It's totally up to you, but personally, I like all my interior doors and trim the same.

tina

I disagree completely with this - it really depends on whether the color of your front door works with your interior. Our interior door has a wood stain and the exterior is black (has been red) - neither of those colors would look good on the interior of the door....silly, silly blanket statement

This one kind of stumped me too when we built our house last year. It was something I never even given any thought to before but after the builder asked what I wanted I started looking at model homes and paying attention. And all I found was there's no consistency, it's done both ways. I wanted the outside of my door stained so I actually had the interior stained also even though I have white trim. It opens into the foyer where there's a staircase with a stained banister and wooden steps so I think it looks fine. Just go with the look you want, either way works.

Thanks for your input! It really wasn't a blanket statement in this article, but just a suggestion. Either was would work for my door, just trying to decide what to do!

Personally, I think it's a silly suggestion.

You can't ever see both sides of the door at the same time, so why should they match?

For most of us, the exterior door color doesn't coordinate with our interior color scheme.

I suppose if it DID coordinate, then that might be a reason to do it, but otherwise, I think it's silly.

Just me.

Yes -- the answer is: What color works best for the interior of the home?

In our little home -- the front door opens directly into the one-and-only living space (with the dining space off to one side) The inside of the front door was painted white to match the trim and the wall color! So it "disappeared" and cut out some of the visual clutter .....

I am seriously considering doing this, but that is in part because the exterior of my door is actually the same shade of red as the colour of my dining room, which is also what you see straight ahead of you when you walk into the house. I think it would tie the foyer into the view from the foyer, get it?

Right now the interior of our door is a pretty stark white and a few people have seen it and commented that we should really paint it a darker colour both to ground that wall more and to tie it better into the rest of the house. However, just because this will work here doesn't mean that it should be a rule... I agree entirely with what previous posters have said about making sure it's right for your particular circumstances.

If it's a rule, it IS silly! But of course it can't be...too many gorgeous homes with colorful exterior doors getting along just fine, thank you! Mine is an almost black exterior and white inside. Designers say silly things all the time:>)

We have two front doors, but one sits back at a distance. It's really more a side door that happens to be on the front of the house. Anyway, the painted door is different on both sides ... on the interior it matches the white trim. The mahogany door is natural on both sides.

I have red on the exterior, white on the interior.

While the red goes great w/ the exterior colors, the white on the interior keeps it cohesive with the rest of the interior doors.

Additionally, the side & rear doors are painted the body color of the house, and white on the interior as well.

We have double doors (builder grade - have not changed them just moved in) but like the color. They are painted burgundy - inside and outside - same color. We have a large foyer, so I like the color on the doors. In our prior much smaller house we painted the interior white (like the rest of our doors) had it been a color I think it would have looked out of place. If think it depends on the house, foyer size, and what the color is. I don't think you can make a blanket statement about it...

This whole idea has caused me great concern. I ended up going with my gut--I'm happy even if it isn't orthodox. My exterior and interior are mahogany (ebony stain), and interior trim is the same trim as throughout---white gloss. It looks awesome and I am thrilled. I find it slightly annoying that people worry about what others think. Do what you like---who cares? If resale is an issue, worry about it when you are ready to sell. Otherwise, enjoy your creation (spoken by the woman who agonized over EVERYTHING for the last 10 months). Oh well...

Back when Lynette Jennings was no TV she was into painting the door inside and out with color. She recommended that the inside of the front door be the same color as the wall. I had a accent wall on the far side of the room that was a shade darker than the walls. I painted the door to match the accent wall and it really looked nice.

I noticed someone posted a photo of their bedroom here and they had the door to the bedroom painted the same color as the wall. I thought, hhhmm, wonder if they watched Lynette. LOL

Guess it comes down to personal preference.

I have a mahogany door and it is mahogany on either side. I really want to paint it but after the fight I went through with to get my oak cabinets painted from both my DH and #3 son, I am not sure it's worth the d*mn fight.

I would never want to paint the inside of my mahogany door!

newhomebuilder, I can understand that. My door was steel so it was painted anyway. Your door is beautiful.

We have a mahogany door for our new house and no way would I paint the inside.

I wouldn't want to paint a beautiful wood either, and can understand that with the interior and exterior the same finish, it feels calm and smooth and more cohesive without a color shift as you're opening and closing it. But when painting, often the exterior wouldn't work with the interior so it's a must to do the inside differently. Now in our house growing up, the exterior was painted and the interior stained!

There just isn't one-size-fits-all for these things.