As you know by now, I’m planning to build a new closet in the master bedroom in the nook where our bed used to be:

We’ll be using bi-fold doors so that they don’t stick out into the room further than necessary when they’re open. Even though bi-folds aren’t always the prettiest thing, I came across enough pinspiration to know that I could make something look good in our space.

One option I considered was buying flat doors and then adding trim in whatever pattern I wanted, ala a lot of the examples online that I found myself liking. My first choice was to buy something in a style I liked if possible, though, since there’s no point in doing more work than needed, amiright?

I didn’t like a lot of what I could find and what I did like was mostly out of my price range (I need four of them, so that adds up quickly), but then I came across this option from Lowes that I thought fit the simple, clean look I was going for:

Even though it has slightly raised panels and isn’t just purely a shaker style, the vertical and horizontal lines are what really pop out and I think with the right hardware it will look nice. With a gift card my stepfather got me for my birthday to help offset some of the cost, I pulled the trigger and brought four of these home with me one Sunday afternoon.

Before painting, I knew I would need to sand and prime well — raw wood will soak up paint very quickly and lead to a rough finish, so both these steps are crucial. I also knew that painting around the hinges would be more trouble than it was worth (and I might want to change the finish on the hinges too depending on what kind of knobs/pulls I pick out), so first I removed all the hinges and set them aside.

Then I laid out the four doors (now eight doors since each bi-fold has two parts), using my large work table and open floor space. I propped the ones on the table up on small dixie cups like I did when painting my kitchen cabinet doors to make it easier to paint the edges, and for the ones on the floor I used paint cans to elevate them just a bit more and spare my back.

The doors were actually pretty smooth to begin with but I knew that they’d get rougher once I primed, so I decided to prime first and then sand everything smooth. I used two coats of Kilz low odor/Zero-VOC primer to ensure maximum coverage:

And then went over the fronts of all the panels with 220 sand paper on my orbital sander (I also used a sanding block to do the portions of each door around the raised panels that the orbital sander couldn’t get to).

This is a new palm sander that my dad got me for Solstice. My old one drove me crazy because the dust collector would always shoot off and spray sawdust everywhere unless I held it on with one hand while sanding. The new one is awesome — the dust collectors works great, and it’s trigger activated which means that when moving between multiple pieces it’s easy to put it down for a minute without having to mess with an on/off button (because I just let go of the trigger).

And that’s where the project stands now! I bet you hoped/assumed I’d be sharing a complete project with you…. But I’m a little stuck because I haven’t actually picked out a paint color yet. Here are some options I’m considering:

Black

I’ve painted doors black before (not in this house, though) and I love the simple, clean look. I think with white walls, this could look neutral and classic but also interesting.

Navy Blue

A navy tone would also pop against light walls and obviously be a little more colorful than black. BUT, I already have a lot of navy in my house (like my kitchen and back door) — would this be a tie in, or verge on too much?

White

White is another classic option, especially if I decide I want to go with something other than white on the walls.

Something bright

Since no matter what we’ll be keeping the walls fairly light, a totally opposite direction is to do something bright and colorful. Something like mint would tie into the colors in our quilt and in our leaning mirror.

So now maybe you can see why I’ve gotten stuck at this step in the process — there are just so many great options to choose from. What should I do?!?