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Refreshing interior woodwork with colour

Woodwork — doors, skirting, architraves, windows, panelling — is a tenth of a room's surface and half of its character: repainting it changes everything without touching the walls. Six approaches, from the quietest to the boldest: a vivid accent, a match drawn from a fabric or a paper, a dark shade, muted woodwork under a coloured wall, coloured windows, tone on tone. Always in a multi-surface finish: Eggshell, Satin or Gloss.

Page updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team

Panelled door and its architrave painted a mid grey-green in eggshell, in a warm white wall, oak floor, window light — Serpentine No.192 on the door and architrave, Whitehall No.9 on the wall: the woodwork becomes the room's drawing

Why start there

The small job that changes a room

Repainting the walls of a sitting room takes a weekend, empties the room and commits a colour to 40 m². Repainting its woodwork takes a day, moves only a sofa, and commits a 250 ml tin — for an effect that is often greater, because woodwork draws the room: it frames the doors and windows, traces the floor, cuts up the walls. Changing its colour is redrawing.

It is also where you dare. A shade you would not risk on four walls — a deep green, a brown-black, a confident yellow — sits very well on a door, because it is surrounded by the wall that calms it. And if you tire of it in five years, a day is enough to change it.

Six ideas

Six ways to treat woodwork

1. A vivid accent on one detail

A single piece of woodwork in a confident colour — the risers of a staircase, the inside of an alcove, the edge of a door — in an otherwise neutral room. The move is small, the effect immediate; keep it for lively rooms: hall, stairs, kitchen.

Risers · Circle Line No.45 Walls & treads · St Clement No.11 Banister · Blackout No.41

2. A match drawn from a fabric or a paper

Take a secondary shade — not the dominant one — from the curtain, the wallpaper or the rug and give it to the doors and skirting. Fabric and woodwork answer each other, and the room looks composed. In a guest bedroom you can go further than in your own.

Woodwork · Bloomsbury No.267 Walls · Holland Park No.5

3. The dark shade that draws

Woodwork is the easiest place for a dark colour: a brown-black, a bottle green or a slate grey on doors, skirting and architraves, under light walls, cuts the room out like an ink drawing. A softened black is better than a pure one.

Woodwork · London Brown No.287 Walls · Cadogan Stone No.59

4. Muted woodwork under a coloured wall

When the wall carries a soft or sweet colour — a pink, a sky blue — woodwork in a grey-green or a greige holds it to the ground and avoids the sugared-almond effect. The wall stays light; the woodwork gives it weight.

Woodwork · Serpentine No.192 Walls · Palmerston Pink No.243

5. Coloured windows

A window gets all the light: a colour looks livelier there than anywhere else. A golden yellow, a blue-green, a soft red on the frame, skirting and doors staying white: the view is framed. See How to paint a wooden window frame.

Window · Golden Square No.131 Walls & skirting · Whitehall No.9

6. Tone on tone, one family

Walls in one tone, woodwork in the deeper tone of the same family: harmony is guaranteed because the pigment is the same. It is the principle of monochromatic schemes, and the safest of the six.

Walls · Threadneedle No.262 Woodwork · Soho Pink No.266 Door · Rothschild Street No.296

Staircase with risers painted a confident golden yellow, treads and walls grey-white, an almost-black grey banister, seen from below — The vivid accent: Circle Line No.45 on the risers, nothing else changes

The finish

Which finish for which woodwork

Woodwork gets touched, scuffed and washed: always a multi-surface finish, never the wall emulsion. The three finishes below exist in every colour, water-based, recoatable after 3 to 4 hours, over a Multi-Surface Primer wherever the wood is bare.

Finish	Sheen	For	The look
Multi-Surface Eggshell	≈ 15 %	Doors, skirting, architraves, panelling in living rooms	A soft sheen, close to the matt of the walls; washable
Multi-Surface Satin	Mid	Banisters, stairs, kitchen and bathroom doors, hallways	More resistance to hands and knocks; a little more reflection
Multi-Surface Gloss	High	An inside front door, reception-room woodwork	The lacquered look; demands perfect preparation

The choices in detail, room by room: Which finish for woodwork and doors. Preparation, sanding and priming: Wood finishes preparation.

The method, in brief

Repainting woodwork in five moves

01

Wash, sand with 180, dust off

The sanding is what gives the key on an old satin or gloss finish; without it, the new coat flakes. Fill chips and joints with wood filler.
02

Prime the bare wood and the repairs

Multi-Surface Primer, one coat, rubbed down with 240 once dry. On sound old paint in a close shade, it is not needed.
03

Doors: panels, then rails, then stiles

Smallest to largest, along the grain, in thin coats laid off in one direction. Open the door to paint the edges; leave it ajar until dry.
04

Skirting and architraves last

The line against the wall with a cutting-in brush, the flat with a flat brush or a small roller followed by a lay-off. See How to paint skirting boards.
05

Second coat after 3 to 4 hours, then three weeks of care

The film is dry that evening, hard in two to four weeks: avoid knocks and hard washing until then.

To avoid

What unbalances woodwork

Two different whites in one room. Doors in one white, skirting in another: the eye sees the discord without naming it. One woodwork shade per room.
Pure white under a warm wall. It looks blue; a matched off-white makes the difference.
Wall emulsion on a door. It wears through at the hands in a few months.
A vivid colour on all the woodwork of a small room. The frame eats the wall; an accent, a family, or a dark.
Forgetting the edges and rebates. An open door shows its edges: paint them in the colour of the more visible side.

Finished sitting room: matt warm white walls, door, architrave and skirting in a mid grey-green eggshell, linen armchair, framed picture — Serpentine No.192 on the whole woodwork family: the room has found its drawing

Frequently asked questions

Your questions, our answers

Should all the woodwork in a room be repainted at once?

Doors, architraves, skirting and windows form a family: yes, in one shade and one finish, unless one element is a deliberate accent. Two slightly different whites in one room is the most common fault.

Can varnished or waxed woodwork be painted?

Varnished: thorough sanding with 120 then 180 to dull it, Multi-Surface Primer, two coats. Waxed: remove the wax with wax remover first of all; nothing holds on it.

Which woodwork colour with white walls?

Anything is possible; it is the simplest case. A grey-green or a greige for softness, a brown-black or a deep green for drawing, a yellow or a blue for cheer. The wall white is chosen to suit: warm under warm woodwork, grey under cool woodwork.

And panelling?

Panelling is treated as woodwork: Eggshell or Satin, in the skirting's shade or the wall's. Painted in the colour of the wall above, it gives texture without cutting up the room; in a deeper shade, it makes a dado that anchors.

How much paint for a room's woodwork?

A two-sided door, its architrave, one window and 15 m of skirting come to about 8 m²: one litre of multi-surface finish for two coats, with a little to spare. A 250 ml tin is enough for an accent.