Okay okay okay I am trying not to be TOO excited sharing this home update but AH! I have been thinking about painted interior doors since the day we bought the house, itching to get it done. If you’re catching up, we bought a house sight unseen. (Welcome to being a military family moving back from overseas). It was built in 2009 but is covered head to toe in shiny brass fixtures for some reason. My first mission was to swap out the brass lights in the living and dining room. The amazing $55 matte black chandelier can be seen here.
The next biggest thing that has been driving me nuts is our doors. The levers are dated and every single hinge creaks. The previous owner tried to use WD-40 and left black marks all over the trim from it. I know spray painting is an option. Just not one for me. 😂 I cannot stand spray painting things and it never lasts. I wanted a permanent update, not a temporary one. This is a project we budgeted for when we bought the house, and it cost us less than $500 to update everything. Worth every penny IMO.
 Seafoam/Sage Painted Interior Doors
If you have known me for more than like 3 seconds, you already know what color I picked for the doors. 🤣 My perfect seafoam, sage kinda green-gray-blue. I think it is more seafoam but my interior designer mother always tells me the correct thing to call my color is sage. lol. The color is Sherwin Williams Contented. 🥺 It’s the perfect name for it, honestly. It gives our house the perfect coastal touch without straying too kitschy. The walls are Sherwin Williams Pure White and the trim will eventually all be that as well, but in a high gloss trim paint. Right now it is a white I do not know the name of. I have painted the trim around the door frame, but not on the floors.
Painted Interior Doors Supplies
Alright so you only need a handful of things for the painting really. I’ll tell you what I bought and how I used them, and I can honestly say it went very smoothly for me. A few of these links are Amazon Affiliate links, and I earn from qualifying purchases! (Thank you! It helps me keep writing fun blog posts like this for you!)
- Liquid Sandpaper (a MUST. This stuff is amazing. It cleans and preps the doors)
- Clean rag (I just used an old dish towel I didn’t care about)
- Trim brush like this or this
- 4″ paint roller (really, any that say good for cabinets or trim)
- Cabinet/Trim roller cover
- Interior Trim paint of choice. (I used this Lowe’s SW paint)
New matte black hardware
The biggest expense for this project was definitely the new levers for all of the doors. Mine ranged from $25-34 a pop. There are obviously differences between privacy door levers, and passage door levers. At the time I am writing this post, you can still buy some of the “old version” of my levers, and save yourself a few bucks a knob. The difference is in the screw placement, as well as the corners on the square. The newer versions have a very slightly more rounded edge on the corners. Totally not worth the $5-9 price difference. lol. I ordered the old ones where possible! I needed the new for my master bedroom doors because I need the dummy handle on the left side (they are french doors) and that only came in the new.
- Passage door handle
- Privacy door handle
- Amazon Basics Matte Black hinges $25 for 18 (remember, you need three hinges per door so this covers 6 doors)
- Ilyapa Matte Black hinges $30 for 18
I tried both hinges just to compare. Plus the Amazon brand were taking forever to ship. They both worked great! There ARE also quite a few knock offs of the Halifax lever on Amazon with relatively good reviews. They bring the price closer to $23/lever HOWEVER every knock off I found had reviews saying the strike plates or another piece were not a standard size or shape. That means an extra step of chiseling out your door or buying a new strike plate. The hassle of added steps was not worth saving a few bucks to me. The Halifax levers fit seamlessly into my painted interior doors existing chiseled spaces, and I knew I could get more at Lowes or Homedepot if Amazon ran out.
Painting and Installation Tips
First of all, DO NOT take your doors off the hinges! The very last thing you will do is replace your hinges, and you will do it one by one, starting with the middle hinge, so you don’t ever have to take the whole thing down. It is much easier to paint the doors if they are hanging up, especially if you need to paint both sides. DEFINITELY do the liquid sandpaper step first. It doesn’t take very long, and you will not believe how gross your doors are! Then use the trim brush to paint the recessed parts of your door, and the roller to do the flat bits. Paint in even strokes using the direction of whatever piece you are painting. My doors needed about two coats and then a bit of touch up. Maybe a coat and a half with touch up.
When they are dry, you can install the hinges or levers. I did levers first but maybe in hindsight should have done the hinges first? Not sure. Levers first worked for me! Honestly, installing door levers is WAY easier than I thought though! If you read the instructions and have a drill, you can change one out in less than two minutes. That is pretty much all there is to it! I got six main level doors painted and swapped out in about two days. The upstairs is next on my list!
