Sin

I have made arrangements and I am about to commit what I use to consider the WORST sin against old houses..... We are about to have the trim painted..... I know! I can hear you screaming at the computer! (ETA: I have no problem with white trim... I just always thought the sin was painting genuine vintage oak. People spend hours/days/weeks stripping paint to get back to the wood, why would anyone paint it? Oh. I'm about to!)

here is the deal. The main house color inside used to be yellow. Last year, we had everything painted out Wedgwood Grey (Benjamin Moore), which I absolutely adore and it totally made our house more modern and up to date. But the oak. It's every where. The floors are light blond and all the trim is that orangy-brown that is typical of 90 year old oak. It's nice, but it makes the house look very out of date.

So while we are visiting the Happiest Place on Earth for Halloween, the floor refinishers are coming in and sanding the main floor and the stairs (probably for the 2nd time only, maybe even the first. in some places, there is no finish left at all). But I am having them refinish in a dark brown. Not quite chocolate, but almost. There is actually a band of dark brown that runs in the main rooms, as an inlay. It won't be as dark as that, so we can still see the inlay, but it will be in the same family.

After we get back, I need to find a painter, and we will be painting out the trim, the bannister and the stair risers white. I haven't picked the shade yet, so if you have a good white to reccomend, please do so.

Here is the current look:

this is the type of look I'm going for, but not so traditional. so the bannister will be white as well, and you can't tell by my picture, but my walls are actually a nice dark grey-blue, so it will be a nice contrast.

So yeah... I'm going to sin.....

Comments

[susan]

I actually love the white trim, white bannister and white risers so I definitely do not think it is a sin. My staircase is exactly like yours so if yours turns out nice maybe we'll do ours! The white trim that I use all the time is Benjamin Moore's Oxford White HC-4.

[Julie]

I'm with you. While I wouldn't normally paint over wood trim, sometimes you just have to, it's just too dark. The detail remains and it lightens everything up. I believe when we painted the house a couple of years ago, our designer picked CC20 and CC40 from Benjamin Moore for all the trim... I think those are the numbers, it's Decorators White and Cloud White. I can't find my deck at the moment to confirm... I'm not the only person who owns a few paint companies' paint decks am I?lol Can't wait to see pics when you're done!

[Jenny]

I would keep the top of the banister wood. Have it stained dark. Just paint the body of it white. (we have the same one in our new house and that is how it is done and it looks nice and modern).

no color choices for you. I always use super white, soo boring.

[Katie J]

Ooh, I can't look. I would keep the whole banister wood. Good luck with it though!

[alisa]

Me too! Same issue. I feel like the wood trim detracts from our awesome hardwood floors. And yes, I totally feel like I'm about to sin. We should start a support group.

[jconroy]

Bavarian Cream -- Benj Moore. We used it as our trim color in our whole house. (50 year old cape in new england). It's white but not stark white. It has enough "yellow" in it to be warm. But not too warm. And it goes with a variety of different wall colors. Love it. Go for it!

We refinished our hardwood floors before we moved in 4 years ago and LOVE IT! We've renovated our whole house and put on a kitchen/famly room addition, and I still think refinishing the hardwood floors was the best money we spent.

TIP: We chose a satin or semi gloss finish for the floors and it's great! Not too shiney and doesn't show scratches. (key with dogs) The guys who did the work thought we were crazy for not picking high gloss (standard) and they had to special order the semi gloss. And I kept having to remind them, so they didn't forget that's what I wanted.

Good luck and can't wait to see how yours turns out!

[PinkDevora]

I totally agree with you. Too much oak is overwhelming and old fashioned. I personally will not purchase anything that looks like oak, just because there are so many cheap knockoffs.

This is one of my next projects - refinish all the floors and also remove the disgusting 70's style orange-brown carpeting from the stairs, and refinish them as well.

[lisa]

Actually, my staircase looks a lot like the "after" photo, but with a broad post at the bottom similar to yours, except carved, darker, but no varnish. There is a square hall in the middle of the house facing it (our dance floor ; ) so you get a full view of the white spindles and natural banister, and it looks great-though I would like to redo it with a more interesting white, so I am curious as to what you decide. Also, I am tiling the risers-Mexican clay tiles with a calla lily design-so maybe I will stay with the basic white after all ; ). ~lmc

[susan]

Ooops... I gave you the wrong code for the white trim. It is CC-30 Oxford White. Good Luck!

