Why I’m Painting the Wood Trim in My Home

Andi Young-Newton

Good call. I understand the issue of preserving historical significance…but it’s YOUR adventure. I’ll be over here waving a foam finger and cheering you on. :)

People are still crapping themselves over the fact that I painted the exposed brick in my kitchen. It’s dark in there! It’s MY darned kitchen! *shakes head*

Janet

We have really beautiful wood trim in three rooms of our 1920’s home (dining, living, and sunroom), and it was part of our decision to buy the house. It works for us and for our color palette/vintage modern style, and I’m happy that it was taken care of so well over the years.

That said, I absolutely believe that you should do what makes you happy, and, looking at pictures of your house, I think the white trim would look amazing. It’s clear that your wood isn’t in fantastic shape, and your aesthetic favors clean white trim (which I have, and love, in my kitchen and bedrooms). I really look forward to seeing what you do!

kimma

First let me say, I’m with you and everyone else who said it’s your house and you should do what you like. However, you did invite comment on the issue so I don’t think its a case of “haters gonna hate” if someone’s opinion is not what you wanted to hear.
We just bought a new house and one of the first comments I received was “are you going to paint that trim?” with an implication that we should. We aren’t and at first I took offence, but then I calmed down and accepted that everyone is going to have a different approach to decorating.

Katie

I recently painted a sewing table that was left to me by my grandparents. I was nearly disowned by the family. I suppose next time I’ll have to have a family meeting to discuss what I should do with my own furniture. : ) I say do what you want with your house & furniture.

katrina

I hate to see the wood go, but its a personal choice.
If it makes you feel karmically balanced, my FIL just spent the summer custom-making wood trim for our entire 2nd story to match our first floor – 1950s, but all wide dark wood trim w/ picture rails, etc. And I’ve spent the last month staining it all.
So while you are taking away the natural wood, we’re adding it, so the universe reaches balance.

kelly

i completely agree with you, nicole, paint that wood white! it’s your home, do with it what you want! plus you are an excellent painter, i can’t wait to see pictures when you’re done. i, too have been painting wood trim in my house, room by room, my husband freaked out about it at first, but saw how nice it turned out. mine is year 2000 builder grade oak, i would like to eradicate all of this icky orangy oak from my house someday!!

Jaimie

Wow, this is a topic that really gets some people’s panties in a twist. I have always been partial to white trim. It looks clean, simple, and white goes with everything.

The trim and doors in our house in an unfortunate shade of off-white that wants to be butter yellow. The exterior of our house is butter yellow. I think the previous owner had a bizarre fixation with buttery tones in general. Yellow makes me unhappy, but I didn’t realize just how unhappy until we bought a bucket of Arctic White paint and started to paint it all.

I can appreciate wood trim, but it just looks so heavy, and if it’s not in good condition, why hold on to it? Even if it is “original”. Bottom line, either way, you do what makes you happy, and as aforementioned, haters gonna hate.

Kris Mays

I don’t have any strong feelings either way when it comes to painting wood. I say whatever is most practical first and then whatever is best design second. I’m just a very practical person.

I personally love white trim. I said I liked your trim the way it was before I saw the photo you posted today of it’s condition, and you were asking for feedback. It does look very pretty as is in the original photo, though.

Anyway, you should definitely do what you want in your own house. I can no longer have white trim in my house, because I have five children and……it’s just not a good idea.

I used something called Tawny Beige in this house, which goes beautifully with my Wood Lily walls (buttery yellow). But I think I would love to go with a medium gray next time, which might also look good in your dining room, too. Trim doesn’t have to be white. It can be any color of the rainbow.

Judging from your other photos, whatever you choose will be lovely.

Kris Mays

Why do I keep thinking the ceiling would be nice in a green or blue? That was my first instinct when I saw it yesterday.

Oh, well, I think I am just too peached out from canning all day. But I have to go back and do some more, now. I can’t wait to see what you do!

And really, who cares what we all think?

Christy

I like your thinking. If it’s not making you happy, why live with it? I hope you’ll post photos of the finished product.

Tonya

My feeling is always that the person who pays the mortgage every month has the only opinion that matters. But more importantly, I also happen to agree with you. Paint it, paint it, paint it!

Kylee

I’ve always said paint it! But just to add to the fun…there are houses from that time period with wood built-ins that were ALWAYS meant to be painted. So, the exposed wood combined with the history of the house shouldn’t necessarily evoke anxiety over painting…or sadness.

Michelle Harrison

At first I thought the woodwork should be left natural but I had decided not to comment yesterday. I thought to myself, “She always makes interesting design choices that I’m not sure about and then they are remarkable when she is through. I’ll just wait and see on this one.”

Then today, I saw the close up of the hutch. Where I would *maybe* sand and stain, I might give up and rip out the trim and have someone come in to retro-fit something more in line with the flow of the 1910 bones of the house or the modern feeling of the room.

