Should we paint our wood trim?

3 years ago

Hello evveryone,

my wife and I would like to spruce up our home and we’re having a hard time deciding on if we should paint our wood trim or not. She would like to keep the arch leading into the foyer as is.. i personally think the trim matches the personality of our home, but my wife believes painting the trim will update our entire home. PLEASE HELP!!! LOL

Featured Answer

kelli_ga

3 years ago

I have the same wood trim - I think. My crown moulding is about 2-3”. I hate the dark thin lines. I plan to beef up the trim, and baseboards, and paint them white. However if you love the wood crown, you could consider adding more wood under it to make the lines thicker, and see if you want to stain it. If you paint, you could add a lesser quality wood and caulk any gaps.

You can treat crown/baseboards differently than window trim which can be different than door casings. In my house, all those lines are thin, so I will be beefing them up and painting them. However I will be stripping and restaining the wood doors, so there will be a lot of wood accents in the home without the trim needing to be wood.

Think about what you would like to do to each type of trim, and start with the one you dislike the most.

Because of those door panes, you might consider adding to all the door casings and keeping those wood. If the windows are really nice, that wood could stay as well if it is chunky enough. The baseboards seem to blend with the floor, so those could be painted or replaced with something bigger.

I like the arch. It might help to repeat the shape somewhere. Maybe a mirror or something. I like your arched front door too.

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Comments (7)

Danny Mottley
Original Author
3 years ago
Not too sure why the pictures came out blurry…
Rachel Lee
3 years ago
It is a little dated, especially the crown. I might start with painting just the crown and see if it’s enough of an update.
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Jennifer Hogan
3 years ago
I am often in the camp of not painting wood trim. but you have an awful lot of boxes being defined in the space with all the openings and all the wood trim, including the crown.

It may be being made worse because the paint color clashes with the wood (or at least on my monitor). The pink on the walls with the orange floors and trim are hard to look at.

I agree with Rachel - I would start with painting the walls, ceiling and matching the crown to the ceiling and then decide from there if you want to do more.

Looking at the three options below I would probably keep the wood except for the crown.

Just walls with a less pink paint color:

Walls and Crown

Everything
Danny Mottley thanked Jennifer Hogan
cat_ky
3 years ago
I dont think painting the trim will update the house. A better color of paint on the walls, and some nice art work, and a bit of decor, will go a long way towards updating. It looks a bit bare and unfinished.
Danny Mottley thanked cat_ky
L A
3 years ago
I 100% agree with your wife.
Danny Mottley thanked L A
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago
IMO the trim is nothing special and I think the arch if it is the only one in the home looks contrived so I would square it off if updating is the aim. Are the walls pink? If so that needs changing for sure .Maybe do something like this for a nice neutral I often cut this 10-25% for a less dark color. You need lighting the water bottle gone for sure. Cange all the bulbs to LED 4000K before deciding on the wall color or painting the trim
Danny Mottley thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting