I just bought a brand new smooth-star exterior door from Therma-Tru. The door is for my back-north facing-patio. We live in northern Utah where the weather can literally range 30-40 degrees in one day. The door-for the most part-does not get a lot of direct sun, but it does get hit by wind, rain and snow sometimes.

I do not care how long the process takes I want the door to look really good. I have no problem using oil based paint but I am familiar with latex paints and have used them throughout my home. I will be either brushing or rolling the paint myself. I will not attempt to use a sprayer at this time. The color I have chosen is a soft, muted sage green by Benjamin Moore. I actually purchased a quart of Benjamin Moore Exterior MoorGlo Soft Gloss in the color, but have since questioned if I’d like to go this route.

After buying the paint I realized it was not too smart of me to test the paint colors on the actual door. I went back to ACE Hardware and told them I needed primer to cover the paint…they sold me an alkyd primer (I brought the actual paint with me) and unknowingly I put the primer on the spots where the paint was. It didn’t adhere so I ended up, after waiting at least 10 hrs or so, sanding the entire exterior side of the door. Unfortunately I had also painted the molding around the glass (the door is mostly glass).

So now I’m in a couple predicaments. I’ve sanded off most if not all the factory pre-primer (I think) so the door needs to be primed. I will either have to sand the molding or repaint it with a primer that can cover oil based primer, if I am going to use exterior latex. I am not worried about cost because my ACE is excellent about returns even used items especially since they sold me the wrong product. But I also have a Benjamin Moore specialty store very close to my house as well as a Sherwin Williams Specialty store is close too.

What do you suggest I do? Did I ruin anything sanding the entire door? It doesn’t seem like anything is wrong except it is shinier and smoother now (it had a primed-kind of texture before). I also wiped it down with TSP since sanding it in an attempt to take away some of the ‘glossiness’. So Basically…I guess I’m starting with a bare door with the exception of the oil based primed molding.