If you have wood windows....

[statlerwaldorf]

We just moved in. The windows are a dark wood, but the front door is a light wood. It is driving me crazy. I am thinking about painting it because I don't think I could stain it and get the same look as the old windows.

[moonlight]

We have windows that are oak on the inside, white vinyl on the outside. We have oak trim, so the windows match it, including the sliding door. The front door was a white steel door with oak trim, but I painted the inside of it a maroon color.

[FoxInFiji]

Our wood windows are white aluminum clad on the outside. I would have loved to have had an ivory color but the cost of such an upgrade for the windows, trim, doors, garage door trim, etc. was a fortune so we stuck with white. White is easy to match and the least expensive color. Instead we're picking a siding color that will work well with white and mixing things up a bit with dark wood grain garage doors and front door to contrast the white trim. Plus we have two windows in the master bath that are fiberglass which only comes in white and they don't have the same trim options as the wood windows so we used a PVC Azec type trim which only comes in white. Yes we could try to paint these ivory but this is our forever home and we don't have to be repainting these for the next 50 years if we don't have to. We've done enough climbing up and down ladders repainting our current wood windows as it is.

A house I drive by to work everyday has a combination of white and ivory trim and let me tell you it looks horrible even from a distance. Stick with one color. If your patio door is white and doesn't have to be painted I would stick with white and save yourself some maintenance in the future.