I’m renovating a 1928 Spanish Colonial. My current project is restoring the [inswinging] kitchen door that leads to the side of my house. The interior side of the door is white, the exterior side is brown. The lock edge of the door is white, the hinge edge is brown. The door jamb and door stop on the exterior side are brown.
My question pertains to the interior portion of the jamb (including where the lock and hinges are) and the interior facing door stop. Is the doorstop the “demarcation line” and the interior portion of the jamb and door stop should be painted white (to match the door and interior casing) or should the whole jamb/door stop be painted brown (because they are not technically “interior”)? Or the whole doorstop brown and the interior portion of the jamb white? Is there a traditional way to do this or is it a matter of personal preference? I can’t use other doors in my house as models for various reasons.
The doorstop is generally considered the demarcation line for paint color, specifically the outside corner of the doorstop that abuts the door when it’s closed. Unless you’re specifically looking for contrast, you want the door, jamb, and trim to appear to be of a uniform color when viewed from either side with the door closed. You might get some argument about what color to paint the edges of the door (which aren’t visible when the door is closed), but I think most people would paint them to match the adjacent jamb. If this isn’t clear I can try some ASCII art.
I was planning on painting the side of the stop that abuts the door white (the interior color). Is that correct? As for the hinge side of the door, I think the school of thought is to paint it the exterior color because the only time it will be seen is from the outside when the door is open, therefore it should flow into the exterior color. Make sense?