Molding Issues!
HELP. Perhaps I can count on some feedback which may help us through this question! My husband and I are reno-ing a brownstone in Bed Stuy, and here’s the thing, we have hit a bump in the road because we need to make a decision about our crown moldings. The house has some beautiful original…
HELP. Perhaps I can count on some feedback which may help us through this question! My husband and I are reno-ing a brownstone in Bed Stuy, and here’s the thing, we have hit a bump in the road because we need to make a decision about our crown moldings. The house has some beautiful original details, specifically the window moldings-thing is the window moldings are a dark cherry like colored stain. We are going to have to replace the crown moldings and floor moldings, but are torn as my husband likes white moldings throughout.
So do we a) keep the wood moldings on the windows the color they are and make the crown moldings, and floor moldings be in the wood stain also or b) do we paint the moldings white (which I think will take away from their charm & character, or c) do we just rip out the original moldings and get brand new crown and floor moldings in a crisp white? I don’t know what to do. What is the more acceptable option that would remain in keeping with the integrity of the style of house??? Feedback would be appreciate…thanks for listening 🙂
I agree that they don’t need to match. But as an aside, there are other colors to paint them besides white. Just taking some of the edge off of the white will warm them up and possibly get you the look you are seeking.
Another vote to mix stained and painted. They don’t need to match. I’ve also seen professionally designed interiors in brownstones with a mix of the two, to great effect. I actually think all matching dark woodwork is visually oppressive and depressing unless you have a very large house with extra high ceilings and plenty of sunlight from south-facing front windows. Of course that’s just my personal taste for what it’s worth to hear.
Paint the baseboard and crown molding only.
I have natural window, below window and upper fireplace trim. My baseboard and crown molding are painted. It looks great. The wood is circa 1880, handsome and nicely finished. It would feel criminal to paint it. We had the windows replaced and after much finagling I was able to stain them to match the window trim.
There are some wood trim and door details that were added during a late 1980’s renovation where they tried to match stain on inferior wood to the walnut. That part looks horrible.
i agree that they don’t all have to match if you’re smart about it. if you mix painted trim with wood, my preference is for painted base, crown, and wall moldings, and wood window and door moldings. it’s consistent and looks balanced.
but my personal preference is for fully painted trim.
Window and crown/floor molding don’t need to match. Don’t rip out the old window moldings. Once they’re gone they’re gone and there’s no turning back without great expense.
I’ve seen many extremely nice and expensive) listings for homes where there is a mix of stained natural window/door casings and painted baseboard/crown moldings. Looks nice.
Sometimes you want to make the ceilings look lower.
I’m sure people will disagree with me, but I don’t think all the moldings have to match. Leave the windows brown and do the crown/baseboard white if you like. It will look great.
I’m not always crazy about stained wood crown moldings–they draw attention to themselves and make the ceilings look lower, IMO.
If your house is anything like mine, I’d have a very strong preference for staining the new woodwork to match the old but, if you must have white, you could always pain the window woodwork the same color as the new wood.I can’t imagine why you’d want to rip it out.