Painting a front door is mostly about prep and timing, mate. Get those right and the finish looks after itself.
Pick your day. You want dry, mild weather — ideally 10-20°C, no rain forecast for 24 hours, and not blazing sun directly on the door (paint skins too fast and you get lap marks). Spring or autumn morning is ideal.
Prep properly. Take the door off if you can, or wedge it open. Remove the furniture — knocker, letterplate, handle — or mask it with FrogTape. Wash the whole door with sugar soap to shift grease and grime, rinse, let it dry. Sand the existing paint with 180-grit to give a key, then dust off. Any bare timber or knots get spot-primed — Zinsser Cover Stain is your friend here, and BIN for stubborn knots that might bleed.
Paint in the right order. This is the bit people get wrong. On a panelled door: do the mouldings and panel centres first, then the horizontal rails, then the vertical stiles, then the outer frame edges. Working this order means you brush *over* wet edges rather than into dried ones, so no visible joins.
Two coats, thin. Two thin coats beat one thick one every time — thick coats sag and take an age to dry. Light sand between coats once fully dry.
For colour, exterior front doors take bold tones brilliantly because the sun and weather knock the intensity back. Farrow & Ball Hague Blue and Inchyra Blue are classic for a smart period door, while Studio Green reads near-black but with depth. Want something warmer? Little Greene does cracking proper exterior finishes, and a deep Eating Room Red never dates. All three brands do exterior-grade eggshell — that's what you want, not interior emulsion.
Gloss is more traditional and harder-wearing but shows every imperfection, so your prep needs to be spot-on. Eggshell is more forgiving and bang on trend.
Let it cure a full day before rehanging the furniture.