[Chantale]

I would stick with the dark trim. Not only because it looks so nice, but also because it is more practical with little (dirty) hands running up and down the banister all day long, leaving fingerprints and scuffs on nice white banisters.

[Chantale]

I meant to say "stick with the dark banister"...

[paige]

Just make sure your paint is scrubbable. We have the white risers and they do get very scuffed--even with the need for frequent cleaning, I think our stairs look beautiful.

[Auburn]

Me too! About to paint the stained doors and trim in our 100 year old house. I swore I never would. I even remember when I walked into the house for the first time how impressed I was that they had never been painted. But truthfully...they're not a nice shade and they make the place look dark and dreary and dated. And I want something fresh and clean looking. And old house people will hate me but I am trying not to care. I would never do it if I had one of those perfectly preserved craftsmans with original built ins everywhere but mine is just a modest, tiny little turn of the century bungalow that has had most of the original charm stripped away over the last 100 years anyway through various remuddles so I don't feel too, too bad.

One note about the floors...you have probably considered it so you can count this as assvice but dark stained floors are much, much harder to keep clean looking than the blondish oak ones. I had the chocolate stained ones in my last home before this. I loved the way they looked when freshly washed, very modern looking and they really set off white trim beautifully. But that look lasted for all of 5 minutes given that we have 3 dogs. Both dirt and scratches showed up more on the dark ones. And dog hair! If I did not vacuum every day they were covered in little blond hairs (not an issue if your dogs are dark obviously)! The blond ones take much more abuse before they appear dirty or scratched. Might not be a big deal if you have help around the house and/or are a neat freak. I do not not have help and don't have time to wash floors more than twice a month so I decided to leave the blond oak at our current place even though they don't look quite as up to date. Oh well.

[Auburn]

Me too! About to paint the stained doors and trim in our 100 year old house. I swore I never would. I even remember when I walked into the house for the first time how impressed I was that they had never been painted. But truthfully...they're not a nice shade and they make the place look dark and dreary and dated. And I want something fresh and clean looking. And old house people will hate me but I am trying not to care. I would never do it if I had one of those perfectly preserved craftsmans with original built ins everywhere but mine is just a modest, tiny little turn of the century bungalow that has had most of the original charm stripped away over the last 100 years anyway through various remuddles so I don't feel too, too bad.

One note about the floors...you have probably considered it so you can count this as assvice but dark stained floors are much, much harder to keep clean looking than the blondish oak ones. I had the chocolate stained ones in my last home before this. I loved the way they looked when freshly washed, very modern looking and they really set off white trim beautifully. But that look lasted for all of 5 minutes given that we have 3 dogs. Both dirt and scratches showed up more on the dark ones. And dog hair! If I did not vacuum every day they were covered in little blond hairs (not an issue if your dogs are dark obviously)! The blond ones take much more abuse before they appear dirty or scratched. Might not be a big deal if you have help around the house and/or are a neat freak. I do not not have help and don't have time to wash floors more than twice a month so I decided to leave the blond oak at our current place even though they don't look quite as up to date. Oh well.

[Marji]

No sin in my book, I just really really really don't care for the grain in oak, who needs it. I support your decision and the next owner can deal with it if they really really really like the grain in oak.

[Marji]

oh, another idea, I've refinished floors in two other houses (one time with my own two hands and a rented floor sander) and it worked best when the first coat was high gloss (very durable) but the finish coat was semi-gloss (so it didn't look like a basketball court), just saying, consult with your floor guy, of course.

[Caroline]

OOH! Delurking to say that I did the same thing to a tudor house seven years ago and ADORE IT!!!! The color and vibrancy that came from painting the dark wood white were amazing! You are in for a treat! Good luck- by the way we used Benj Moore "bright white"...but my walls had strong colors on them...dove grey is another good white...

[louise]

We are in teh process of doing up a house in the UK - an old Georgian one and we have painted all woodwork white! Previous owners had obviously had all doors and the sash windows stripped back to the wood and bang we go in and paint them all white eggshell again! We have even painted a few modern orangey pine colured wood floors white and the orangey pine windowsills and doors a beautiful subtle grey. so go for it - I think old houses with a modern clean interior rocks! We are putting back original style old fireplaces though ...

[Judy]

We have oak trim everywhere and oak floors, and I'd love to paint it but the Hubs won't hear of it.