I'd like to paint the molding and door in my master bath to brighten up the room (currently a dark walnut stain and fairly scratched up). Here's my dilemma: The bathroom door leads into a MASSIVE master bedroom. Painting all the doors in trim in the MB would be a huge project that I don't want to take on right now. Also, the dark wood looks fine in such a large space. Would it be OK to just paint the bathroom side of the door? If so, how would I go about it?

Thanks!

 

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Your painting question has been moved to the Painting Forum for tips on how to paint the inside of your bathroom door.

 

Yes it would be fine to paint only one side. It is done quite often. To paint over stained woodwork requires a bit of prep first. The surface needs to be sanded, cleaned [ I like to wipe it down with a deglosser] and primed with a good oilbase bonding primer. Then you can finish with either latex or oil base enamel. It will take 3 coats [total] You may want to caulk the woodwork after the first coat of paint as this will give you a cleaner looking job. When painting the door you also want to paint one egde of the door. If the door swings into the bath paint the 'toe' edge [the side where the lockset is] if it swings out you paint the 'butt' edge' [where the hinges are] The woodwork is painted up to the door stop. This way everything that goes with the bath is painted but when the door is shut all you see is stained wood from the bed rm.

 

"toe-edge"

"butt-edge"

Thanks for those terms, I always stumbled when trying to explain what those edges were called.

 

my 2¢: i wouldn't paint the door. leave the door stained and just paint all the trimwork (base moulding, door & window casing, etc). it's okay (and very attractive) to have painted woodwork with stained doors.

then, someday, when you're ready to tackle all the doors, you can paint them all at once.

 

We have a Victorian house with very heavy large trim, and our bathroom door is painted white on one side, with the original dark trim on the other. The back of the door is painted, along with the sides, since the door opens in and that's what you see in the bathroom. The part of the trim that the door actually touches when it closes is also white. What's not painted is anything that you see from the hall side when the door is shut. It looks fine this way. Make sure you go over the door with a sander before you paint. (You don't have to strip it or sand it down all the way, just enough to make sure the paint will stick.) Hope that helps and good luck!