I’ve been a painting maniac lately. I haven’t had non-paint-speckled hands in at least two weeks, and this is one of the reasons…
Our upstairs hallway, featuring 7 (SEVEN!) doors, got a glamorous makeover. I’ve had my heart set on painting our interior doors black for quite some time. I think that glossy black interior doors just look so polished and elegant!
With one project or another, I kept putting it off however, until one fateful day when I ended up with a quart of semi-gloss black trim paint when I had meant to get a quart of semi-gloss white…
While picking up supplies for the vintage-boho reading nook, my March Ace Blogger post, I meant to pick up some white trim paint, but once I got home I realized I had grabbed “Sparkling Black” by accident.
It turned out to be a lucky mistake because it was just the push I needed to finally get started on the task of transforming our [disgustingly] dingy interior doors! Once I had started using the paint, I loved it so much that Ace was awesome enough to provide me with another quart to finish the project.
You can see that I had already started painting the trim white on one door (the door to the master bedroom) and it just goes to show how truly dingy the doors were!
When I posted a sneak peek of my in-progress black doors on Instagram, I got several helpful suggestions for streamlining the process! Well, apparently I’m very habit-bound because I ended up doing what I’ve always done – using my trusty angled brush to apply light coats of paint (3 in all) over the course of several days and several seasons of 30 Rock on Netflix.
Fresh white trim + glossy black doors makes my heart sing!
While it is completely apparent that the walls need new paint, I’m just thrilled with how sharp the doors look now! The finish is so perfectly glossy and the black hides imperfections really well. While it did make the hallway a bit darker if all the doors are closed, the reality is that most of them are usually open to let sunshine into the hallway, and of course with the hall light on, it’s totally fine.
Somehow, this whole thing actually started with the master bedroom makeover I’ve slowly started tackling. Because I knew I wanted the doors in the bedroom to be black, I had to carry that through the entire hallway!
It was well worth it though, and I can’t wait to share what I’ve got in the works for the bedroom (more painting, naturally). I’ll let this shot I Instagrammed the other day hold you over…
Disclosure: I am thrilled to be working with Ace Hardware this year and they were kind enough to provide me with the paint for this project. All opinions and positions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Ace Hardware.
Oooh, they look great! I love a black interior door. You have me thinking about my mudroom now…
Thank you Jen! I'm so happy I finally got started on it!
such a difference!!!!! love it, brynne. come do mine, ok?
I'm serious, I have this weird thing where I actually LIKE to paint doors! What's wrong with me? 🙂
Gahh, I'm so in love I could hug them!! They look so unbelievably classy now!
Aw, thanks Trisha!
Love that you go where few of us dare to go! And the results are spectacular! Looking forward to hearing more about the bedroom makeover too
Thank you! I can't wait to share!
I'm sold! They look way better in black! Now I had to convince my husband.
Thank you Cristina! I agree!
I have been telling my husband I wanted to do this also and he says no… I think it's because he can't "vision" the way it would look!! I've pinned this page so he can finally see!! Thanks so much!
Yay! I hope this helps! 😀
I've loved glossy black doors since before I knew anything about interior design/diy or had any interest in it! It looks awesome! I really need to stop looking at other people's houses and just get up and do something to mine now!
I think you'll be so happy with the results once you dive in! I was a little intimidated to start myself, but I'm so glad I finally did it!
Wow that looks amazing Brynne. I love it! Such a big difference.
Thank you Katja! I wish I had done it ages ago!
I like it! I've been wanting to paint my doors a matte/flat black. But I'm totally hesitating. your doors almost look lacquered and so luxe!
The doors before were very flat, almost porous, so they held onto every scrape, stain and speck of dust. So that's actually one of the reasons I went for semi-gloss besides aesthetics – to make them much more wipeable! Although if you use a good quality flat enamel, that probably wouldn't be a problem.
Thanks girl!
It's crazy how huge of a change painting the door black makes! I'm sure it was a giant pain, but it looks awesome!
Thanks Amber! And thanks for unknowingly kicking this whole thing off by having awesome black doors in your house 🙂
Oh wow!! Such a difference! I wanted to do my doors in black FOR YEARS but never seem to get around to it… sigh. I will just live vicariously through your doors. Awesome job! xxx
I know – it was low priority for me for a really long time and now I have no idea why I didn't do it sooner! 🙂 Thanks Kimberly!
Love them in black. Looks so good!
Thank you friend! So glad I did it!
Such a great look! I love it! (Now can you come paint mine?!)
Thank you Kristen! Painting party? I'm down! 🙂
so, so pretty! I really want to do this with my upstairs hallway, too. You know, once I finish with all the other things on the list ahead of that 😉
Haha, I know – the list never ends! But I think if you do it you'll really love the results 🙂
I love black interior doors so much! My question is, did you paint them black on both sides? I always think black doors in my house would look great from the hallway, but wouldn't look good on the inside of any of the rooms. I don't know how to work with that haha.
They are going to be black on both sides eventually… for now, I've only managed to finish both sides of one of the doors 🙂 My front door is black on one side and white on the other though!
Those painted doors are full of such rich drama! Also very glam without being overly feminine.
Thank you Kim! I just love them!
I love this look! You used semi-gloss for the black, what about for the white trim? Did you use semi-gloss or satin?
Thank you Diane! I used semi-gloss for the white trim too.
Love the transformation! We are in the process of doing the same thing. Just curious, do you remember grit of sandpaper? Light sanding? We put tinted primer and the next day I could scrape it off with my fingernail. I can’t imagine that’s normal. I was concerned that the composite door isn’t holding the primer. Any further comments on your prepping process??
Thanks!
I actually didn’t sand the doors, just wiped them down with a damp cloth to remove dust and any residue. Because my paint had primer built in, I didn’t do a separate primer coat either.
The only thing I can think of is there’s an incompatibility between the coating on the door (like if it was previously painted with oil based?) and the primer (latex?) – I know latex paint can peel right off of oil based paint without certain preparation steps.
I wish my experience painting my doors could be more helpful to your situation! I’m wishing you all the success in getting your doors painted!
love the look. considering doing the same at a house we just bought! just wondering – if the windows are white french windows – do you think it would look ok to have the internal doors black or a dark brown?
Thank you! I loooove dark interior doors! My doors and windows don’t match (though I love the look of dark window sashes & mullions as well!), so I personally think it looks fine!