I like it…but I do think you need to choose your interior colors with black doors in mind.
My view…no fingerprints!
cb, what a wonderful surprise! I’m eager to see how it looks. I’d never do it in my own house – I’m way too scaredy-cat for that – but I can’t wait to see you do it!
Almost every one of those photos with the black doors had rooms with elaborate trim – crown molding, wainscotting, elaborate door trim and the like. The black doors look nice in that kind of room, but without all the trim, I think the the doors would look stark.
And even in a setting in which black doors would be at their best, there will be some significant percentage of the population that won’t like them. I personally would not go with black doors.
I think black doors may be a bit much. But super dark brown doors would go with the whole French Mediterranean look. Espresso.
Envy me - I walked over to the flip this afternoon and got a personal guided tour from cb, for which I am very appreciative. Let me just say that the views from the second floor are phenomenal. Or do I mean spectacular? Or perhaps awesome - you get the idea! I didn’t want to leave the second floor. I would move in there and never budge, just sit and soak up the view of the ocean to the horizon, the waves breaking in Ocean Beach, the curve of the seashore, the La Jolla hills, etc. I complimented cb on her vision of the views obtained by crawling on the original roof earlier this year.
From outside the front door, you can barely tell there are any major changes going on. And even inside the front rooms- yes, there are tons of changes with walls and doorways and windows. But the basic bones of the house aren’t way different. All of the additions, however…even though they are really skeleton at the moment - no walls - you can really get a sense of how it will all come together.
Happy to answer any questions on what I saw!
I wish I lived closer 
Thanks for the sweet words Marilyn.
TODAY’S DESIGN ISSUES - Three in a row!
I showed Marilyn a couple of these issues
Kitchen - The original vinyl windows in the kitchen were in good condition and were located perfectly, so I did not take them out. Now, as we get closer to final white walls, these windows look dirty and dingy because they are a greyish tan color (official name of color - Sandstone). They are going to stick out like a sore thumb in the kitchen. It is too late to tear them out because drywall is complete on interior with bullnose over window edge and stucco is done on the exterior. So… I am going to have to get creative with this design issue. Either the stove niche wall will be a slightly different color than the ‘white’ in surrounding areas or, more likely, I am going to tile up the stove wall as a tall backsplash. Whatever tile I choose will have to neutralize the window color.
Hey… I have been known to meticulously spray paint the vinyl !!! that might happen
Living Room - So, my entire vision has been dark door and window trim in the living room area. Just like all my inspiration photos. So, I purchased interior high grade semi gloss in same color as the dark bronze exterior of the windows and doors outside. They start painting it on the windows in the living room and it looks awful. I’m going to give it one day to see if I walk back in and like it but I’m pretty sure we are back to painting samples all over the place 
I’m guessing I need to go more brown to compliment the ceiling color
Dark Doors - Then I get one of the paint guys to paint a sample on the hallway door of the same dark bronze color (which pretty much looks black). If I have to change all of the window trim color away from this dark bronze, my beautiful dark bronze doors are going to look really strange next to the other window trim. However, viewing the doorway itself (isolated from future window color), I think it kind of looks good down the hallway.
I have loaded pictures of all of these design problems (and some other stuff that happened today) to our Flickr Group. Not sure the photos are high enough quality, or that there isn’t just too much distracting stuff all over the living room to help you all visualize the issues.
I need to find those photo links from the beginning of the thread with the spanish style living rooms / fireplace styles. One of the photos has a gorgeous bright white living room with wood ceilings and black french doors. That was what I was going for
I think the dark trim looks good in the photos of the living room windows. It gives them depth and definition. It is really hard to tell in pictures, however, how it looks in person.
I’ll go back again tomorrow morning and try to take better photos and give it a day to sink in. I may purchase some brown paint to try to compare.
Is post #1635 the one you want? I found it by putting Spanish into the search for this thread. One of these rooms?
http://www.houzz.com/photos/5320081/N-Mission-Hills-mediterranean-living-room-san-diego
http://www.houzz.com/photos/27991626/Berkeley-Craftsman-House-mediterranean-living-room-san-francisco
Maybe if the living room windows were dark brown, just a shade darker than the ceiling wood? I think that bronze/black might be too much contrast with crisp white.
I’m not sure how I feel about the bronze/black hall door. When I first saw the photo, I thought there was no door there, just a dark opening! How are those three windows in the hallway going to be painted? That should have something to do with the door decision.
Everything is just lovely and getting really exciting!
Yes Marilyn… similar to the look I’m trying to achieve. But I could swear there was one similar to those photos where the ceiling was the brown wood (remember the design decision ages ago on whether to keep ceiling natural brown???) and the french doors were blackish brown. But now that I look at those photos I can see that the windows/doors are a deep brown
The windows in the hallway near that hallway door are going to be the same trim that I decide for the living room
I watched 2.5 hrs of “flip or flop” on the plane home today. I could not do what you do, @coralbrook !
I watched a new Flip or Flop this weekend where they did a house in Torrance. They spent over $80,000 pushing the hillside back and doing a beautiful patio design. I just couldn’t figure out how they were going to recoup that investment because all my eyes could see was the horrid house next door with blue tarps all over it. But somehow they came out OK… why doesn’t that ever happen to me???
They did create a huge kitchen with a really large island that was very nice.
You posted this early on but it’s even a lighter color wood: http://www.houzz.com/photos/1091094/Spanish-Revival-Home-farmhouse-family-room-other-metro
Yes, that is another one with similar ceiling. I was kind of going for the door color on the right of the photo but I think my color is too dark. Back to the drawing board (paint store) !
I like the dark window frames. Definitely looks better than white, IMHO. Can’t tell from the photo whether they are too dark.
I’m not as keen on the door. Would you be painting the window trim to the right dark also?
Regarding the kitchen windows, can you replace the window sashes but not the frames, and paint the frames?
I cannot change window sashes because I cannot find the original window company. As far as I can tell from my research the prior owner ordered these windows from Sears and the brand is Certainteed which is no longer in business. They changed names about 5 yrs ago and the exact color and style is no longer available. I took most of them out because installation was horrible and they weren’t sealed right. We sealed up the kitchen windows
One sash is removeable but other side is fixed
As usual, went into Home Depot and picked up 3 samples of new paint colors. Was looking for a black/brown color with a hint more of brown. Get back to project and all the new colors look pretty more like existing color. As usual colors look different in a room with the natural light. Looking darker than on paper