HOW TO PAINT A DOOR BLACK + A NO SEW CURTAIN PANELS PROJECT!



Last Friday afternoon, I saw a tweet that fueled my fire for inspiration: painting the inside of our front door black. I had been wanting to paint one of our doors black - I just couldn't decide which one (because we have four on the first floor).  So after glancing at a few images from House & Home, studying the boundaries between the doors and their casing (keeping them white)...

Images from House & Home:


More than one black door works for this space because of the warmth
from the wood floors. We have greige tile, so it could look too cold.


I like the idea of a grey door...
something to think about...


Even French doors can work with black, and again -
keep the casing white, to flow with the moldings...


I went hunting in the garage... I painted the inside of our front door - a traditional white panel door - black - REUSING OLD PAINT I already had. I mixed a 1/2 quart of matte black with a 1/2 quart of semi-gloss black - and added a bit of water to thin the paint for this $0 makeover.



I started at the tops, painting the bevel of the panels first
(with a 1 1/2" chip brush)


The ceiling is 9'2" and the door is 8'
and I'm only 5'2", so I needed a step ladder...




After reaching the bottom panels, I waited a few minutes to go back and give a second coat to the top panels, and started to work my way out and down...


The door is smooth, so a used the roller in between the panels,
to help avoid streaks


I didn't remove the hardware, but taped around it.


Sephora supervised the project :-)



The striped panels on the windows didn't feel right
in the space anymore, so I switched out window panels.


Started to not feel the striped panels while painting the door. I slipped the towel under the door and opened it to get a clean edge (thankfully, the sun was already going down - and it didn't rain that afternoon)


But I didn't switch them for conventional panels - The panels are 102" rectangular tablecloths (I found at Marshalls earlier this year). I hung them from existing clips, and added back the white sheers, to make the window more layered.


102" tablecloths as window panels...


Hung the panels from existing rings with clips...





I'm happy with the way it turned out...
It gave the entrance and dining room
a little more umph and drama
(vs. the stark look of the builder white)


Although the shells still work, bringing in some darker color
starts to get the house ready to transform into fall...


I'm really loving the new look of the black door. To give it an even crisper look, I refreshed the door casing (with existing white gloss) which led to refreshing all moldings on the first floor... next is to work on refreshing moldings upstairs and the stairway. (IF you think your white moldings you painted a year or more ago are still white - guess again. I usually refresh ours every autumn).



I'm also loving that I got to reuse old paint for the project. In the past few months, I've been able to utilize three existing quarts down to one... (the other black used was during the dining room transformation to navy featured in the Wake Up Your Walls post).

Wake Up Your Walls

I'm sharing today's Dark Door Project post at a link party over at


as well as over at


Stop by the parties and check out the other projects
people have posted... If you too have a project you worked on this weekend - share your link over at the parties!

BTW: If you're one of the people inspired to go forth with this project and try it in your own home - SEND ME THE PICS OF YOUR BLACK DOOR - I'd love to see & share how it turns out!


Hope you had a wonderful weekend
and have a great week!



13 comments:

  1. WHOA........it looks fabulous! You are so fearless in your decorating. I would have been on the fence for a long time before being able to commit. Great work!!

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  2. I love it! I painted all of my inside, first floor doors black and it is stunning. It makes such a difference and gives it a rich look. Martha Stewart has an "old" black called French Bulldog black that is a great indoor black. It is "old" but my Home Depot was able to mix it up from their data base.

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  3. Your door looks awesome! I love the idea of tablecloths as curtain panels! Beautiful!

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  4. be still my heart. I have french doors in our sunroom. Guess what i'm thinking about doing to them now...navy/blackish! LOVE THIS!

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  5. I LOVE & LUST it! I have been wanting to do black doors for a while now, and until now, did not know where the start/stop point was. I thought I would have to do ALL my trim black and seeing that it looks great on just the door I am all ready to do this! I am also inspired by the post that Laura said about the Martha Stewart "old" black and that she did ALL of her first floor doors... I have double sets, thats right a total of 4 french door in our study/home office and black will be sooooo dramatic! Thank you Lynda for this inspiration, and as a bonus I learned that I could use table cloths for window panels... who knew?

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  6. Love the black doors, am also a fan. SA

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  7. Many thanks to you - Angie, Sally, Sheri, Lisa, Laura, Jill and sportzmom!! I'm so excited to have inspired you - as I was just from a tweet!

    Like many of you, I was on the fence about doing this - thinking it may look too dark and having questions about where to start and stop. But after studying the H&H photos, I felt confident enough to just GO FOR IT! Like they say - it's just paint - and paint is the easiest & least expensive means of making a big impact for so few dollars. And fortunately, I already have stock in paint (don't we all some left over?) so this was a good way to recycle it!

    If you do go forth with this project in your home - SEND ME THE PICS - I'd love to see & share how it turns out!

    Thanks again for stopping by - and taking the time to comment...

    :D Lynda

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  8. Loved this project Lynda, really turned out great! So happy to see you join in some parties...great way to meet new like minded friends. Debbie

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  9. Reading is my passion. Browsing through your site gives me a lot of knowledge in so many ways. Thank you for the efforts you made in writing and sharing your points of view. Looking forward to learn some more from you. Keep it up.

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  10. Thanks for your post which is truly informative for us and we will surely keep visiting this website. We are also in same field and welcome you to visit our website

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  11. What an amazing job you did, it's just beautiful! So fresh and clean!

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