Would you consider stripping and staining the interior to match the exterior? We did that with our front door.

Are you sure it's veneer? If it's the original 1915 door, it's probably solid oak. Would you consider stripping it down to the wood?

love your front door annie--- what company made it and what is the width dimension?? thx!

I think this was it...or else it was doors by decora...not sure.

Anyway mine are 8' high and 5 1/2' wide.

But it looks like they might be cheaper at doorclearancecenter.com....

Here is a link that might be useful: manor house doors

Yep, sadly we're sure about the veneer--the messier history of this door is that 5-6 years back, I got it in my head that I should strip our woodwork (because it is gorgeous stained oak and elm underneath, finished in shellac so easy to do the initial stripping). But it turned out to be a much bigger project than I bargained for--the bottom layers were lead paint, and over the years chunks of the trim had been patched and painted over, etc., so it was far from pristine. I stripped the door interior at that point, thinking it would match the outside. Turns out to be a douglas fir door that they had applied an oak veneer to the outside of, which I learned was common in our area as a cost saving measure. The interior fir is pretty imperfect, but possibly it's worth exploring what professional stripping would entail--my DIY approach was not effective with it (got some of the paint off but some was pretty embedded) so I think we'd need to remove it and do a full strip somewhere, but even then I'm not sure how high quality the finished wood would be. (I did explore, at one point, applying a veneer to the interior too, which is apparently a possibility, so I could reopen that.) To complicate it, though, I've since repainted everything I tried to strip, so not sure if that makes it harder to re-strip at this stage...

I think black would be handsome with Golden Retriever. If you want something more dramatic, how about turquoise or a deep teal? It's just a door... easy to paint over if you do not like. Although I'm sure you're paint-shy after your prior experiences. I know how something that seems so do-able initially can evolve into a monstrous house project.

Thanks for the clarification about the veneer.

Is there an area rug in the foyer near the door? A piece of artwork on the wall? Any colors there?

Thanks--the black door is lovely! There is a mirror immediately across from our door that's framed in stained wood--would actually match the fir quite nicely if we were able to salvage that. Above is a light fixture with red/purple/ochre colors (sort of an arts and crafts Tiffany glass type thing), but it's pretty subtle (and is also not on enough that you can see the colors to start). Otherwise, only other color is a mahogany band at the edge of the flooring. I think that's why I've been so stuck.

I like the black door rtw posted...very rich and classic.

Maybe a very dark gray would look nice? You can't go wrong with black either.

What kind of flooring?

Can you pull the brown/dark red from the mahogany strip, and use that color... very glossy... ?

Then paint the mirror frame the came color.

Would that work?

thx annie!