Inside of doorway...which color to paint?
allinatizzy
When you have a room opening into another room or an entry hall and the rooms are different colors, how do yo decide which color to paint inside the doorway? For example, my dining room will be burgundy under the chairrail and a neutral color above. The entry hall will be coordinating neutral colors but not burgundy. Thanks for any insight.
catwoman708
It may depend on whether there are doorjambs or if there is a definite "break" in surface areas, such as the inside of an archway or a room opening without doors.If I'm picturing this correctly, in your case you might want to paint the inside of the opening from the entry way into the dining area the same color as the entry way walls (one color on the walls?). Since the dining room will have 2 different colors on the walls and a chair rail, you wouldn't have a smooth transition. If you have baseboard trim in both rooms that wrap around the door opening, then try to use the same color for the trim in both rooms if you can, for continuity.
allinatizzy
catwoman,Thanks. After reading your reply I can see I was kind of foggy. There are no doorjambs, or doors for that matter. They're all open arches and my home has an open floorplan. All the areas in question have walnut chairrail and trim at the floor. My plan is to do the entry hall and another connecting hallway in neutrals, and to do the top wall in the dining room a coordinating neutral, and to do the bottom parts of the dining room walls burgundy for a little pizzazz. I never know which room to consider the inside of the arches. Weird, I know. :)
alyssonj
I don't think your dillema is weird at all. I actually ran into that same problem when painting my own house. I have three rooms that flow into each other; the kitchen into the dining room into the living room. They all have doorways that sound similar to yours separating the rooms. I planned on painting the kitchen tan, with the dining room and living room in different shades of green, but, like you, I couldn't decide which color the doorways should be, and going half and half didn't seem to make sense at all. Before I painted there was (horrendous) wallpaper in all of the rooms, and the inside of the doorways were left white, so that's the way I left them when I painted. I think it looks just fine; anyone who's going to criticize you for the way you painted the insides of your doorways shouldn't be in your house anyway right? (haha) I think it would be okay if you painted the archway the same neutral color as the hall; I assume it coordinates somehow with the burgundy in the other room, so I don't see why that would be a problem. I also liked catwoman's idea of trying to match a paint color to your trim, but I think either leaving them white or painting them neutral would be easier.
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