Finishing Our Garage: Episode 3 (the door)

Today on Finishing Our Garage, it's all about the garage door and switch replacement.  We painted our garage door early on when we had the rest of the house painted.  Check out this post on what was done then.  For a door with such a simple responsibility, I have changed the "hello" sign three freakin' times (black, white, now red)!  You gotta love Etsy right?

L: Original type switch 

R: Legrand replacement (with night light on)

Why did we change the garage switch?

One thing on our list while building was to remove as much of the builder grade items as possible...this included the light switches.  I talk here about the switch changes made inside the home.  We wanted to continue this in the garage as well, so we changed out the regular switch to Adorne by Legrand switches.  Although Lutron's are mostly inside (for use with the Savant System), Legrand is another great option for switches and dimmers.  The good thing about Legrand is you can switch the paddle and/or wall plates whenever you like.  If you change the color of the walls, simply buy yourself another wall plate and BAM!  The plates snap on and off so it is super easy for us ladies to do alone!  And you can find these in stores like Home Depot and Lowe's which is great when you don't wish to wait for shipping. 

Here is the switch and accessory we placed in the garage:

Adorne Night light

• Adorne Paddle Switch
• Adorne Accent Night Light

A red wall plate was the color we wanted, and Home Depot had it in stock.  My husband installed the plate and the night light using the easy-to-follow directions.  This accessory provides a small little light underneath the switch.  You can even control how bright or dim you want the light just by waving your finger underneath.  They sell everything you need and you can add or not add, and still have a very custom-looking and functional switch.

Door trim

I love the idea of painting trim throughout the house, but I do not want to do it in the house just yet.  So I figured I could "play" with the garage space and not feel bad if I messed it up.  Since the walls are now gray, we both decided red would be a great color for the door trim.  I've always had a love for red, but this inspiration actually came from a dust pan recently purchased at Crate and Barrel.  It was the perfect red and instantly fell in love with it because it matched the Legrand wall plate so well.  I simply popped off the wall plate, took it to Home Depot and she scanned it on their spectrophotometer to give me the best matched color for the trim.  Most paint stores have these devices.  You can take anything and have it matched.  This tool reads wavelengths of reflected light and computerize the color measurements.  It may not be exact but it will super close to the natural eye.  It takes a quick second for them to get the measurements they need.  They pop those number in the paint color maker machine (not the real technical name at all), and within minutes, you have your custom color.

Home Depot Paint Center - custom red color being made

Home Depot: selecting the right paint

Behr Marquee

Our Behr Marquee color

I only needed a quart, so I went with Behr Marquee One Coat Color paint.  If you are painting with a really colored paint, be sure to get one of the better coating ones.  This will prevent you from having to do multiple coats.  Remember, the more coloring in your paint, the thinner the paint.  The thinner the paint, the more coats you will need.  

Everything turned out great and we love it!  I should also mentioned that I painted the garage door wiring to match the wall since it was stark white!  Using a tiny amount of paint with a small paint brush (and a ladder) to make it not stand out so much!   

Final garage door #love

xoxo