Painting Interior Doors Black

I love the look of interior doors painted black. The look is so polished and elegant. My entryway needed a little something. Something to make it feel warm and welcoming and I thought painting the back of the door black would do just the trick. 

I always have a quart of black semi gloss paint around. You'd be surprised how many projects you can come up with that can be painted black. That enables me to do projects on a whim, like paint a door black. It was so simple to do.  I didn't really follow any particular lesson or example on how to paint the door, I just went after it.  It did take about four coats though.  So don't be afraid as you're in between coats, it doesn't look good until that last one.   

Here are some basic guidelines for painting any door:

• Doors take a lot of abuse, so choose a durable finish that has a semi gloss or gloss sheen for easy cleaning.  

• You will need multiple coats to get a uniform appearance.

• Tape off your lock, door handle, windows, etc.  Painters tape is your friend! You don't, however, need to take your door off the hinges or remove hardware. 

• There are two schools of thought for order.  One, start with the panels, then the horizontal sections and vertical sections.  Or two, paint the top panels, horizontal section and vertical section before working your way down the door and repeating the process on the bottom (I painted all panels first).  I also stuck with a brush and didn't use a roller.

The black paint makes the front entry feel complete.

The look turned out great and I decided to go ahead and do my garage door as well. This door takes a lot of hits and I was constantly wiping smudges. Painting it black was a great solution to cover up all those marks. It looks great with less cleaning, that's what all home solutions should aspire to be!