Perhaps with the trim painted the room will have an entirely different character. It can always be changed again if it doesn’t give you the result you were hoping to see. Good luck.

Jess (Where My Heart Is)

Well said!!!

Stacy

It’s your house…go for it! I hope it looks fabulous and you guys are thrilled with the end result!

Lisa

I agree with you have to be happy in your own home. I also can relate to things just driving you insane unless you change them. I get like that over things that other people don’t even notice. I think the woodwork painted white will look lovely, however, I still would prefer keeping the wood natural. Even in its distressed state which I think is charming. But, that’s just me. It will look nice either way.

Nat

Nicole, you are completely right. It is your home and you need to be happy with it. If others don’t agree, it is in bad taste to comment to that effect. You owe us no explanation and I feel very privilaged to see you work on your home. Whatever you choose to do with it.
I’m sure your trim will turn out better then great.

Nat

Stef

This post is so funny to me because after your previous post, I scanned the comments to see if anyone was concerned about your plans to paint. I figured there would be a big debate in the comments area, but I only saw support for the plans at the time I checked (maybe I missed some dissenters).

I am not a die-hard fanatic about leaving woodwork unpainted. My own trim is painted, and I understand how it can make a room look crisp to have white trim instead of a wood color that reads as a brown or orange that may limit the design process.

It’s just that in the pictures on your previous post, I quite liked the look of all the woodwork together with the gorgeous dining table and wallpaper. It’s an interesting and different look. So I wondered if anyone else thought it was a minor shame to depart from that look.

Now that you’ve shown a close-up of the condition of the hutch, I totally see why it will look better painted. And you’re so right that your home should look a way that makes you happy to live there. Looking forward to seeing the “after” photos!

Renanda

We have very high gloss poly on our trim and doors. I HATE it! I am ready to strip it and paint. Its the striping part that I agonize over. Will you be able to just sand and paint?

Ryan Green

I just bought a home built in 1900 where all the original trim was painted white. It didn’t factor into my decision to buy at all. The house was/is in awesome shape and it looked bright, clean and modern for a 110 year old house with no-so-great natural light.

Sometimes I wish at least some of the trim was unpainted, but whatever…now I don’t have to agonize if I want to try painting the trim a different color!

Fiona

I could kill the contractor who told my mother that “it would be a crime to paint those wood kitchen cabinets” and told her off, cowing her into thinking it would be a crime, when 1) she hated the way the cabinets looked and 2) it is not the contractor’s house.

While I like beautiful wood, there is some wood that would look better painted, and I personally think that yours falls into that category. (At least with your decor.) But it is YOUR house. You should do what you like, other opinions be damned!

Jaimie

You already have a zillion comments on this topic, but here’s one more: when we bought our 1930 house, the original trim was all there and was mostly unpainted. The previous owners really liked the natural wood, so they would probably be horrified to know that we painted it ALL. Even the stairs. Our house is not very big, and having all that heavy dark wood, particularly around the doors, chopped up the space so much and made everything seem smaller and darker. I feel that painting our trim white actually draws your eyes more to appreciate the fine details, instead of the orangey stain colour.

Although we are making this house our home and not decorating it for resale, I think any potential coming into our home now would say it feels bigger, fresher and brighter.

Sarah

We finally made the decision to pain the dark woodwork in our kitchen white. Our home is a 1930s bungalow and the person before us pained all of the trim white throughout the whole house except the kitchen trim, wainscoting, and cabinets. The combination of super dark wood on half the wall and small brown and beige tiles creating a pattern that kind of looks like butterfiles on the floor was not inspiring to say the least. We agonized over painting the original wood because, “What would the next inhabitants think? Would they prefer wood?” And every guest we have says how “cool” the floor is. But it is like what everyone has said, it comes down to you, the current inhabitants and what makes you happy! So, we painted the wood white. The floor is still there, but hopefully not for much longer. I cannot wait to see how your trim comes out!

kathi

I own a 1913 foursquare, very similar in style to your bungalow. I have spent a small fortune having the wood stripped and refinished downstairs, and have an estimate for $18,000 to do the upstairs. I love the look of the various woods used throughout the house (oak in the dining room, a type of burled wood in the living room, birch upstairs). However, that said, I think the woodwork should complement the decor and style of furnishing. I have mostly Victorian, Arts & Crafts, and turn of the century furniture. Your bungalow is what I would call “modern cottage” style and painted woodwork would complement the lighter colors of the furniture and wallpaper. You should do what makes you happy, and what makes your house feel like “home” to you. And, even if you sell the house someday, the woodwork can be restored to a “natural” finish if that’s what the next owners want to do!

