Fill and sand any damaged or rough areas. Then give them a cleaning with ammonia and water. Then prime with Zinsser B-I-N. It looks like milk, goes on thin, dries very quickly, and makes the new paint adhere excellently. It will give you a smooth surface to paint to. You use ammonia to clean the brush after priming. I have also found that ammonia is great for cleaning latex paint from the brushes, etc. DP

In the old farm house I live in, the prior owners did not paint the back of the closet doors. Everytime, I see the unpainted door, I think to myself, what a half ass job ! Of course the person who decided not to paint the back of door, is long dead by now, so what difference does it make? I would paint it, in this type of real estate market, you do not want to take any chances on selling a house. If a potential buyer saw the unpainted door, it may ruin the sale.

You could still get doors with window panes even if you buy new. I saw a dressing room in which all the doors were solid on the bottom, but had glass on the top. The homeowner put shirred fabric on the inside of the doors so you couldn't see inside. Another idea if you want to add interest can be to insert one or two drawers underneath the closet. If you saw the movie "The Breakup", they had a closet at the end of a hall that looked like a built-in armoire, with a drawer underneath and doors above. My contractor is going to make some of our closets like that, and essentially all you would do is elevate the closet by a foot or so and give it a floor. If you didn't want the drawer, you could just have wood trim underneath.

Hi sjhockey fan. Thanks for the warning. I have seen both the milky and frosted options in the showroom. I don't care for the stark opaque white of the milky glass. (The laminated option looked better, but for a 30% cost upgrade.) The frosted has a sandblasted textural "softness" to it that I like. I could only see a little bit of clothing color through the frosted glass in the display closet. If it is a problem once installed, we will add Solyx film (or maybe light blue painted or fabric panels) behind the glass to increase opacity.