This weekend, Rob and I bought a door salvaged from the University of Illinois' Lincoln Hall at the Preservation and  Conservation Association's architectural salvage warehouse.

We were so excited about the purchase that we went ahead and put up our sliding, bathroom barn door. I will post incredibly detailed instructions about how we (OK, Rob) did it soon.

But first things first – I need your vote. Should we leave the door alone, or paint it white?

We went to PACA looking for an already-painted door with a glass inset. There were plenty of qualified candidates, but we found ourselves drawn to the salvaged university doors with numbers and writing painted on waffle-textured glass. (Actually, the writing is on the front and the texture on the back.)

All those doors came in varnished, the PACA volunteers told us. So after some careful searching, we decided to buy the university door and think about painting it.

(Side note: If anyone local has a another cool use for a white door with a glass inset, get your butt to PACA. There's a door there with a window that opens. It's the coolest thing, but it was too short for our purposes. It totally would have beat out the one we bought if it had been tall enough.)

Now, I have serious guilt about painting over any natural-colored wood, even though the door's finish is not in good shape. But I really love the look of a white door with frosted glass. And I'm also pretty sure our hallway will seem bigger if the door is the same color as our walls.

But the door was too big to take to the basement first for painting, so I was going to have to paint it in the hallway anyway. (It's taller and wider than any of our doors, which is why it fits so well over the bathroom's entire door frame.)

Rob and I were so excited about having all the ingredients for the barn door that we spent the entire day yesterday hanging it, sans paint. Once we hung it and took down the traditional bathroom door, we both decided we really like the wood finish.

When it's open, you see into the all-white bathroom. The wood-finish barn door doesn't seem to take up too much visual space when it's open.

So I'm torn – should we leave it? Should we paint it white? I need your opinion.

(Sorry the second picture is so dark - it was dark outside by the time we finished yesterday.)