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emily_larson32

Paint white or leave natural?

7 years ago
Hello there! Would you paint the pine windows white or leave natural with a lacquer? The stained wood in the picture is our cabinet color. I’m having a hard time finding a stain that would look good with the cabinets so I feel like these are my best options. Thank you!
paint white
leave natural

Comments (14)

  • PRO
    7 years ago

    Paint to match trim and wall color. Why would you want to make your windows match your cabinets? What would you do in a room with no cabinets?

  • 7 years ago

    What color will your floors be?

  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    what a fun job to stain/spray or paint all of that trim and muntins. not.

    If you wanted natural wood, I would have gotten a better quality wood.

    I'd do the real window trim in the white, and do the actual pine in black. (ebony gel stain or aniline ebony dye would also work)









  • 7 years ago

    We have no reason to believe these are not quality wood have we?

    If they are already lacquered, I would leave them. They complement the floor and while that's not a normal thing, it keeps them from being weird. They look warm and pleasant. Like Janni says, you can paint them later. Put the room together and see how they look then.

    If they are paint grade wood and they are NOT already lacquered, and you have to do something with them, and you have people already working on the house to do it, then yeah, paint them the trim color.

  • 7 years ago

    Paint, but it does not have to be white.

  • PRO
    7 years ago
    If you planned on painting white before your purchase they would have recommended primed.
  • 7 years ago
    Thank you so much for all your input. The floors are not finished but we are going to do a natural finish on them.
  • 7 years ago

    Paint them your trim color unless you plan to decorate around them forever! Usually views, art, furnishings, fireplaces, significant architecture are room focal points...not the “guts” of the windows. It’s not like this is a historic craftsman home with quartersawn oak millwork that needs to be preserved.

  • 7 years ago

    Here's another possibility -- hire a specialty painter to stain those gorgeous windows. I was lucky enough to have a Marvin slider installed and my contractor almost had a heart attack when I suggested painting it. He referred me to a guy -- a true artist -- who specializes in decorative paints and stains. He spent an entire workday staining my doors, adding and removing and layering different stains, and when he was done it was GORGEOUS. It was expensive for sure, but that door is now the star of the room. If you can afford it you might consider it.

  • 7 years ago

    its pine. sorry, but spending money on a specialty artist to stain that wood is a waste. Pine doesn't take darker stains as well as an oak, or walnut would.

    So, either leave it natural or paint it. but staining the windows one shade, leaving the floors another shade and then having those reddish oak cabs another color, is too much different wood.

  • 7 years ago

    If you do stain, I would be inclined to match the floors rather than match the cabinets. Stained wood windows with white trim has certainly been done before and can be a beautiful look, particularly if the doors in the house are also stained. Also note that you do need someone who knows what they are doing. It is certainly possible to match the wood used in wood windows to other woods being used in a space, but a conditioner may need to be used and wood stains selected carefully to make sure that the color is right and the final finish is not blotchy.

  • 7 years ago

    Speaking as someone who put in new windows 15 years ago that were stained to match my oranged oak trim....paint the windows. They will be a neutral. Fast forward 15 years when we decided to replace all the old, skimpy-scaled trim,in the house when we remddeled, the decision for tge windows to match the old trim haunted me.

  • 7 years ago

    We have stained (dark walnut color) windows but are in the process of replacing the builder grade casing with over sized painted trim. It really makes the stained windows pop! I am glad we did not paint them.