Trim colors when your windows are really doors.

Paint everything white.


Joe(really, so simple)Nation

Picking a different color for the families "private suite of rooms" can make a bold statement.

Although, and this is just my preference, around windows (or doors that look like windows) I love the clean look of glossy white.

With appropriate nods to JoeN, I'm not an everything white person.

But.. I'm also not a dark trim person, so take that as a prejudice.

I lived once in a CA bungalow that was like a jail with all the dark trim. Major jangly. All these years later I'm probably still relieved to get away.

So.. I'm not sure listening to me would be useful for you. But.. I'd use an only faintly darker trim - if darker at all - for the window trim, with perhaps some underline to match the outside, though probably not. In fact, not.

What you'll end up with, with darker trim, is window outlines as your main statement. Which is fine if you mean to. Try it, as usual, by holding color strips up.

I also like white trim, or cream trim, Chai. I can understand, though it's not my favorite, same color trim in gloss, or somewhat lighter in gloss/semigloss.




Adds, that particular CA bungalow wasn't filled with redwood trim (well, layers beneath it was) but dark brown paint. Shivers...

Which brings me around to just varnished wood. But that's a job, in various circumstances.

Hmmm.....

I'm just not a white lover (okay, I admit it -- I HATE white) but I have been looking at some dark creams. I hate a lot of contrast and I typically tend towards rich, darkish colors for walls so white trim would make it stand out more.

Some of you have seen photos of my house -- windows are the "statement" the house makes -- huge, arched, multipaned affairs. No matter what color we use the windows are going to make a statement.

As to the outside -- the house is tudor revival, the trim has to be darker than the walls, usually it's very dark, we've lightened it up a bit.

Maybe I should look for something between white and the oak floor wood color -- or something about the color of the fir that the doors are made of, then, even if we end up going darker on the floors it'll still work.

It's really complicated when the outside trim actually physically becomes the inside trim all over the house.

Yeah, varnish would have been great. I love amber/orange varnish (not really orange, for those non varnish lovers). The doors and trim are all fir and it's lovely but it is so old and out of shape. We can't afford to replace it all (even if we could find it) and we don't want to spend the rest of our lives stipping and sanding. We are stripping (or having stripped) the majority of it but it is still to imperfect for just stain or varnish.

Sad but true.

<sob>

We had red fir floors from the late 1900's in our gallery. Even water turned them red orange.. we ended up just sanding the hell out of them.

Re the windows, I could 'get' a dark cream, that would fit, to me.

But, of course, this isn't about me. Just saying, watch out for painted dark.

The steps up from our main floor are these lovely fir slabs -- at least an inch thick and shot through with with black flecks. Gorgeous.

The fir on the trim is a really beautiful shade of very basic brown.

It really is hard to keep an architecturally busy house from getting too busy.

Dark cream might be the perfect compromise.

This lady sounds like she would have some good advice for you. From reading her comments section it looks like she's quick to respond too.

This is her article on choosing window and door trim colors:

http://yourcolorcoach.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/choosing-a-tasteful-house-color-ii/

Boomer
Boomer, have you considered finding your existing dark trim color on the paint manufacturer's color fan and looking near the top for a lighter shade of the same color. That would solve the too dark problem but would match the base color of the existing trim color.

BBB

Oops, meant late 1800's. What's a century here or there...


Interesting idea re the lighter version of the outside trim, BBB. If it goes with the interior wall color, that is. (I think I'm still for dark 'cream' as something that would work through the house, assuming all the wall colors aren't the same.)

boomerang, Interesting topic, because we're just completing major renovations on our house. The three doors that have access to the outside, the front, from the family room, and the living room were stained maple - both inside and outside before the renovation. Now, the doors in our back yard are painted the same color as the darker trim color of our eves, gutter, and window shutters, and the stucco is a lighter brown (inbedded into the stucco), but darkens when wet to almost the same color as the trim and doors. Only the front door exterior is the same. The side door from the garage to the outside is white (a new door with blinds between two glasses).

My wife and I both agreed on the two shades of brown for the exterior of our house.

Here's the color palette I'm using: http://www.myaurapaints.com/

The link doesn't go directly to the colors and I can't figure out how to pull them off for posting so if you want to see you have to click "affinity colors" then click "affinity color palettes".

The exterior trim is "French Press" (AF - 170). I haven't decided on the exterior wall color yet but I'm thinking "Kangaroo" (AF - 145)

The colors don't translate too well on my computer -- the look lighter and more yellow (I need to get my monitor calibrated).

All the colors really go together so I think if I stick with the same palatte I'll be okay.

boomerang, Here's a suggestion before you make your final choice of colors. Get a sample of the color, and paint them on your house. Paint an area on both front and back of your house. It makes a world of difference between a swatch and what they look like on your house. We learned this, because our general contractor offered this service, and we're glad he did. We changed the color of our house a couple of times before our final decision.

BTW, this also includes the interior colors.

Ha! Right now my house looks like a tan rainbow. I have about six sample colors painted on. I have a quart of Kangaroo ready to be test painted once I get the doors rehung from being refinished/painted.

I found these photos of the house from before we moved in:

This is the living room - we have three doors like this in the room, none of which are the main enterance:



Our bedroom has two doors like this (one on either side of the fireplace (and yes, the "stage" is gone now!)) and Mo's room as a door like this too:



When these door windows are open, whatever was outside is now inside.

What seems to be happening to you happened to one of our neighbors who is having real major renovations done to their home; a new master bedroom with new baths with all the bells and whistles; heated floor and mirrors so they don't fog, and built-in custom cabinets. They had about six different colors painted on their exterior at one time, and they finally chose a grey color - that is completely different from their earlier choices.

Picking colors for your own home whether it's for the exterior or interior is not easy.

My wife and I went to three tile places to pick tiles for our bathrooms. I'm now on my third choice, and my wife was able to pick one and stay with it.
They're being installed on the 28th.