want to have to deal with painting them all.
I am moving into a new condo and will be googling as much as I can before I DIY anything!
Goodness what a mess! I actually have a similar issue and am wondering if you might have any suggestions. When we bought our historic home the paint looked fine. Then a few months after using the upstairs bathroom the top layer of paint started peeling do to the same reason your doors did. No one had lived in this house for 7 years and even then the lady who lived here before did not use the upstairs so I have no idea how long that paint has been up there. If it would come off in sheets that would solve my problem but instead it just bubbles up every time we take a shower. I vacuum the mess off and next shower it does it again. There is still quite a bit of the latex layer on top of the oil base layer. Do you think I could just seal it with the Kilz oil primer or do I need to take that whole layer off before painting? Don’t want to end up with an even bigger mess then what I have for sure!
Thanks for you help in this and thank you for your fantastic blog!
bee blessed
mary
I loved the black. Can you tell me why is it possible to paint over the oil based primer? Possibly because it is a primer and it wouldn’t matter which you cover with? I have used the latex primers but not the oil based. So glad I found your site. Many great tips and your home is beautious!
Aren’t ‘lessons’ awesome?! As is the detail, honesty, excellent photos and everything else about your post, Allison. We all learn from each other, and I for one – appreciate the time it took you to share your lengthy project.
Black is so stunning.
Your creativity makes your house lovely!
Danielle
ok I totally laughed so hard I cried! Only b/c this is totally something I would do!
Wow I totally felt your pain! This actually happened to me also but on a much smaller scale. On an outside porch swing I first painted white with good ole durable oil based paint. We moved and now had a covered porch and I decided to change the color of the swing to black. Since the porch was covered and like you, I hate oil based paint, so I used latex. It immediately started peeling. I worked on it for one day and then told my husband that it was NOT worth my time to fix this mistake. I gave the swing to a friend’s dad who is retired and had all the time in the world to work on it. I bought a new swing a started fresh. It took my friends dad over a year to complete that big mess.
One day, while my daughter and I were gone, my stepsister and husband repainted my bathroom. Not immediately, but shortly afterwards, the paint started to scrape off. My sister told me that they used the wrong paint. She was doing a major paint job in the house and gave us great paint info and even had a sheet saying the “combinations” if we wanted to repaint. Even several 5 years later I want to repaint it the same color, a pinky-peach. When I looked at your doors I laughed and laughed but could totally relate. I’m glad you didn’t have to pay for your mistakes. Just your humor, never mind all the great advice, should give you free paint.
I just had a painting project not go so well too. I was trying for soft light yellow walls. Debated over the right color for a week. Painted and its way too YELLOW. I was going for soft, breezy sun-kissed beach cottage but its just too primary. We went this end of the color spectrum because the other yellows seemed to orange/peach in some lights but this is just too yellow. So anyway, I noticed the yellow in your hallway is very much what I’m aiming for. Any idea the brand and color of that yellow?
This exact thing happened to me when I painted our entryway ledges. The paint peeled in huge strips. Now I know why! Thank you! I have been planning to paint our doors and very dark brown, now I am definitely going to test them first!
I LOVE the black doors!
You asked about DIY disasters and I have one: when we were trying to sell our first house, I tried to paint the avacado green tile in the master bath shower. I used tile paint (rustoleum kit), but it was a disaster and I had to use the razor blade to scrape it all off. I’m ready to try painting tile again, but I have done A LOT more projects since that disaster.
What a disaster! But I’d bet you saved at least a couple people from making a similar mistake. I’m sure that makes you feel better, right?
You have a zillion comments on this post but I HAD to leave one and say I feel your pain! Not truly what I’m sure doing ALL those doors was, but last summer I painted my kitchen table. I had prepped it like I did everything else I painted but it wasn’t enough since tables have so much laquer on them. So the paint just peeled right off. I spent the next three days knee deep in chemical stripper and paint goop and sanding. It was horrible! So sorry to hear about the black painting disaster, even though they looked so good in black. Way to power through!
This is happening in my bathroom…..as I type….its ridiculous. There are about 4 different paint colors in that bathroom and now im trying to finish peeling and scraping off all 4 levels of color! Atleast with the doors you didn’t have alot of corners, obstacles, etc. Working around the tub/shower, toilet, door, cabinets, mirror, light fixture above the mirror, and light switch is making me CrAzY!!!!!!
We just did the same thing with our kitchen cabinets. We took down some ugly wall paper and painted the kitchen and wine color (something I have always wanted). We decided to paint the cabinets because they were due for a facelift. My kitchen cabinet contents were spread between my den and dining room. We have two young children and we are both paramedics with crazy schedules, so as you can imagine this took a while. We not only painted the cabinet doors, drawers and cabinet faces, but also the inside of each cabinet and drawers. After countless hours and meals to go as well as two little ones who wanted their mommy and daddy time, we were done. We were so excited. We got the door hinges on and began to hang the cabinet doors. I could not wait to see the kitchen finally come together! Then it happened…..one scrape of the fingernail and the paint began to peel. We realized immediately what happened. All we could do is stare in disbelief! I immediately went to google. At that moment we realized that a little bit of rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball could have saved us so much heartache. So now we are scraping, scraping and scraping. It is a hard lesson learned, but from now on I will keep rubbing alcohol and cotton balls in with my paint supplies until I know there is nothing left in my house with an oil base. At least the walls were not oil based too. They still look beautiful. Hopefully the cabinets will too when they are done.
Oh, my, goodness. I’m just now taking a break from scraping peeling doors and stumbled on your site from Pinterest. I moved into a house where the last owners painted over all the oil based trim, windows, doors, and cabinets with latex paint. It ALL peels. Crown molding and baseboards are the worst. Fortunately, we’re doing a large renovation within the next year or so and have decided not to waste any more time on anything, but the doors. MANY tears shed trying to correct this horrid wrong. Hopefully you’ve been able to save many a homeowner with your story.
Leigh
We went through the same thing. We ripped out all the old baseboards and some doors. We replaced them with what we wanted and added crown molding throughout the house. MUCH easier than scraping and bonus, we got what we wanted
I am so glad i found this. I am thinking about painting my bedroom door navy and had never even thought about the oil based paint issue. Hope mine is latex. I will do the cotton ball test.
I am in the process of painting my trim and doors white. What did you do with the hinges? Did you leave them the color they were, paint them, what color? Also, did you paint the doors when they were hanging on the hinges?
Oh, you poor thing. And weird that I came here for something else and found this post when in 5 short days I, too, will be painting a door from white to black. I am all over that cotton ball test. Thanks so much for posting!
We had the same thing happen to us in our master bathroom with painting all the trim. We painted with Acrylic Paint and it all peeled off. Ok so I thought it was Oil Based paint so we scrapped off all the peeling paint then painted with Oil Based Kilz Paint, one coat. I then did a test spot on the to make sure the Acrylic Paint would stick… it still scraps off even after being applied over the Kilz. Then I tried to use Latex paint, still peels? HELP?? What should I do?