Painting Doors and Frames Different Colours Melbourne

Since seeing the photo on the left over the weekend and reading about how to easily update you home by painting the windows, we've been pondering the idea of painting our doors a contrasting colour to the door frame. Is this a look we can achieve on a basic door and frame or do we need more interesting details to be effective? Let us know your advice and opinions after the jump.

What got us thinking about this is we're sick of how often we have to clean our white doors and think there must be a better way to spend our time. Our main concern with painting with contrasting colours is that our doors might not be interesting enough to pull off this look- plain door and the door frame is a basic, narrow trim. We think that the balance would be all skewed with a slim moulding and bold door. We'd consider installing a wider moulding but in 3 places in our home the current door frames are almost touching so a larger frame is out of the question. So what do you think our options are? Should we be thinking of another way to highlight our doors rather than contrasting paint, maybe something similar to what Leah did? Let us know your suggestions and any doors that you think look fantastic.

[photos via House Beautiful and Apartment Therapy DC]

Comments (7)

After reading the top part of the post, I was going to say 'go for it!' But upon reflection, maybe not. I think that you're right - you need either an interesting door and/or door frame to pull this off. Even what Leah did is pushing it for me. The plainness of the door is almost accentuated by bringing so much attention to it.

How about this though? I've also got a plain door I want to do something with, and I was planning to buy molding and create raised panels on my door. My plan was to wallpaper within the newly made panels, but I could see myself painting it a bold colour, too.

OK! I'm so happy for this post.

I have a bedroom door with molding...enough to inlay with beveled mirrors (3 even squares).

I intend to paint the door but, my question is can I paint each side of the door a different color?

- Black painted door with beveled mirrors for mom's "Hollywood Glamor" room side.
- Color 2 with mirror for hallway side?

Someone smarter than me please advise!

To Jalapeno: Of course you can! Especially if it's your house. Keep in mind that, if your bedroom door is usually open (opened into the bedroom), the hallway color is going to spend a lot of time in your bedroom. A rule of thumb that I must have read years ago and still follow: The edge of the door (the edge between the front and back of the door; the edge that hits the doorjamb) is usually the same color as the side of the door that opens into the room, if that makes sense. Whoever made up that rule must've been thinking of a door that's painted two different colors, no?

I'm getting ready to do this myself. Just painted a first floor hallway a nice warm gray, woodwork a creamy white (7 doorways, 5 doors). At the end of the hall is the linen closet door, which I'm going to paint either a red or a chartreuse (BM Caliente or Wasabi) for a little funk.

There is nothing I love more than a high gloss, almost lacquered painted doorframe. Deep navy or fire engine red are my faves!

Just did this to the bathroom door. Apparently I have bad feng shui - my bathroom door faces my entry door, so all my money chi comes in the front door and goes straight down the toilet. ;) The feng shui solution, apparently, is to paint the bathroom door red, hang a mirror on it, and keep it closed.

Since it's a very long-looking hallway, and I don't want people seeing the loo as soon as they walk in, the feng shui solution actually turned out to be a good decorating solution. I like it so much, I'm going to do something different with the 2 bedroom doors, too! (Maybe one plaid and one polka-dotted....? Heh.)