The Rosedale has an awesome front door. In fact, along with the stairs, the door is probably my favorite part of this house. Its trim is made up of several separate pieces layered on top of each other, so unlike a Houseworks door, it’s super easy to use multiple paint colors without making a big mess.

I’m using Glidden’s Sandy Feet and Antique Purple (same colors I used for the window trim and shutters, respectively), along with a dark blue named Blue Gray Slate. Below you can see which pieces are painted which colors (along with the huge pile of brackets on deck to be painted…)

As I was painting these, I realized the top of the door has some trim I’d neglected to punch out. (That’s what happens when you don’t follow the instructions!) These are referred to as the “door stoop” pieces, and they sandwich the piece that sticks out of the house. Had I realized this sooner, I wouldn’t have done such a careful job painting the top of the part that sticks out of the house!

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I have a love / hate relationship with windows. I hate them because there are so many trim pieces to prep… but I love them because once they’re up, the house starts to really look finished. Something about dressing up those gaping holes turns the house from a mere shell into a house.

I started with the exterior window trim and sills, along with the trim that goes on top of the bay windows. I neglected to take a picture of them after painting, but here are the pieces I started out with. Like the fascia, I’m painting these with Glidden Sandy Feet.

The shutters and window cap pieces are painted with Antique Purple, also Glidden. I like the Glidden paint because the samples are pre-mixed (no need to wait at the paint counter), and they use symbols to identify colors that will theoretically look good together.

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With the house assembled and stuccoed, I moved on to the fascia. (A fancy word for trim! I’m not exactly sure if this is the correct usage of the word “fascia,” but that’s what the Rosedale’s instructions call it…)

I first had to decide on trim and accent colors. Since I accidentally painted the house darker than I originally had in mind, I wasn’t quite sure what to do for the trim, so I painted some swatches on the house in an area that will eventually be covered up.

To keep the house from looking too dark, I decided to go with my old friend Sandy Feet (sixth from left) for the trim, and I think I’m going to use the lavender (second from left) and navy blue (second from right) for accents. (I initially bought the lavender and blue to redo the trim on my infinite possibilities porch, but haven’t done it yet.)

Before painting any fascia, I needed to cut a hole for the new porch door.

Step 1: Hold fascia over the hole and draw a line on the back side with pencil.

Step 2: Get Geoff’s help cutting a hole with the dremel.

Step 3: Sand until it fits. It’s a little crooked at the top. I’ll have to fill that in with wood filler or add some strip wood above the door.

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