Curb appeal... garage door

This is one of my favorite projects. Probably because it was all mine. It took a bit of a detour for me to get to this version of it, but I'm completely in love with the finished product. Adam didn't see this one. He just didn't think it would work well, but I figured it was just paint and I'd paint it all white again if I crashed and burned. No biggie right?

It started with carriage door hardware. About a year ago a friend of mine told me I should put it on the garage door to dress it up. I have no idea what re-sparked that in my brain (more than likely it was Pinterest) but I Tweeted this randomness a few weeks ago-

I got a few questions about how I was going to paint followed with some encouragement to "do it" coming right behind this Tweet-

With the idea in my mind that I wanted the boring, white, metal door too look like wood I, of course, turned to Google. I found several really great tutorials, and then I found it. The PERFECT idea. So with a plan brewing in my brain I ordered these.

Even though I thought I knew what I wanted, eBay offered up more options than I knew existed. You can even get magnetic strips that look like these or stencils to paint them on. I decided to go with the 3 dimensional, metal version. Just because it's a faux treatment doesn't mean I want it to look that way.

Generic white, metal garage door. Boooorrring!

 I scrubbed the top panels and down the center really well.

Next, the top row gets taped off around the outside of each panel to create the windows, and sectioned off with a thinner tape to give them panes.

We also taped of and painted a center line to create the illusion that our carriage doors will open.

I'm THRILLED with the results! 

xoxo

Lissa