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Paint Design Dilemma

Cedar Trim, White Door Jambs? New wood doors? Help!

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

Hello,

I have a cedar home and I've been slowly replacing the cedar trim and baseboards and doors. So far the doors have been painted 15 light fibreglass exterior doors but as I move upstairs I have four old wood interior doors that are beyond repair in some cases unless painted. I painted one already but it is still a cheap hollow door.

I'm tryting to decide if I should replace them with solid knotty wood doors or painted doors.

In this case, would you replace the jamb with new wood as well or paint the existing jambs if you did a solid knotty wood door? It seems odd to have a wood door with wood trim and painted jambs but I can't picture it to see what would be correct.

Additionally, the closet doors were beyond repair and they have painted jambs with stained qtr round trim. I'm trying to make it cohesive but I can't see what's best!

Any thoughts? Thank you!

Photo 1: New painted exterior door that is visible from the rest of the space - I want to match interior doors to this look and feel

Photo 2: Damaged door & jamb - repaired & painted - Replace painted door with knotty wood door? New jamb or leave it painted?

Photos 3 & 4: The other three doors, two old damaged dark wood, unpainted jambs, one more painted door & jamb - Replace with knotty wood? New jamb or paint?

Photo 5: There's a funky old set of double closet door with louvers there too I don't know what to do with.

Or should I just paint all the doors and jambs and trim them in cedar as well?

Photo 6: Closet DoorsWood trim, painted jambs - would you do wood doors or painted closet doors here? Maybe paint the qtr round or does it look ok?

Comment (1)

summit968
2 years ago
Everyone has different tastes and styles. My personal preference when it comes to wood or log homes is cohesiveness and distinction of what is accent and what is the main feature. For example in your first picture, it would be nice to have a solid wood or knotty wood door walls all over the house where only the doors and windows (with their respective trims) are solid white or vice versa. Mixing them is challenging because the materials are different and wood carries more visual weight so when your eye sees it, there is competition happening.

In the first pic for example, I would actually paint out the knotty pine trim around the window and door so that they look seamless and your eye flows over them or put in a window and door that are knotty pine and keep the knotty pine casing/trim. This way you have a clear distinction between the "feature" and the "accent" whichever way you go.

For your louvered doors, if you want them to disappear, paint them out in white along with the trim. If not, re-stain them along with the rest of the wood doors and baseboard trim.

My two cents worth! Best of luck!
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Well, since the inside jambs are primed pine I think I need to paint them, not sure they'll take stain (not a gel stain or penetrating stain at any rate). The casing is wide enough to cover the white jambs b/t the sidelights and wall, and maybe I can pull off the cove and replace it with stained. But can't do anything with the white b/t the door and the sidelights. I did try a dark red (color of my heart hanging on outside of door) and it looked nice outside, but can't do that inside with green walls. Plus I really hate to paint - the whole idea was this house was going to be no/low maintenance, last house was all wood (cedar siding and pine trim that we don't know what original paint or stain was, everything we tried wouldn't stick). Unfortunately, it's hard to work with this pic since the door is shadowed by the porch. I'll have to wait til tomorrow when it's sunny and the sun is low to get a better picture. BTW, you can't see my house from the street, so I really don't care about it "popping" LOL
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