Dawn

It seems strange that so many respondents reference ‘haters’ who don’t seem to exist in this thread. I love this blog and read it regularly, but it drives me crazy when folks react so defensively to even a slight whiff of disagreement over design choices! Surely the point of blogging and sharing this kind of thing so publicly isn’t simply to have everyone congratulate you on your outstanding taste, but to actually invite open responses? (not referring to Nicole specifically, but rather the howls of protest that greet any dissent in the comments!) I’m interested to read the views both pro and con.

Also as an aside– as a European it can be a little amusing to see so many getting worked up and overly precious over anything ‘original’ from the 1920s and 1950s, as if it were all ‘vintage’ and ‘historic’. After all, ‘heritage’ is such a relative concept, why treat it as an absolute?

Quinn

Just go for it!

Catherine

Totally agree with you! Although I would like to throttle the people who carpeted our gorgeous Craftsman wood floors. OMG, the glue is going to cost a mint to buff off. Wahhhhh! Our trim is all painted white. It looks fantastic this way. Fresh and bright.

Melissa @ HOUSEography

PAINT THE TRIM! You are going to be so happy you did. My brother and his wife agonized over painting the trim in their 1937 cape and after they did, the living room felt SO much bigger. When you have wood toned trimmed windows, the walls feel choppier and you spend more time focusing on the wood and not the view and the other decorating. It will be so worth it. The before and after will be stunning!

AND, to all of those people staining their Home Depot 3-4″ window trim. DON’T. You are not adding any value to your house, just dating it. But, fi you

Nichole

Your wood, your choice. Enjoy your white trim. Cannot wait to see the pictures!!

Krystin

Deciding to paint old woodwork can be a difficult decision, mainly because you feel like you’re not supposed to… However, my parents lived in a house for years, struggling with whether to paint the original wood trim; finally, my brave mother took the plunge and painted it a creamy white. The house never looked newer, fresher, or more chic, and you know what….no one has ever said they wished we hadn’t painted it. Do your thing and don’t look back!

Anja

i like, how you handle criticism.
looking forward to see the result, so go for it!

tawn

Our house is 80 years old and still has most of the original trim. The colour is ugly with a whole lotta red and too many spots where varnish of some sort was splattered on haphazardly. Thick, shiny, gross!!
We decided to keep the wood, but we are in the process of removing, sanding, and re-staining all of it a dark brown. It is a loooong process. Not gonna lie, some days I want to pick up a can of white paint and be done with it.
I am definitely not an old house purist because I painted out the original fireplace. Yellow and brown brick had to take a hike.

Anyway, I am in the ‘do what you like’ camp. Your dining room looks nice from afar and I am looking forward to seeing how the white changes the room. I’m sure it’ll be gorgeous.

Kyle

I’m just not sure about the dining room…it seems like it’s never come together. Maybe you should scrap it and start completely over.

christina winters

I have been reading your blog for a few years now, and the only room I haven’t loved in all that time is your dining room, expressly because of the awkwardly colored/room darkening trim and hutch! I think it takes away from the fantastic wallpaper (that I am super jealous of) and have always wanted you to either paint it or stain it darker. So excited to see you doing something to it! Don’t listen to naysayers. Haters gonna hate, and tacky people are always going to put the stamp of approval on rooms full of wildly contrasting wood. <3

Brandi

Do it! We have a 1920s bungalow and painted all the trim white. Looks fabulous! So much brighter and more open. Your house should make you happy. There are a few people out there who like natural wood. And if one of those few people happen to buy your house in the future, they can strip and refinish the wood. Stripping one layer of carefully applied paint is not going to ruin your wood. When people paint over layers and layers of chipped, icky paint, then you have problems getting back to the original. But yours will be fine. Don’t even worry about it!

Andrea P

Hi Nicole!
I’m a big fan from Canada!
I would love to know what paint type/color you are using?
Are you sanding the trim 1st?
Are you taping your walls?
Thanks, I appreciate it!!

YourDreamHouse

Oh. Im feeling a little envy to you. I just love how nature wood looks like and I cant force myself to do something with my old wooden furniture. Cant change muself. :)

Jessie

It is very simple…. It is your home, you pay the mortgage, you have EVERY right to paint it. :) lol I understand both sides on this, but I will always just look for a home that has the trim already painted for me. lol It is all just what each person likes. I can’t live in a home full of dark wood trim.

Maria

I always hesitate to paint wood because I think wood is very pretty and have heard it adds value. However, I finally did in our 1904 home. It was scary at first but just so dark and beat-up. I am so glad I did! it is so much brighter and it makes me happy too. Why have your own home if you can’t make it yours?

Natalie

I feel sad when I look at my wood trim because I dislike it so….it just seems such an overwhelming task to paint it – it’s everywhere! You’ve given me motivation though to just get to it…so true about the wood trim – in the right setting and correctly done, it’s beautiful. In our 1960’s split level it’s dated.