How To Set Up Doors To Be Painted

For most people, painting isn’t such a fun job. It can be messy, and is a whole lot of work. What we have found is that proper setup can alleviate a lot of pain and stress during the painting process. We want to show you how to set up doors to be painted, so that when you go to actually paint the doors, the process goes smooth and fast. Setup will take some time here, so be prepared. I assure you it will be worth it in the end.

My parents purchased all new doors for the interior of their house. The six panel doors come primed and need to be painted white. We had 15 doors to paint, but this setup will work with any number of doors that you need to work on. It works best if you do have multiple doors to paint. I will tell you what we used for completing 15 doors, but you may need to adjust the amount of material for the number of doors you actually do.

What you will need:

1 roll of plastic sheeting  (more if you have a large space to protect from getting paint in your space)

• (4) 16 ft 2×4s (we had old 2x3s on hand from another project, so that’s what we used)
• (6) 10 ft 1×2s
• 1 lb box of 2″ wood screws
• Drill
• 4 ft step ladder
• 3 gallons semi-gloss white paint
• airless paint sprayer (in our opinion it is worth it to rent one for the project, or purchase one if you plan on doing several paint projects)

You are ready to set up your doors for painting. Even if you decide to roll or brush paint the doors, this setup is still a good idea because it will hold your doors upright while you paint and allow the door to dry.

Begin by covering your area with some of the plastic sheeting. We did this in the garage to prevent wind and air from blowing the doors over, and to prevent things from getting stuck on our freshly painted surfaces. For hanging plastic around the garage walls, there are several options. Depending on what your surfaces are like, you may be able to staple the plastic directly to the sheetrock or any wooden structures you may have in your garage. We used tape to attach the plastic to the garage door rails.

Now that your garage or space is protected, you are ready to set up the doors. On the covered ground,  lay 2 of your 2×4 runners flat,  about 30 inches apart, parallel like train tracks.

This next step will require 2 people. One person will stand up the first door on top of the parallel 2×4 runners. Set it up at a slight angle. The second person, on the ladder, will stand up a second door about 8 ft away from the first door. Person number 1 will hand up the end of a 1×2, to person number 2. Each end will lay across the top of both doors. While on the ladder, have that person screw down the 1×2, to the top of the door. Then repeat with the other door. The doors should hold themselves up on their own. Now you are ready to put up more doors in between the two. We set them up at angles, and alternated the angle for every door, like an accordion. Leave 4 to 6 inches between the close end of each door, and about 30 inches between the wide end of each door. Attach the 1X2 above each door as you stand them up, and before moving on to the next door.

The first row is now complete. If you have many doors to do like we did then you will need to repeat this process for another row. You can extend or add more rows as needed.

Because of the way the doors are angled and now held up, you can make your way around both sides of each door with the airless sprayer. Keith started with the front door and sprayed the front of each door as he made his way to the back of the garage. Then he turned around and sprayed the back sides of each door as he made his way back to the front of the garage. Let it dry somewhat, then give it a second coat and you’re done.

Once your doors are completely dry, you are ready to add the hinges, hang them, and add the remaining hardware. Voila!

I would love to see your paint job setup! Be sure to follow us on Instagram @shebuyshebuilds and use hashtag #buysnbuilds