How To Get Your Door Color Right When Color Drenching A Room

To everything there is a season, and it seems like color drenching has been trending for several trips around the sun. Although social media has popularized the act of cloaking an entire room — walls, ceilings, moldings, and all — in a single shade, color drenching actually dates back several decades, and, odds are, somebody applied the splashy practice even before that. But even with the apparent surge in odes to monochrome, and its relative simplicity, questions still arise. What about doors, for example?

Color drenching devotees should soak doors, too, according to experts, in whichever hue they've chosen for the greater space — but those pesky edges can get tricky. This is doubly true if you've done a double drench in two adjoining rooms. After all the hard work of picking a color and actually rolling and swiping it onto your space, you don't want to just pick a side and hope for the best. Instead, drench any door edges with the color they open into.

Imagine you're standing in front of a door right now — or even navigate to your nearest threshold. If you pull the door open toward you, the edge you're drawing in should match the room you're in, for the full color drench effect. The opposite hinged edge facing the adjacent room should match that space's color. The top and bottom you should really just feel empowered to leave alone, unless you're desperate to impress birds and ladybugs.

This detail work might seem like an easy afterthought, but you should actually treat it with the same care and attention as any larger paint project. Remove the door's hardware — unless you're some kind of tape maestro. Flatten out the old dropcloth to catch any drips. And know that a roller will probably be a more efficient way to get a nice, even coat without any brush strokes. Double up on coats, too, if that seems necessary to fully absorb into the rest of the room. Other tips and tricks for painting doors include choosing the right finish and picking properly sized tools.