Get a beautiful designer-inspired look when you paint your interior doors. Use a bold color for a shot of drama or a muted color for additional low-key style.
This post was sponsored by Valspar Canada. All opinions are, as always, our own. For our full disclosure policy click here.
Bloggers and designers have been painting interior doors for years. It’s a look that can add a punch of color – or a subtle color-washed look – to a home. Sort of like accent walls used to in the past. Only painting your interior doors is a much more economical and fun way to do it!
Of course, painting only your front doors (inside and out) in a dramatic color is one way to get a designer look. One which I’ve used in the past, at a few of our houses.
Our white bungalow’s front door was a deep red on the exterior, which was a bold statement to make on such a tiny house. (Looking back, I still can’t believe all five of us lived in that wee little house!)
And our backsplit’s front and side doors were a blue-grey color on the outside to coordinate nicely with the red brick, and a light aqua color on the inside. (You can see our backsplit’s color scheme here.)
Shortly after moving to this house, I painted the double front doors black inside and out.
But one look I’d never tackled was painting all the interior doors a color other than white!
Painting Interior Doors
A lot of bloggers have painted their interior doors black. If you use a dark or bold shade like black, you’ll be adding a lot of drama to your home. Which is awesome, if that fits your style, of course.
I decided to ease into the use of more color in our house by painting our interior doors (only on the main floor so far) in a beautiful milky-mushroom color called Gallery Grey 2006-10B by Valspar. And I chose to use their Reserve line in their Interior Flat finish, since I don’t like any sheen on my interior doors. But if you like your doors to stand out more, you can choose a ‘shinier sheen’. 😉
Valspar Reserve Interior Latex-Base Paint and Primer In One is a stain-blocking paint and primer. Which is perfect for our interior doors that had seen better days due to fingerprints from kids and minor scratches from the dog. It’s generally a one-coat paint, but I found for our textured, six-panel doors that I needed two coats. But those two coats gave it a nice smooth finish and both coats were easy to apply with a brush and both dried quickly.
I’m looking forward to Valspar’s advanced stain and scrub resistance and exceptional washability…’cause goodness knows the main floor doors especially take a beating around here!
How to Paint Textured Interior Doors
1. Prep
We have those doors with six panels and sort of a wood-look texture to them. I had painted all of them when we moved in less than three years ago, so they didn’t need much prep work before painting. But you may want to remove wreath hangers, or tape or anything else like that.
2. Clean
Then you’ll need to clean your doors. I simply cleaned any obvious dirt with some water on a cloth. You could use a magic eraser or degreaser if your doors are heavily soiled. Just be sure to rinse it all off. (Or else you may have issues like I did way back when with our kitchen cabinets!)
3. Repair
If you have any holes (from wreath hangers, etc.), repair them with wood filler. Let the filler dry and then sand smooth. Thankfully our main floor doors didn’t need any filler.
4. Prime
For this project, I didn’t need to prime because I used a paint and primer in one. But, if you don’t use Valspar’s Reserve, you will need to prime your doors. Follow your primer’s instructions.
5. Paint
Then comes the painting. Painting textured interior doors is easy…if you do it the right way. You’ll want to use a very good brush (Purdy are my favorite) that won’t shed its bristles while you’re painting. Then paint with the direction of the visible grain. This means, if you have doors similar to ours, you will need to paint in different directions. I usually start by painting one of the panels at a time, until each of the six is painted. Then I paint up and down on the sides of the door and side-to-side at the top, middle and bottom. You could tape off the hinges and door knob, but I usually just freehand around them carefully. For these doors I only painted the outside of each door and the edges that showed in the main space. You could, of course, paint the entire door.
Choosing a Color
When deciding on a color to paint your interior doors, make sure you keep your whole home color scheme in mind. For our house, I wanted a light mushroom color that coordinated well with our flooring (which we will replace eventually, but it stays for awhile yet) and our other paint and colors. Gallery Grey 2006-10B by Valspar fits in perfectly with our relaxed style and our muted color scheme.
You could choose a bold red, or a vibrant turquoise to add energy to your space, if those colors fit your color scheme. Or you could choose a muted color, like I did, to help your space feel soothing and peaceful. Just remember to test your paint colors in your space before you commit. (Remember my rule about choosing paint colors at the store – don’t do it!)
Where to Stop Painting
Like I mentioned, right now, I only painted the main area facing parts of the doors. I may go ahead and paint all sides of each door, I may not. You could do the same. Try out the color before you really commit.
Or you could paint the doors AND the trim and baseboards too, for a lovely century home look. It’s really up to you!
Now I just have to do something about all that scuffed up trim!
What do you think of the new color of our interior doors? Have you thought about painting any of your doors?
