Painting Interior Doors: From Outdated Orange to Updated Gray

In the process of our kitchen renovation, we came across a minor dilemma recently. What to do about our pantry door and garage door? I had already painted all the surrounding woodwork white, but the doors were still that orange-y Colonial Maple stain.

It's worth noting that these are your average flat panel doors with no detail or interest whatsoever. Painting them white just seemed like it would be too much white, since the two doors are right next to each other. And I didn't want them to detract from or compete with my newly white upper cabinets. 

(Old picture before the cabinets were painted and the floor was removed.)

But buying some fancy new doors was not an option, so the solution had to be found in a paint can. After much debating, we finally came to our conclusion: the door to the garage would be painted to match the wall color, and the pantry door would be painted to match our dark gray lower cabinets. In my mind, it was somewhat of a bold move since all the other doors in our house are white (but they're also six-panel doors instead of completely flat). 

Here's a reminder of what our painted kitchen cabinets look like.

I had already bought a new gallon of Valspar Rocky Bluffs paint to do some touch-ups on our wall after having the entire ceiling recently re-finished (yeah... more on that project later).  I brushed a coat of Kilz primer onto the garage door, before brushing on two coats of Rocky Bluffs. (Note: I tried a roller first, but the paintbrush gave me a smoother result.)  

Since the wall paint is a matte finish, it seemed like the door should have some kind of sealer to make it easier to wipe off any smudges, etc.  I happened to have a can of Varathane Outdoor Spar Urethane in a satin finish. Is this the most appropriate choice? I don't know, but it had been used before on painted porch posts, so I figured it would work for this application too.  I applied a couple coats with a foam brush, and the resulting finish seems much more durable and smudge-resistant. 

Now, on to that pantry door. Since I was working with chalk paint, I didn't bother with a primer first. Thankfully, it only took two coats of the Annie Sloan Graphite to cover the orange oak (and thankfully this door was not as wide as the garage door). Once the paint was dry, I wiped on the Annie Sloan clear soft wax. One coat still seemed to be uneven and streaky on this type of door, but after two coats the color evened out and became richer.

{ image via anniesloan.com }

I could have also used this expensive Annie Sloan paint on the inside of the pantry door. But I still need to reserve some for our sink cabinet, so instead I decided to paint the inside white with Sherwin Williams ProClassic (same thing used on all our trim). The white also provides a brighter backdrop for the spices and other items which are hanging on wire shelves.  

Transforming our doors completely was a pretty easy weekend project.

Without further ado, here is the end result! 

The garage door blends in with the wall and kind of "goes away" in a sense, which is what I wanted. And eventually we'll add some kind of extra wood molding and a fun decal to the pantry door to jazz it up. As you can tell, we still need to install our new flooring too.

I finally hung up my DIY farmhouse-style wall organizer!

OH.  I almost forgot.  Did you notice the hinges are darker now? They're not new -- we just took them off and painted them with Krylon Oil-Rubbed Bronze spray paint! It makes a huge difference, not to mention much cheaper than buying new hinges.

Everyone loves a good Before & After.

I'm glad we chose this route as opposed to doing plain white doors. What about you? Have you ever painted any of your interior doors? 

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