All About Painting Windows Black in the Interior (2024)

See the difference in painting windows black and learn how to paint your own interior windows. Plus, details for painting vinyl windows, too.

Our backstory on painting the window trim black

For the first five years of living in our dated 70s house, we were on a shoestring budget for house projects. Honestly, a tight budget can put you in the right mindset for creativity so it's not the worst thing in the world.

Thrifting to make my house feel more like us and very inexpensive hacks were pretty much all I was doing when it came to decor. My style, of course, has evolved now but a few of those decor projects are still around such as the feather art and the $5 wood frame hack.

As far as renovation projects, I mostly stuck to using paint to transform spaces or things. I still remember loving the difference on the candle sleeve project as well as the sunroom! Both of those projects were totally different but they drastically changed what I had originally.

So, when I was stuck with what I had in our eat-in kitchen, I turned to paint. I had the idea of changing our white windows to black windows and thought that would help give the space a focal point. Honestly, nowadays, I wouldn't want my black trim windows to be called the focal point. To me, now, they are a layer to my design but, back then, there wasn't much design cohesiveness going on. I needed something to be excited about and help inspire me for future design decisions (as budget allowed) in that space.

So, I grabbed some paint and went to painting my interior windows and the door in my space. Let's get to the before photo then the how-to and I'll explain the process.

Dated eat-in kitchen BEFORE adding dark window paint

Not the prettiest of before photos, right? I always like to share these to encourage you (and me) that everyone has to start somewhere!

Ok, so before we jump right in to the paint for windows, supplies, etc., I want to share that we have ALL WOOD windows. Our windows are original (early 70s) and so this tutorial is for wood trim. At the end of this post, I will include a few other tutorials and one specifically meant for painting vinyl windows. Ok, here we go!

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Supplies needed for painting window trim

• Liquid Sander Deglosser
• Paint Brush
• Painter's Tape
• Kilz (or other good primer)
• *Benjamin Moore Advance paint (we had this color-matched to Cracked Pepper by Behr)

*Personally, I think Benjamin Moore Advance is the paint to buy for wood projects. This was recommended to me years ago at a speciality paint store and we've had really good experiences with it. It's pricier than other paint but, in my opinion, for anything wood-related... definitely worth it.

Painting Windows Black How-To

• Decide how much of the wood trim you want to paint.
• Using a rag, follow instructions on deglosser bottle to degloss the original wood trim. Basically, this is wiping the solution on thoroughly to really clean the original wood to help prep it for paint.
• Tape off windows and any walls.
• Using a good primer and a paintbrush, prime the window trim.
• Let dry.
• Apply a light coat of your top coat paint.
• Follow instructions for dry time (Benjamin Moore Advance has a longer dry-time, FYI).
• Apply another light coat of paint.
• Again, allow for the dry time.
• Paint your final light coat of paint.

When I first did the black windows, it was at least 8 years ago. Here's a photo of how the black window interior looked then:

I'm really happy to say that it's 2023 now and I still love having the dark interior windows! I'm not sure if you can tell but our trim isn't pure black. We used Cracked Pepper by Behr (but color-matched to Benjamin Moore advance) on both our windows and door.

We loved the look of the interior windows so much that we did the same window paint treatment in our dining room. I feel like it just gives the whole space a collective warm feel.

If you've been hesitant to paint your window frames but love the look, I want to encourage you to go for it! It's just paint and you can always paint the window trim back to their original color if you don't like it! I recently shared some great inspiration for dark windows in the kitchen so you can get an even better idea of what yours might look like.

I know there will be a few more questions on painting windows black that I've found are better answered elsewhere. Let me chat about spray paint and vinyl window trim for a second and point you to some resources to help with questions.

Can you spray paint windows black?

Spray painting indoors can be messy but it definitely can be done. If you want to learn how to spray paint interior windows, check out this post on getting modern window frames with spray paint.

How do I paint vinyl windows?

Painting vinyl windows requires a bit more research, but you can do it. There's vinyl safe colors that don't use black pigment which is what causes a bunch of peeling and issues. Here's a great post on how to paint vinyl windows that will walk you through the tutorial on what to do and what to use.

ps. If you've been considering enlarging your windows as well, I'm a huge advocate of that type of project, too!