Big house, DARK interior trim & doors :(

11 years ago

We just closed on a beautiful house. The interior felt darker than we wanted and we soon realized that changing the wall color was not that simple...the interior trim is incredibly dark. Walls were so dark they made the trim look ivory. We were fooled! The trim is a dark beige, Greenbriar beige (Benjamin moore)?!

Aside from being bummed that this was a warm tone (can't pair with light cool colors that we love), we found some colors that worked well with this trim: however now the trim is popping out too dark.

What should we do? Should we paint the chair rail the same color as the wall? Should we invest the $15k-$20k to lighten all trim and door throughout the house (frightening cost)?

The walls have to stay lighter, we like light, fresh, happy and bright. (The chandelier will be removed).

Showing before and after shot, trim color hasn't changed.

Really appreciate your ideas and feedback, thank you!!!!

Featured Answer

PRO

Dytecture

11 years ago

The photos look perfectly fine as far as what we can see. Leave the wall colors for now and try living in the house for a while and see how the natural light is working or not.

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Comments (6)

M Rene Designs
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Your new home is gorgeous! What you've done so far is on target. I agree with Dytecture. Live in the home for awhile with colors "as is" and see how things go with lighting and your current paint, then assess moving forward with changing wall/trim colors, or not, based on how you feel.
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PRO
Design Distinctions
11 years ago
I think the trim looks great! I'm glad to see colors other than white used for trim and you would be surprised at how many lighter wall colors will pair nicely with your trim.
PRO
Farbica
11 years ago
In first step just change the color tone of the rims next to the ceiling to a lighter one. Fine tune that color to a shade between the color of the wall and the color of the ceiling.
(In second step you may light up the color tone of the chair rails too. The brightness of this color shade should be between the wall color and the color of the skirting.)
Over all the color of the skirting, rims, and doors seems to play pretty well with the floor and the style of the rooms. So there is no need to change that color.

Happy coloring!
Paul Zoller for Farbica
houssaon
11 years ago
I like the trim in the room you showed.
tw123456
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
I, too, recommend that you live in your new home for at least a year, before you do any changes in the paint color, or anything major in your home. We are still in the process of moving into our (movers coming back) "new" home, but decided to not change anything (except replacing all the wood, and carpeting with new wood flooring) for a year.
I would like to replace appliances, reshape, and enlarge granite on island, but we decided to not rush into it, so we can have enough time to choose what colors we want, and design choices there are to choose from ;0).