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Garden door

The garden door originally had a cat flap cut into it and the outside was a green colour with a white frame –

original backdoor colour

A few things to consider here. Although we plan to have a cat sometime, I’m not a fan of catflaps as they attract all kinds of neighbourhood cats, which is stressful for the resident cat (and us!). I know you can get collars with a transmitter that unlocks the flap, but it’s not ideal.

'flat 1' backdoor before painting

The door itself is lovely, we assume it to be original and it’s certainly a non-standard size. But the piece of wood at the bottom was rotten and the door didn’t close properly. Plus the catflap had been installed very crudely, ruining one of the door panels.

First, we asked the firm who was renovating our windows to also fix the garden door. They adjusted it so that it shut properly, draft-proofed it, removed the catflap and replaced the panel.

I then scraped off the peeling sections of paint and N replaced the wooden bar at the bottom.

backdoor before painting

After the usual sanding, filling & priming we undercoated it with Farrow & Ball ‘Dark Tones’…

backdoor undercoat

backdoor undercoat 2

I did two coats of undercoat (and painted the frame the same colour) and then applied the top coat – one of F&B’s newest colours, Inchyra Blue

backdoor exterior Inchyra Blue

Come on, is this gorgeous or what??

backdoor exterior Inchyra Blue

Published inNew HomeOriginal featuresPainting

3 Comments

  1. Vicky Wilford Vicky Wilford

    Hello Robin
    Thank you for this post, really enjoyed reading it.
    We are about to paint our front door, and considering Inchyra Blue, Stiffkey Blue or Hague Blue.
    We are after a deep petrol kind of blue and thought inchyra would work, but having painted on a tester it looks super light, almost mid green. Yours looks very dark similar to dark grey. I just wondered what way your house faces and how much light that door gets, or if you could post any more pictures of it? Thank you
    Vicky

    • Robin Robin

      Hi Vicky
      I’ve just taken another pic of the back door and it is quite a dull day (and it’s been over four years since we painted it) but I would say it’s greener and greyer than it appears on this post. It’s south-facing. Here’s the pic: http://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/inchyra-blue.jpg
      By way of contrast, here’s a wall painted in Hague Blue, which we also love. But it’s much bluer than Inchyra I think. On the petrol-end of blue, quite cool, but great depth of colour and it works very well in this north-facing room:
      http://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/hague-blue.jpg
      Hope that helps! Good luck 🙂

      • Lisa Lisa

        your extra photos have helped me to see these two colors in true lighting conditions. Thanks!

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