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Mixing natural and painted trim

lmchardy's picture

Mixing natural and painted trim  (post #175847)

lmchardy on Sun, 04/10/2005 - 19:24
in

We are renovating our cottage - making it into a year-round residence. WE have chosen douglas fir windows and doors and I am reluctant to paint the interior of them so will be installing natural trim. My question is - would it be inadvisable to paint other trim in the same room? builtin bookcases, cove moulding, baseboards?

-A +A

(post #175847, reply #1 of 2)

by aimless in reply to lmchardy [original] on Mon, 04/11/2005 - 16:18

Inadvisable? Depends on what look you want. If you only have the stained trim around the windows, but have painted trim everywhere else, to my eye it will always look like a remodel in progress where you just never finished replacing all the existing trim. I think it will look better if the trim around windows and doors has the same treatment as the base and crown. However if you want to paint the builtins, I would add some elements, such as legs, to set them apart and make them look more like furniture, which may give you a little more leeway with the treatment.  And I would not use the same molding at the base and crown of the 'builtins' so they are visually separated.

(post #175847, reply #2 of 2)

by zendo in reply to Anonymous [original] on Sat, 04/23/2005 - 23:44

Lori,


As always there are many viewpoints. 


I would tend to feel the opposite.  By painting the buildins and moldings, I think you are recognizing the fact that they are a part of the building.  If the trim on the doors and windows were finished clear, they would be set apart, almost highlighting their existence.  If this was the direction I decided to go in, I would probably pick an oil product to really bring out the warmth of the doug fir tones, or even push that into cherrylike red stain range. 


As for the build-ins, if they were to be low profile they could blend with walls or have one color for all molding and build-ins.  I build stairs with wood treads and painted risers all the time, yachts highlight fine wood on trims and floor, with other areas white or off white.  Why not your home?  Just whatever you choose be consistent, at least within each room.


-zen