Painting Interior Doors

---

Hey y’all!

So I did a thing! And if you read the title then you already know what it is! Lol! I painted our interior doors! I’ve been on the fence about doing this since waaayy back when I painted all the wood trim and molding. I had this guilt about painting the interior doors because we’re lucky enough that every door and all their hardware are ORIGINAL! I was hung up on that word big time! I felt like I would somehow be taking away from the houses character and charm if I painted over something that was authentic to it.

If you know me or have been following along for a while you also know that I constantly preach “paint the dang furniture piece!” haha! I think it’s just plain ol crazy to have a piece of furniture that you would LOVE if only you painted it but you’re afraid to “ruin” it if you do. So then it just sits in your garage or basement because it doesn’t go with your decor. Paint it and love it! And if for some reason you don’t, you can always take paint back.

Okay, so I’m constantly saying this about furniture pieces but for some reason I didn’t think this applied to our doors. I guess simply because they are a part of the house itself. But let’s get real, in a house that’s less than 1000 sq ft and has 10 doors (including closets) they’re pretty important. They take up a lot of wall space and in our dining area they take up a lot of visual space period. And they make every room so dark! And you know I really don’t like that 😉

So here I am living with these super dark cherry stained doors and hating them, but also nervous to paint them. One thing I knew I didn’t want to do was to paint them white. I felt like white didn’t do them justice, white wasn’t enough. They needed to still stand out a bit but without being such a dark presence. Then one day I was thinking maybe it would look cool if they were an off white. I mulled this idea around for a while until the perfect color dawned on me, Tapestry Beige by Benjamin Moore. How did I know this would be the perfect color? Because I’ve already used it in our house! This is the color I painted our sunroom floor! See that article HERE!

How I Painted the Interior Doors

First I removed all knobs and hardware. I choose to leave the hinges on and just carefully paint around them. I already had more than a half-gallon of the paint left and I thought using a floor paint on the doors would be perfect since it’s a paint that cures and is really tough. I bought some specific primer that’s meant for covering stain at Lowe’s. It really helps the paint bond to the wood. It’s very thick almost more of a gel and a little bit goes a long way. You can find it HERE. I used a 6 inch sponge roller to apply both this primer and the paint to the door for a super smooth finish. After applying the primer I only needed 1 coat of the paint and a quick second touch up coat, which is pretty impressive considering how dark the doors were! I only needed one more gallon of the paint to finish this project.

It also dried really fast and once it was dry I began painting with the Behr porch and patio paint. I used a brush to do the inner details first and to cut in around the hinges and then another 6 inch sponge roller to paint the rest of the door.   It was a fairly quick job and I was able to do about a door per hour start to finish.

 

Pictures Speak for Themselves

Such a Change!

I couldn’t be happier with the results! I feel that this color truly is perfection! What I love is that the doors still stand out. They maintained the integrity of their character, they still feel authentic 🙂 and even better, now they feel like a part of our style. They actually feel like they “go” with the rest of the house again. Painting the interior doors made almost as much of an impact in our home as painting the walls! Every room is SO much lighter and brighter! I can’t believe I waited so long to do it! Sometimes taking your own advice is hard I guess, but I’m really glad I finally did!

I hope you’re making your home a space you love, even if it means taking risks 🙂

Take care sweet friend and thanks for stopping by the blog today!

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave