How to Paint Interior Doors

Whether you’re replacing old internal doors, installing new doors, or you simply want to spruce the place up a bit, painting your internal doors is a great choice.

External doors need a lot of maintenance compared to internal doors; however, internal doors take a look of abuse from foot traffic – maybe even more so than external doors! For this reason alone, it’s a good idea to give your interiors a refresh every so often to prevent your internal doors from looking drab.

Repainting Interior Doors

Repainting an internal door is a longer process than painting a plain door although it’s still a pretty easy process. For repainting, the trickiest step is removing the door from its hinges.

Remove the door from its hinges, use a paint stripper to remove old, dirty, and chipped paint, sand down the door, remove any dust particulars, and proceed with the steps below to painting your door.

How Do You Paint Interior Doors?

This guide is based on the assumption that you have standard wooden doors installed in your home. 

There are different methods for painting your internal doors depending on the type of door that you have; flat or panelled. However, the paint that you choose will stay the same.

For untreated, plain doors, you’ll first need to paint the door with a wood primer. The primer protects the wood from the chemicals in the paint and gives you a better surface for your coloured paint.

Once you’ve primed the doors, you can use either a semi-gloss or gloss paint for the colour. In terms of finishes, we’d recommend a semi-gloss as it dries brilliantly. You can use other types of finishes, such as matte, for your internal doors; however, a semi-gloss or gloss finish makes the surface easy to clean away any dirt.

What’s the Best Way to Paint Interior Flat Doors?

Flat doors are really easy to paint. You can use a paintbrush however, a roller is much easier for a flat surface.

Begin by priming the entire door, including all the edges. Once dry, use a paintbrush to paint your colour onto the door’s edges and then around any hardware. After your first coat, proceed to paint the rest of the door with either a paintbrush or roller. If you use a generous amount of paint, there shouldn’t be the need for a second coat; if there is, make sure the first coat is dry before you start painting again.

By being generous with your paint, you’re more likely to achieve an overall smoother finish.

What’s the Best Way to Paint Interior Panelled Doors?

Panelled doors are a little more complicated to paint than flat doors. The grooves and panels make it much harder to get an overall smooth finish and you may want to alternate between using a paintbrush and a roller.

As with painting a flat door, you firstly need to prime the wood. Use a paintbrush to prime the grooves and panels of the door and then proceed to use a roller for the rest of the door’s surface – this can also be done with the same paintbrush if you prefer.

Once dried, start by painting the door’s edges, and around any hardware, with a paintbrush first. Then proceed to paint the grooves and panels of the door with the same brush. You’ll want to be less generous with the paint with the grooves and panels than with the flat surfaces. Using a lot of paint for the grooves can result in dripping. If this does occur, make sure to blend them into the door with your paintbrush or roller before the paint begins to dry.

When you have painted all the grooves and panels, you can paint the rest of the door with either a paintbrush or roller.

As with a plain door, if you need to do a second coat of paint, wait for the first one to dry first. If you find that you do need a second coat, use the same method as before.