Urgent - Under stairs cupboard decoration advice (photo incl)

[Dizzy2014]

Hi,

We are having an under stairs cupboard put in and my husband has voiced some concerns about the exterior decoration of the cupboard door. Our hall has a dado rail going all the way around it and my initial idea was to have the cupboard door plain and a push to open door, it will will go up to half way on the cream area. A photo is attached of how the area looks currently.

My husband is saying it will look odd if we don't get the skirting board and dado rail put onto the new door. He also thought we should only open up the outside area up to below the dado rail, uumm we are not hobbits!

Has anyone done anything like this and could show me a photo either adding the dado rail and skirting board onto the cupboard door or not adding them.

I hope that make sense, the builder is doing this week so please help!
Thank you

Surely you just remove the dado rail from that area?

You either have a proper door that matches other inside doors in your house, a plain white door with a nice handle (matching other inside ones) or try to disguise it completely (as your husband wants). It would look very weird if you try to only half disguise it.
It's a cupboard door - don't try to be too clever!

I would just put in a plain cupboard door and paint it the same colour as your other doors. It could be created to look like wall but I think it would look odd tbh.

I'd have a proper door in a frame, that matches the other doors.

Yep, plain cupboard door painted white (gloss or matte) to match the dado and skirting.

I agree, you need a proper door in a proper frame painted to match the other woodwork. An inward opening door is a mistake, a total waste of cupboard space IMO. An outward opening door would be much more practical, allowing you to have shelves on the wall opposite the door and hanging storage on the back of the door. Those switches that turn the light on automatically when you open the door are brilliant to have in an understairs cupboard

I’d do something like this. You can’t see it clearly, but it has the detail on the door which your h is taking about and I’m assuming the push to open function you want.