What colour to have the pocket doors?

4 years ago

Soooo... flooring is down! pocket doors go in tomorrow and the painter is back tomorrow to finish the walls and to do all of the woodwork including the new doors... (final stretch!)

They're telescopic doors, so quite a large proportion of the total width of the wall.

Basically, I'm wondering whether we should should stick with white architrave and doors like all the others in the house, or colour match to the wall they'd be on, so that when shut, they blend into the wall more.

Issues - would it be too white and too much of a big expanse if they're all white?

would it look weird having white skirting that then ends at the door and the architrave?

From the living room side it's old school house white (bad lighting in the pic) and the kitchen side it's the new F&B Ash grey which has quite a green ting. Both of them stand out quite a lot to the ceiling and beam which is just white..

Does the idea of colour matching the door only work when all the skirting etc is also the same colour? (I definitely don't think I could persuade the OH to consider changing the skirting colour! LOL)

Featured Answer

Anthony (Beano)

4 years ago

Yes your correct:-) id probably paint the doors and the architrave (pink) the same as the wall to blend in, even the architrave in white wind be too bad as it will match the rest of the house! I assume the skirting is white?

worst case is you have to repaint but go with your gut first! It’s generally the only way to tell if it works or not.

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Comments (24)

minnie101
4 years ago
I suppose it depends on whether you want to make a feature of the door or not, what style of door is it? Given its purpose is to close off a room, rather than something like the little yellow pantry door, personally I'd want it to blend in. It's also quite large so would be quite dominant in white. You could paint the architrave the same colour.
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
Yea, I think I'd imagined it like your 2nd picture, but given the skirting will still be white, I wonder whether it's going to look weird having the skirting and the architrave a different colour?

I suspect we'll often have the doors open anyway.. but yea, the plan had been to try and get it to blend in a bit more, but not sure it'd actually work?
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minnie101
4 years ago
My last pic was meant to show architrave and skirting a different colour but here's another, I can't find one with pocket doors but effectively the same. I think if the architrave is white you'll just be "framing" the door (bad choice of words as it is a frame!) so making it into a feature. i would do the architrave the same as the door but no right or wrong :)

HAve you got a moving in date yet?!
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks Minnie, I think I might go with painting both the wall colour, agree I wouldn’t want the architrave a different colour to the door.. and I think you’re right that having the doors the same Colour as the walls is probably better
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
We are already back in! Mainly living upstairs but the kitchen works... will probably be end of next week before we get all the furniture back in downstairs though!
pmasmith3
4 years ago
Gabby I don't really know anything about pocket doors, but do they need architrave?
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
Valid question - It depends on the type of pocket door system used, you can get frameless ones that don't need them, however ours do.. I don't think they could do frameless with the telescopic doors as well.
Anthony (Beano)
4 years ago
id be painting them all the same colour tbh, after all, you did get them to enable them to be hidden away so I’m sure you don’t want them to stand out too much when they are Out and about! :-)
rachelmidlands
4 years ago
Hi Gabby. The new space is coming together really nicely:) I think I’d agree and say same colour as the walls or the school house white on both sides. Love that green colour, can I ask what it is? I remember you posted about it before but couldn’t remember what you decided on:)
Gabby Wong thanked rachelmidlands
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
I think you're right Beano - our walls aren't this dark, but definitely think the white with white looks better!

Just hope it doesn't look strange the skirting being white still.. but think it'll be ok
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks Rachel! The dark green is a Valspar shade called Salty peat (R264B) .. the paler green in the kitchen is Ash grey (F&B new one and colour matched) I'm not sure the ash grey works quite as well with the grey units as I thought it did when I chose it unfortunately... but I do like the colour.. oh well - it'll do for now, and if I need to change it later I can always repaint it when I have some time again!
Anthony (Beano)
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Can you not paint the skirting around the door the same col as the walls and have the ones around the floor white? Sorry if I’m not picking this up correctly

are your walls not white too?
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
do you mean the skirting on the pocket door wall the wall colour and the rest of the skirting in the room white Beano?

I'd never get the OH to go for it... he really likes the skirting being a different colour to frame it.. I'd briefly considered having the skirting on the dark green wall the same colour as the wall and he vetoed it!

if you mean the architrave around the doorframe, then yes if we paint the doors the wall colour the architrave would match the wall and the door colour ?
Anthony (Beano)
4 years ago
Is the architrave in the surface of the wall where I have marked in red (like the single door in the kitchen in the background?
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
My understanding is the purple = skirting and pink = architrave (but happy to admit I may be wrong on this! Lol)
Gabby Wong
Original Author
4 years ago
Yea the rest of the house has white skirtings, architraves and doors (but they're cheap simple 6 panel doors where as these doors are just plain)

I'd hoped the doors would have a base coat of white on them so it would be easier to see once the doors went up! but alas they've arrived unpainted.

I think you're all right.. colour the doors and architraves the same colour as the walls, and then as you say can always change it and repaint it later.. (but that way I'm changing it to white (which I think I still have some of)
JJ
last year
Hi Gabby, what colour did you go with in the end? Would you mind sharing a photo of the doors fully open? We are using the same system (I think), and I can’t find any images of the doors fully open. Thanks in advance.
sharon sutton
last year
I recommend using the dark green colour to echo your end wall and link the rooms.

We have done this on our pocket door and it looks great.
Gabby Wong
Original Author
last year
Sorry JJ! I completely forgot to send the pictures over.

In the end we went with doors the same colour as respective walls, (so different colour on different sides of the doors, then the arcitrave matched the walls/doors to make it look more seemless. The skirting colour stops at the arcitrave.
Gabby Wong
Original Author
last year
Excuse the mess
JJ
last year
Hi Gabby, thanks so much for sending the photos, it looks great. Our doors are now in. One more question - there is quite a big gap between the two telescopic panels (around 10mm, I can put my finger between the panels). I have tried to show the gap in the attached photos. Do you have this and do you find that a lot of sound gets through the doors because of the gap? I was wondering if there might be a way to use some type of brush or seal to improve the sound insulation.
Gabby Wong
Original Author
last year
I think we actually have a larger gap than you do! Definitely get sound leakage, however tbh we don't shut them that often.

We have a brush edging between the frame and the doors on both sides, but not between the doors themselves.

I think the issue would be attaching it now that the doors are in (unless you can take the doors off easily still. as it'd either need to be at the front edge of the door that stays nearest the walls, or the back of the one that meet in the middle.

Definitely worth trying to add if you're able to.

other thing to consider if sound insulation is very important, we had the handles.. we had the finger pulls that sit on the ends of the doors? but i'm not entirely sure if it's just how they were inserted, but they dont sit 100% flush, meaning when shut there's a slight gap in the middle as well.

We said about trying to change it, to get them more flush, but they'd have essentially damaged the doors trying to pry them out by that point! 🤦🏻‍♀️
JJ
last year
Thanks Gabby, that’s all really helpful. And thank you for mentioning about the leading edge finger pulls, I hadn’t thought about that. Thank you for your time in answering.