Q:
We have wood trim, wooden doors and wooden crown molding with white walls all over our house. We’re thinking of painting some white and leaving some wood in certain rooms – how would you accomplish that transition in a doorway leading from a white trim room to wooden trim room.
– Angela
A:
This is SUCH a good question and the “correct” answer (as if there’s only 1 right answer) really depends on your home and the layout. A few tips I’d give you –
Pick one trim/baseboard color to be the main color throughout your home and pick another (painted or wood) to be an accent in 1 or 2 rooms. Whether you choose wood or white for the main color is entirely up to you, but in order to maintain some uniformity I’d highly recommend picking one style/color for the majority of your home.
Designer: Breeze Giannasio
One thing I would not recommend is swapping trim colors from one space to the next in an open concept situation. So for example, I personally wouldn’t paint the living room trim white and leave the dining room wood if there’s little to no division between the rooms. Even a wide archway or an opening between the rooms is sometimes not enough to create a natural break and I often prefer connected spaces to match. But again, every home is different and some connected spaces (like in the photo above) can get away with a trim color change.
A natural place to play around with an accent trim color is in a separate space like a bathroom, bedroom, walk-in closet, or office. Having a door to separate one room from the next gives you a natural break to change trim colors. All the trim on the inside of the room is one color, and everything on the outside is another.
Designer: Breeze Giannasio
If you have a separate room that is clearly divided from its adjoining spaces but lacks a doorway in between (like a small opening), you could start the transition on the trim around the opening that leads into the “accent” room. The photo below is a perfect example of a natural transition from a white trim room to a wood trim room!
Architect: Northworks Architects | Designer: Karra Mann | Photography: Reagen Taylor
As far as doors goes, the “rules” are little more lackadaisical but generally speaking I like to keep the majority of my doors all one color. An accent door here and there is never out of the question and painting a door a different color on each side to match the room it faces isn’t unheard of!
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How do you handle the door jamb color between the two rooms with different trim color? Paint the jamb all one or the other color? I’m thinking both colors would be visible from ons side (ie jamb one color, trim the other).
This post showed up in my search results and I was really hopeful it would answer my question, but alas, it doesn’t address my specific issue. I have natural wood trim throughout the home I just bought. I am planning to paint most of the trim throughout the home a particular shade of white; however, in one room, I am thinking of painting all the trim a different color that matches the ceiling and wall color on 3 walls–a different shade of white (#2). Anyway, the trim around the door to this room will be White #1, and I’m trying to figure out how to paint the inside (casing?) and the door. Should I use white #1 in the casing? White #2? Should I paint 1 side of the door in White #1 and the other in White #2 (or both sides the same color?)? What about the edges of the door? Maybe I’m over thinking this, but it’s a time consuming process that I don’t want to screw up by not thinking it through beforehand…
I have done 2 trim colors in my house. Wood and white. The white is in the stairwells and the wood is every where else. I think it works because the stairwells are sperated spaces and natural transition places anyway.
Ya! A stairwell a great spot to try a different trim color.