To hate my new build orangey doors?

[Diy322]

I hate them but people are telling me it’s high quality wood and I should leave it alone. I’ve been looking at social media and YouTube tutorials for inspiration and lots of people commenting in other peoples posts about how tacky their doors look with paint and how the natural wood looked lovely! I personally like the after look. So my question is will painting the doors make them look cheap and tacky? I’m thinking either black or a beige colour, here is what they look like right now:

p.s. the picture I’ve just uploaded doesn’t reflect the real door colour for some reason! I’ve taken loads but it’s actually really orange in real life here it looks more muted.

The doors are like this in every single room! I can put up with upstairs but the hallway I feel I need to make it look better and it looks really awful. DH has no opinion other than everyone else has same doors! Which is true but it really bothers me m. I feel it doesn’t look cosy and I hate my hallway

I don’t think I would paint them. I think painted they would look cheap. Could you not replace them if you really don’t like them?

@ninjahamster i like the doors they’re heavy and not hollow but it’s just the colour I don’t like I feel they look cheap. Buying similar doors would be expensive. What even are they are they oak?

I don’t think those will look very good painted. As pp said, if you really don’t like them, replace the doors rather than paint them. Depending on how long you’ve been in the house, I’d try to live with them for a while and see if they grow on you or they fade nicely. If they’re teak they will fade.

Or maybe try some sort of treatment on the wood rather than paint.

Cross posted, they look like teak to me. It fades quite quickly in garden furniture if you don’t keep oiling it. Mines gone silver. It will be different indoors though.

Stain them

Yes you can get wood stains that can make a big difference. You would have to sand them first but you'd have to do that for painting them anyway.

Some tik tok videos I’ve been watching with similar doors and the transformation is amazing! But I’m scared to do as not sure if I could do it,

They look like decent quality doors! I don’t think they’d look good painted.

Ive painted doors like this and they look fine painted. Put in the work on the prep though.

@boobot1 are you able to show any pics please? In terms of prep do you mean sanding, cleaning throughly then primer then paint?

I would just oil stain them. Then you’re also protecting the wood as well.

So this is what I’m hoping to achieve - can this be done with stain only? Would it have to be paint? The picture below is taken from a video online the before was exactly the same colour as my door and this is the after which I absolutely love:

That's not stained, it's paint.

You don’t have panels on your doors, yours are just flat so might look very plain when painted

I'd stain them a lighter colour, get rid of the orange - watch some you tube videos on how to do it and before/after looks

Blimey don't touch them they're just different. Try to go with it. Theyre modern and attractive.

Agree that they are awful. But, unless your house was ££££££, they won’t be solid wood, they’ll be veneered and yes you can absolutely paint them. Ideally you need to remove them, properly prep and paint them and get a joiner to rehang. Much cheaper than replacing them.

That door is oak. It’s very very unlikely to be solid oak. Even if the door is heavy it is most likely to be engineered wood with oak veneer. Solid oak doors would be £400-£600+ whereas veneered would be a quarter of the cost.

This means you could give it a light sanding to prime it for paint, but if you sand it too much you will go through the veneer. Paining could be problematic because the 2+ costs of paint it would need would thicken the door to the point that it might not close.

As others have said, change the doors. Ones similar to the one you like in your second picture are available for about £100 each. You could sell your old doors and make a profit.

I am sorry but honestly you are going to struggle hard to achieve this as a DIY project.
Professionals can do it bit it will cost £££

I totally understand your stance on "i don't love these doors" i dont love them either tbh but they are clearly high quality... I had this with several things in my house (notably the imo fucking awful dark brown wood effect built in wardrobes in the master that cost 5k!?!?!) I was adamant i could NOT live with them...
in my case i looked at wrapping them / ripping them out etc but ended up "working with it" we did the walls a mid dark muted green (playing card green i think?) and now i think the wardrobes are nice/okay and I saved myself a tonne of cash and time

My advice would be to get colour swatches and get wall colours that go with the doors instead of pushing greys which will look weird.
Otherwise you are looking at prep prime and paint on what? 9+ doors???
Its madness!

Your mid option is sand and restain...
Bit I'd decorate to harmonise the doors.

Whatever you decide please do update this thread though

Strip the varnish and go for a darker stain.

It’s your house so if you don’t like them, 100% change them! Life’s too short to live with doors you don’t like. Personally I think a stain might look better than painting, so a really good sand then just buy a stain suitable for interior wood (ask people at a diy shop to point you in the right direction) and follow the instructions on the tin. ChatGPT is really helpful for giving brand reccomedations and tips for use. If you’ve got any hallway cupboards with doors like these maybe try it on the inside of one to test you are happy with the finish before doing more of the doors like that. Good luck!

Thank you everyone for your advice. I will definitely think carefully about what you all have said. I’ve just done some research on a few houses up for sale in the development and it looks like some people have painted. This is one pic - the door is exactly like mine isn’t it? Or am I seeing things?! I can see the same grooves in my door but this is sideways so more pronounced

Yeah this is what I’m thinking as even the wardrobes have the same doors I can go inside if wardrobe first