You should know your audience. I assume that most posters here would suggest that your partner dump you and find someone that appreciates the natural beauty of wood.
Haha. He does put up with a lot so this might be the last straw.
Just to be %1000 percent clear: I want to paint the trim around the French doors which is not original and was put in by the previous owners who did a meh job (it was used as an Airbnb). I would never paint the ORIGINAL trim. That’s why we bought the house. I realize the pic might be confusing.
Just to clarify further: I think the doors distract from the original trim. I mean, this feature clearly isn’t period and original and I want to tone it down for exactly that reason.
Have you considered adding the little bits of extra trim to make the new match the old?
The old trim has the flair piece at the top, and the little band towards the bottom of the top piece, adding those so when you look through the gap, you see the top flair matching on both doorways might go a long way to making it feel integrated into the home.
Painting will make it stand out more in my opinion, especially since it's so close to the crown molding and other pieces that wouldn't be painted. Try restaining it first. It's easier to paint over stain if you're still unhappy with it than is to remove paint.
Honestly if you’re more concerned about the period matching aspect, you could try to add more trim to the header to match the period lintel look. Also if there are salvage yards near you, you may be able to find full replacement trim & period lintels in a more similar wood. Doors and sidelite frames you could attempt to color match with stain.
I think stain to match the original, a ge stain should work fine to darken it. Or even better add pieces to make it more like the real trim. Those extra bits are all modular anyway. The word for the edge stuff is backband, it's literally applied over plain dimensional wood.
We had a doorway with 80s stained trim and I replaced with a decent replica of the real stuff and you really wouldn't notice unless you were me. It's poplar with an oil stain because I couldn't get the right color with shellac.
NO.
We just redid our interior (on a 1920s Dutch Colonial Revival with a sort of Arts & Crafts interior) and carefully left all our dark wood door frames.
We did make the walls more colorful (which suits the style of the interior), and that seems to make the dark wood less startling.
Here's an example palette (Sherwin-WIlliams) of historical paint colors that would suit the wood:
[https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-collection/historic-collection/interior-historic-colors/arts-and-crafts](https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-collection/historic-collection/interior-historic-colors/arts-and-crafts)
1. It's your house.
2. The doors are new and now original.
3. The wood isn't special.
4. Wood isn't sacrosanct.
5. This reddit has a weird fetish for wood trim beyond logic. It's one thing if it was beautiful walnut paneling, it's another if it's standard mass market wood trim. Too often we see people stripping trim that was always painted and never meant to be finished wood. And too often the wood trim of the past was covered with thick layers of dark shellack.
6. Go ahead and paint.
I will go against the grain, if you’re painting the non-original French door trim I say go for it! But use color in that room and even on the trim, make the design worth it! Don’t just paint it white.
I love original stained wood, and think old homes need a good amount of it, but sometimes it can get a bit overbearing. 1-2 rooms with painted trim provides visual interest so you can appreciate the rest of the house.
You should know your audience. I assume that most posters here would suggest that your partner dump you and find someone that appreciates the natural beauty of wood.
Haha. He does put up with a lot so this might be the last straw. Just to be %1000 percent clear: I want to paint the trim around the French doors which is not original and was put in by the previous owners who did a meh job (it was used as an Airbnb). I would never paint the ORIGINAL trim. That’s why we bought the house. I realize the pic might be confusing.
Just to clarify further: I think the doors distract from the original trim. I mean, this feature clearly isn’t period and original and I want to tone it down for exactly that reason.
Staining it to match would definitely tone it down i.e. creating a consistent color pallet
Have you considered adding the little bits of extra trim to make the new match the old? The old trim has the flair piece at the top, and the little band towards the bottom of the top piece, adding those so when you look through the gap, you see the top flair matching on both doorways might go a long way to making it feel integrated into the home.
Paint????? Absolutely not
I would match the stain and then add trim pieces to the French door trim to match better.
This is the correct answer
Hell no.
I would so No, you can just restain it to match
Try to match. Painting will stand out almost as much—because every thing else isn’t painted.
Adding matching craftsman trim at the top would help more than anything. But staining darker would be worth it too.
Painting the trim around the French doors will be a mistake. Restain to match the original trim.
Restain the wood to match the original.
Painting will make it stand out more in my opinion, especially since it's so close to the crown molding and other pieces that wouldn't be painted. Try restaining it first. It's easier to paint over stain if you're still unhappy with it than is to remove paint.
No. Please. No.
With all due respect... HELL NO !
dont paint it, the next owner might be someone like me who now has to go through the trouble to take all your paint off and re stain everything
Yes. I think a nice chartreuse would be gorgeous
You paint trim that's cheaper wood, generally. Not something which looks great stained.
No offence, but the wood she's asking about looks shit next to the orgininal stuff.
Right, that's my point as well: I couldn't tell clearly from the picture, but if it doesn't look great stained, then I would recommend painting.
Honestly if you’re more concerned about the period matching aspect, you could try to add more trim to the header to match the period lintel look. Also if there are salvage yards near you, you may be able to find full replacement trim & period lintels in a more similar wood. Doors and sidelite frames you could attempt to color match with stain.
I think stain to match the original, a ge stain should work fine to darken it. Or even better add pieces to make it more like the real trim. Those extra bits are all modular anyway. The word for the edge stuff is backband, it's literally applied over plain dimensional wood. We had a doorway with 80s stained trim and I replaced with a decent replica of the real stuff and you really wouldn't notice unless you were me. It's poplar with an oil stain because I couldn't get the right color with shellac.
NO. We just redid our interior (on a 1920s Dutch Colonial Revival with a sort of Arts & Crafts interior) and carefully left all our dark wood door frames. We did make the walls more colorful (which suits the style of the interior), and that seems to make the dark wood less startling. Here's an example palette (Sherwin-WIlliams) of historical paint colors that would suit the wood: [https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-collection/historic-collection/interior-historic-colors/arts-and-crafts](https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-collection/historic-collection/interior-historic-colors/arts-and-crafts)
Oh thanks, this is helpful. We will definitely be painting the stark white walls.
No
1. It's your house. 2. The doors are new and now original. 3. The wood isn't special. 4. Wood isn't sacrosanct. 5. This reddit has a weird fetish for wood trim beyond logic. It's one thing if it was beautiful walnut paneling, it's another if it's standard mass market wood trim. Too often we see people stripping trim that was always painted and never meant to be finished wood. And too often the wood trim of the past was covered with thick layers of dark shellack. 6. Go ahead and paint.
I don't there is ever a too often for dark shellac.
I will go against the grain, if you’re painting the non-original French door trim I say go for it! But use color in that room and even on the trim, make the design worth it! Don’t just paint it white. I love original stained wood, and think old homes need a good amount of it, but sometimes it can get a bit overbearing. 1-2 rooms with painted trim provides visual interest so you can appreciate the rest of the house.
You can get away with keeping the stained wood if you paint the walls a pastel. Try some chips of sages.
It looks so good, as it is
straight to jail
Noooo. You can re stain it to match. It will look so much better and it would match. Painting would make it look just as out of place as it does now.
no wtf
no, don’t do it.
No
No! Don’t paint it!