Painting Doors and Jambs, What Color?

by Sandi
(USA)

I am going to paint the hallways in our house. My uncertainty is regarding the doors and door jams. Our house is about 40 years old. The doors (to rooms and also closet doors) are hollow wood and are stained and varnished.

I have removed all baseboards and door trim boards. My plan is to paint the baseboards and door trim boards the same color as the walls. What do I do about the doors and door jams? All of the rooms that the doors lead into are painted different colors than what the hallway walls will be.

Answer

I will do my best to explain your options.

Option 1

Paint the doors and jambs. Usually doors open into a room. This gives you two surfaces to be worried about, the door side facing the hall and the hinge edge. These surfaces can be painted the hall color. The remaining surfaces can be painted the room's color or whatever color you want. Plan on painting both sides of the closet doors and all edges.

The frame also needs to be painted. When the door is closed it rests against a molding, this is called the "door stop". If the door opens into a room paint to the moldings edge. Leave the remaining surfaces for the rooms trim color, including the latch edge and hinge attachment edge. For the closet door frames paint all edges showing when the door is opened.

Option 2

Paint the jambs the same as the base or casing and the doors another color. I’ve done this many times and it looks great if the right color is chosen. The frame can match the base and casing while the door can be accented with a lighter or darker color. Paint in the same manner as mentioned above.

Option 3

Paint the frame to match the base or casing and either restain the doors or leave alone. This depends on the condition and color of the doors.