The Doors

When I was in high school and my high school boyfriend broke up with me for a red-haired girl, I was super sad/mad about it so I did what seemed like the right thing at the time:  I started dating one of his friends.  This guy had a Doors poster up in his bedroom and I also liked the Doors.  Seemed as good enough a reason to go out with someone as any. Because people are strange when you're a stranger.  Or when you're a teenager making lame decisions.

Anyway, despite our mutual appreciation for the Doors, that relationship was ill-fated, as one less angry about getting dumped for a red-haired girl could probably have determined from the start.  After one disastrous date, we never went out again.

But today I've been thinking about doors, which made me think about the Doors, which led me to open this blogpost with an anecdote completely unrelated to the rest of the post, therefore resulting in this awkward segue.

Now onto the real stuff.  Here is the backdoor to our house:

(ignore the shelf with the one plant in the center--I'm not finished with it.  Also, hey Coop.  At least for once you're not photobombing with your butthole.)

I do not love it.  It is not wooden.  It is metal.  Metal made to look like wood looks like fake wood, if you were wondering.  It feels very "country" to me (much like the light switch plate next to it, which I'm so over).  We also put up bamboo blinds back here for just a bit of privacy and the whole room, with the brown couch and wooden entertainment center, feels so brown.

The door had to go.

I had most of a quart of gray paint (Seal by Martha Stewart) leftover from painting the front door at our old house, so I decided to just use that since it was (1) free and (2) available the moment I decided I could not want another moment to do this.  So on Sunday afternoon when Zuzu went down for her nap, I turned on season 2 of Scandal (I'm obsessed and I totally want the coat that Olivia Pope wears in this season) and busted out the painting supplies.

I ended up with this:

You can see I've "styled" this corner by adding a flashlight to the shelf, our swim bag on the bench, and a pair of flip flops, Coop's dog chew, and a pair of socks on the floor.  This style is called "lived in."

It's okay.  I like it better than the fake-wood-brown, but I don't love it.  I actually really like the color itself (if you're looking for a true, dark gray, I recommend it!), but I don't care for the way it looks with the wall color (they are a grayish color that I like just fine, except for next to the gray door where the previously-gray walls suddenly look... kinda brown).

The problem is, I'm not sure what I would like better on the door.  I was considering a punchy color--like a bright red, or maybe the slate-blue from the dining room--but I don't know that I want the door to be such a focal point since it's on a main wall in the family room.

Now I'm thinking I'll probably end up repainting it in the glossy black I had originally planned on.  (Too bad I didn't have black paint on hand.)

What do you think?  Keep it gray?  Paint it black?  Paint it blue?  Paint it red?