This is part 1 of a 2-part series about painting interior doors. I searched all over before I started to find the best way to paint my interior doors.
Some people said to just slap some paint on it: no sanding, no taping, nothing! Others said you need to sand, prime, paint, tape off, and take the door off the hinge.
And even more people were somewhere in the middle.
So I decided to try a few methods my own way and see what worked best for me. We have tan/white interior doors that are 20 years old, and I've been wanting to paint them black for a while.
I grabbed a few samples and started with our pantry door:
Beautiful, right? Ha! I'd love to have 5-panel modern doors one day, but for now, this paint trick will do the job!
These were the 3 colors: Dorian Gray, Iron Ore, and Tricorn Black. Our front door is Tricorn Black, but on these interior doors, this black felt a little *too* dark for us. We went with the middle color, Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams.
I used 2 sample jars for this door (didn't commit to gallons yet because once we decide on a color, that's going to go on the rest of the 8 doors in our home!)
I also researched how to paint a paneled door and found SO many resources. There are differing methods, but this one was pretty common so I went with it:
First, I took the handle off the door! I kept the door on the hinge for this method.
I used my angled paintbrush to paint the 6 panels on the interior door. It wasn't perfect, but it worked! Then, I painted vertically. After that, I did the horizontal pieces. Finally, I painted the outside vertical edges and the edges of the door.
In this picture the paint is still drying. I did about 3 coats overall and had a few touch-ups to fix after. I taped off the hinges but still got a little paint on them.
TAKEAWAYS
If you're going to use a paintbrush to paint your interior door black (or any color), here are my thoughts about it!
1. It's definitely easier to keep the door on the hinge. I read other posts that said if you take the door off, it may not fit back on exactly right. It would've been a hassle to take it out to the garage (that's what I'll be doing in method 2!)
2. With this method, minimal brush strokes were seen. I can spot a few every now and then, but I was surprised at how smooth it looks! Not too streaky or uneven.
3. It takes FOREVER. I told Jonathan, "If I have to hand paint every door in this house, it will be done by the time we have 4 kids." (I have one baby right now) This method was time consuming, I did it in the span of 2 days, since I had to watch my baby and let paint dry as well.
4. This is not as scary as it seems! For some reason I was intimidated to paint. I didn't sand or prime this one, and I'm happy with how it turned out! I don't know how it will hold up (I couldn't find anything about a final top coat so I didn't do one) but I will check back in after a month or so!
If you want to paint your door, grab a paintbrush and just do it! It could turn out exactly like you want.
This interior door paint DIY was pretty fun, and it looks WAY better in my opinion.
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