Painted Trim Conundrum

Posted by Kristin Abraham Jan 13, 2007

January is my "vacation" month. My writing work is a bit slower and the pre-holiday rush to get houses painted is over. Usually I take a vacation and spend a few weeks in Florida, which I've done. Then I try to find some time to do things I've been putting off. This year I'd like to wrap up all the projects I've started around my condo.

The Pergo laminate wood floor is installed in the office and I'm going to order more for the landing and the master bedroom. I wasn't sure if this was what I wanted but now I've decided that the second floor will be all hardwood (or the Pergo alternative). So now I can paint the office. Which means the trim as well as the walls.

My condo was built in the later 80's and the trim is that standard brown that most homes have but the doors have their own "charm". Someone went extra cheap on them and bought doors with a pinkish tint. I don't know if the stain came out wrong or what but it's really ugly. So I want to paint the trim upstairs white to make the rooms seem a little bigger, much fresher and cleaner. Not that the tiny baseboards will do much but the windows are old and worn and a fresh coat of paint will do a lot. And the doors will no longer have that pinkish hue. Ok. So the upstairs trim gets painted white.

And what of the downstairs trim. I have the same ugly door dilemma on the main floor. But the dilemma goes deeper. The fireplace has wood trim, that frankly I love. It matches my bookcases (which hold yarn for my knitting projects), my tv stand and my console table. It sort of matches the trim, similar to the window trim anyway. So I do not want to paint the fireplace. Then to add to the confusion, I'm painting my kitchen cabinets black (cherry wood doors may be added later). So painting the trim in the kitchen white would look a little silly. So the solution I came up with this morning (and it's early so I'm not entirely convinced) is to paint the downstairs trim all black. I've seen it in decorating magazines lately and it's pretty stunning. Really sharp and it would set off the wall color just as nicely as white does and it's a bit unexpected. The fireplace and my furniture already have black accents (metal trim work) so I could leave those pieces as is.

I'm just having a hard time adjusting to the idea of black trim on the main floor and white trim upstairs. Since the flooring is different I have an obvious transition point, but I'm still debating this bold move. Maybe all the trim should be black?