Do I Match the Trim Color to the Door Color?

Up until more recently, typically interior doors and trim were all just white. We didn’t give them much thought and concentrated more on the walls. These days many have been painting interior doors, most often the front door, different colors. However, once a door is painted a color it leads one to ask, “Do I match the trim color to the door color?” I recently was asking myself this question about our front door and side door to the garage, let me show you what I came up with!

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The Doors BEFORE

Here are the two doors I’m talking about, the front door and the side door that leads to the garage. These two photos are from years ago, and as you can see they were originally white with white trim.

Years later I decided to paint the doors dark gray (SW peppercorn). I didn’t paint all of the interior doors of the house, just these two as the “main entrances” of the house.

Do I Match the Trim Color to the Door Color?

Eventually I started to wonder if I wanted to paint the trim to match the doors. There is really no rule or right answer here, it’s a matter of preference. To help me decide if I would like the look of it for sure or not, I searched the internet for some similar examples. Here are some screenshots of what I came up with. It really helps to visualize it!

Examples Where the Trim Matches:

From How to Nest for Less

From Southern Hospitality

Notice that here the sidelights are painted but the surrounding trim was not.

From Hana’s Happy Home

Examples Where the Trim Is Left White:

From The Girl Guide

From Creating Mary’s Home

Do I Match the Trim Color to the Door Color? My Answer Was Yes!

The Doors AFTER

After loving the examples and every time I saw it done anywhere, I decided to paint to match! There are several reasons why I am loving this new look. Overall, I feel it has made everything looks more cohesive and finished. It really showcases the color and gives a richer feel and more of an impact. The front door area appears bigger, too. Again, there was nothing wrong with what it looked like before, and I really didn’t hate it! However, I think the answer to “do I match the trim color to the door color?” for me was YES!

Painting Tip

When picking out the paint sheen, keep in mind that dark colors show more shine than lighter colors. I didn’t want the doors to look too shiny, so for this darker color I went with a satin finish. I really like the more matte look it created!

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