Black Magic

So. I have never shown you a real picture of our entryway. Let's do that right now:

On the other side of that pony wall is the dining room, and the mirrored doors hide the coat/paint/tools closet. Behind me is the opening to the kitchen.

It's not very big, but it gets the job done. It's also totally boring. Even for a person who doesn't use a lot of color, this is really blah. Ever since we gave the front of the house a facelift, I've been toying around with the idea of painting the inside of the door. We had plenty of both colors left, so I might as well do something with them, right? I decided to try Sprig of Ivy first. I was getting ahead of myself and thinking about how nicely the green would play off of the dining room chairs when I stepped back and noticed a teensy problem:

It matched the walls. Fail.

This is a big lesson in making sure you test a paint color in a room before you get started. I knew the color would read differently indoors, but in this case I thought "different" would only mean "darker." I didn't think it would pick up so much of the tan. Luckily, I had the sense to step back after painting the first panel. (Note: if you ever paint a door, do the indented parts first because it's easier to blend using a roller on the flat surfaces.)

So this is when I switched gears. I had been thinking about the other color, Black Magic, for the door anyway, but was a little nervous about it. It's a big deal to paint something black because if you don't like it, going over it with another hue is really annoying. But I couldn't very well leave a random green rectangle on my door, so I just went for it.

BOOM! So glad I did.

I also put a rug back over there (from HomeGoods), and plan to change the art that hangs over the dining room console. Not sure what will end up there yet, hence the pile.

I have two favorite things about this. One, the tone-on-tone effect of dark hardware on a dark door. It's just so gorgeous, and I think putting a different metal on it would have lessened the impact. And number two, I actually like that it's not a color at all. I thought I wanted something vibrant, but now that the black is up there, I realize I just wanted contrast. A color probably would've stressed me out anyway, let's be real.

More pictures will be coming after I get the artwork situation figured out.

Have any of you painted the inside of your door? Or maybe your other interior doors are a fun color? Have you ever had a paint color look great in one spot and totally wonkus in another? Do tell.