I agree with ctwalker, if you paint the inside of your front door white it will blend with the inside of your house especially as the door is in your lounge. On the outside a stain will look great and if you keep a path going to your front door people won't have trouble wondering where to go. All the work your doing looks fantastic keep up the good work :)

Thanks for you opinion, Judy! I will ask colour selection consultant whether I can get the same colour of WIP door as joinery doors once I hear from the builder. It has been hard to reach them lately lol

Here are the samples, although the camera doesn't really show the colour in it's true form. First up, Ball & Twine. And this is Warm Bisque. It was nice, but too cool for me. And this is Sisal, the wrong colour I bought by accident. I love the colour though, just not here. I am a little concerned that the Ball & Twine was throwing some green (although I love green), but I really love it in the rest of the house. We have those late 1990’s terracotta coloured tiles in the back room to consider as well. that room will have a terracotta, stone, charcoal look, I think, when we are done. Anyway, comments on the samples?

thanks How2girl and siriuskey for comments. I've since found out the shellac underneath the lead paint is more easily removed with metho, but the timber is still uneven - bleached in parts, and then when I tried to wash the metho off with water, it's left grey stains and water marks! What a learning curve. Siriuskey, getting painted items professionally dipped seems sensible with hindsight, given the total chore of safely removing lead paint, then the shellac.... then the resulting stains I note also there are two types of timber, one for the framing and another for the infill panels....glad to hear these came up well for you SK Looks like I may have to stain the bleached timber to get some warmth back, but then will try polyurethane you both suggest.