OMG, I used to have a real thing about painting the inside of the closet to match the room. NO MORE! It's enough work repainting the room without having to empty the closets and repaint walls that are rarely ever visible! I have gradually worked my way through the house painting all of the closets white and I don't expect I will ever have to paint them again.

Definitely white. You don't want the color of your clothing to reflect the color of your walls. Let's say your walls are taupe... all your clothing in the closet will look taupe-ish.

Plus, you want the inside of your closet to be as bright as it can be so you can see, right?

White....I can't even imagine repainting a closet full of clothes every time the wall color in the bedroom changes?!!?

heeheee, my foyer closet is hot pink and so is the upstairs linen closet. i think of them like the lining of a gray jacket

Bee's closet was the first thought that came to mind. I painted our coat closet a contrasting color in a shameless attempt to do a similar effect. I think I might have gone too mellow, but won't be sure until the hallway walls are painted and the excess furniture shoved in the hallway near it gets moved. I also painted our bedroom closet a different color and I think the effect was wasted in that case. I think the bright pop of color is so pretty with the mellow color on the outside. I have a raincoat with a wild lining and a normal exterior and it reminds me of this look too.

In general, white. I do like special purpose closets to be a fun, contrasting color. Love the analogy of a coat lining, Bee! Coat closets and linen closets are the perfect place to go a little wild. Nearly all of my sheets and duvet covers are white. They vanish against white walls. It's also the prefect place to use a color that I'm mad about for the moment, but wouldn't dream of using on an entire room.

Every inch of trim in our home and every door is mahogany stained wood. We have chosen to keep our closets the same color as the rest of the room, all earthy colors. Ther is no way I'd go with white.

Unless I hit the lottery, I don't anticipate every having the extra time or money to get to the point where I can do anything to "decorate" my closet interiors. But I LOVE BKW's closet.

I've found it far more practical to paint them all white, but certainly colors can be lovely too.

One thing for sure is that I think they would all have to be neutralized for resale, so there is another practical consideration.

The people who built our house did all the paint in something similar to Navajo White. It all looks dingy white. I am repainting all the trim/doors in a crisp white and adding a bit of colour to the walls. I wish they had done the closets in builder white, because I won't be spending the money painting them.

My new WIC is painted a different colour. It was a small room next to the master, which I added a door to and connected it to the master. I was able to paint before having all the shelves/rods installed. It has a window, so it has more of a dressing room feel than a closet feel. I have an oriental rug in there and I'm looking to add a small chandelier.

Sounds very, very nice Chispa. I don't have any walk-ins and a walk-in with a window sounds super nice!

None of my closets are white, and we can tell the colors of the items inside just fine!

Bee, I LOVE that pink closet!

Anyway, I painted my daughter's room and closet in SW Queen Anne's Lace about a year ago and liked it, but just this weekend I repainted the closet white while I was painting all the woodwork in her room. In fact, I used the same white semi-gloss paint for the closet walls that I used on the woodwork. I wouldn't do this in all my closets, but thought that the semi-gloss would clean so easily in my kids' closets!

I had my new closet painted the same color as the bathroom - cream, definitely not white, even in bright light - because it also has a dressing room feel.

Last night I hung up some new blouses bought on a trip and the beautiful warm olive green turned a very ugly muddy khaki! I'm not sure though that it is the color of the walls, more likely the tone of the light bulbs. I have not noticed that dramatic a color change in any other clothes I have hung in the closet.

Thanks for all of your advice. I think I will go with white since we will be downsizing and selling within the next few years.

I painted last summer and the closets match the room. I can see the colors of the clothes just fine. Even if that weren't true, I know what color things are, so I don't really care because I love the color when I open the doors.

Now, Bee, what color is that exactly? I love it and now have a new project on my list-the linen closets! :)

When we moved into our 1780 colonial last year, we had a kaleidiscope (sp?) of closet colors: baby blue, a golden yellow, bubble gum pink! And none matched the rooms since they were all wallpapered and the closet colors had no connection to the wallpaper. So every one got a coat of Kilz and then were painted white. In one closet that connects 2 rooms, I got wild and used some purple paint I already had on the 2 cabinet doors. I'm still considering painting the trim on the window in that closet the same purple. And maybe the insides of both of the doors. I know, I'm just out of control :)

I remember removing at least 5 or 6 layers of WALLPAPER from closets in my parents' house (which is from the late 1800s.) I couldn't believe that people bothered to wallpaper the closet, but I guess once there was one layer, they had to keep repapering it if they repapered the rest of the room, or else it would clash terribly.

I would say it depends on if the closet is a regular, relatively small closet, or is like a separate room. And, of course, wood always looks good - some people have entirely cedar-lined closets, whether they're large or small. So they don't always have to be white. But white is standard, and I certainly don't want to have to repaint the closet every time I repaint a room. Personally, since as I have mentioned I always consider resale issues, I would not paint my closet anything but the lightest, most neutral color (if not white.) Closet color is one of those things where you can picture a buyer opening the door, and saying, "eew, that's so dated!" or "What were they thinking??? We're definitely going to have to repaint that." I like to minimize things that seem like, er... "errors in judgment".... because I think they raise issues about how the rest of the house might be maintained. (We're not selling in the immediate future, but probably in 2-3 years, and I don't want to add to the list of things I will have to redo in order to add wider appeal to my house.) And if you are someone who really loves to express yourself through color, you can probably still keep it to the more visible non-closet areas of the house, and feel perfectly "fulfilled".

I love that pink closet... but I note there are no clothes hanging in it.

Then I try to imagine a bunch of coats hanging in it, and my head starts to hurt a little.

Texan, another thought... we did a couple of our closets white semi-gloss.

SEMIGLOSS??? I hear you all screaming. Yup. They were kid's closets. The SG made the closets SO easy to clean!

Just a thought.

(**Just to add - I had not scrolled all the way through and seen the pink closet picture before posting my comment. My comment is not commentary on that particular closet.**)

cyn, it's BM razzle dazzle.

mclarke-no clothes in it because it is the coat closet for guests in the foyer. Family coats in back hall. That's the pooch's coat. I also did my upstairs linen closet, and it looks great with all the white towels in it.

I'm putting the house on the market very soon, and there is NO way that is going to be painted. I think it is a fun little surprise, and seriously, if a buyer won't buy my house because of that closet, well, then they are just using that as an excuse. They must hate something else like my taste specific kitchen.

I've painted every closet that same as the bedrooms, bathroom or main rooms, but only because I refurbished all of the closets and had the opportunity to paint. Not something I would want to do very often, however. But I do have my eye on the kitchen pantry and would like to do something fun in there. A color that's unexpected but one that won't detract from my kitchen (yes, it too needs to be rearranged and organized, a good time to paint).

I paint all my closets BM Decorator's White.