I was in a friends new home last night, a gorgeous 5000 sf Tuscan style villa complete two story porches on two sides of the house and a courtyard with fireplace that connected all the main rooms on the first floor.
One thing they had done that I thought was such an unusual, but very successful, idea was to paint all of their trim chocolate brown. The crown, door casings, baseboards, and even the interior doors. Its rare that you see those things painted anything other than white, but it was really cool and gave the house a whole different look.
I'm kinda giggling right now, Gryphon...the home we're purchasing right now was built in the late 70's and ALL of the trim is chocolate brown wood & has 6-panel wood doors in every room.
My husband is DYING to paint it all white to make it look more "modern". :biggrin:
Ill have to get some photos of their house...
you know, for the past 20 years or more, all trim has been white. So it looked so "fresh" to me at their house.
Whats that saying? Everything old is new again?
They had many of their walls painted a sort of grayish bluish (Restoration Hardware-ish) colors. And it just looked really sharp with the dark trim.
It sounds wonderful per your description!
I think I have talked husband into leaving the natural wood trim for now & just painting all of the walls.
What's your favorite wall color? Do you prefer to have every room of the house in similar color or different hues?
I've always wanted a dramatic color in the formal dining room....but we're still going to have just a breakfast nook.*sigh*
It really depends on the house...
My house in SC is smallish and open floor planned. So Ive kept everything similar colors...the whole downstairs is one color, with the exception of the powder room...and its a few shades darker on the same strip. The upstairs rooms are all similar shades of tans and taupes and chocolates. In my study, however, I sort of "Reversed" what was going on in the rest of the house. The walls are blue, and all the "stuff" is tan and creme.
If you want different colors in different rooms, I think its a good idea to keep them in the same "family". (Dont do a neon green living room next to a wine-red dining room).
That's the design of our current FL home -- it's smallish with a very open floor plan & all of the living space walls are one color. The bathrooms are in a darker shade of same color) and the kiddos' rooms need to be painted this week.
It's a tanish color on the yellow/greenish undertone side. I believe we'll do a similar thing in the new house -- maybe more of an antique white throughout.
So, are you going to sell one of your homes or keep them both?
Quote from: SunnyInFL on October 08, 2006, 11:17:07 AM
That's the design of our current FL home -- it's smallish with a very open floor plan & all of the living space walls are one color. The bathrooms are in a darker shade of same color) and the kiddos' rooms need to be painted this week.
It's a tanish color on the yellow/greenish undertone side. I believe we'll do a similar thing in the new house -- maybe more of an antique white throughout.
So, are you going to sell one of your homes or keep them both?
Its a long story why I even have the one in WV...but my hope was always to get myself in a position to move back there where my family and many of my friends are. Careerwise, things are good for me in SC right now, so I bought the house here just because interest rates were so low...thinking that Id be here at least another two years at least. Now its looking like it might be longer. My parents are building a new house on property that used to belong to my great grandparents. Once their house is up, Im planning to build a small "guest cottage" for myself on the same property and then that can be my WV home. I used to get back up there every other weekend or so, but lately its been every six weeks. For now, it really doesnt make sense for me to keep the one in WV...but the expense in having it is so minimal Ive held onto it. A friend of mine back there is "housesitting" it for me the past few months, and has made a standing offer to buy it whenever Im ready to let it go...which might be fairly soon.
The chocolate in the Tuscan house sounds delicious. However, if the wood has never been painted, i am a fan of just staining it. I love to see the grain of the wood.
Was visiting the Monticello once, and they were stripping the doors. They had been painted when painting doors and trims was a popular thing. There were inlaid wood pannels in the doors. Ah, they were so gorgeous! How in the world could someone paint over such a national treasure, I'll never know.... TRUE STORY!!!
Oh, I know! When I was in college, my roommates and I shared a great 80-some year old house...the landlord was great about letting us paint, etc. There was a beautiful stair railing with carved newels, etc. When we moved our stuff in, we scratched the paint and realized there was beautiful oak underneath. I made it my weekend project to get all the paint off.
I think that my friends used MDF for their trim and doors, so staining it wasnt an option...but my "dream house" will have a gorgeous wood study...I can see it all in my mind, even if I cant see it in my budget yet! LOL
well, ours is, of course, wall to wall, floor to ceiling wood... and i'm lovin' it!
so am I! Im so excited for you guys...I cant wait to see pics once your stone goes in!
you know what???????????????????????? Our home is between OutBack and Beckley! LOL
well maybe we could make time for a tour?
We'd love to give you the grand tour.... and we have the stone laid out so you can get an idea... it is all coming along nicely.... good things are worth waiting for! :yes:
Quote from: SunnyInFL on October 08, 2006, 10:35:22 AM
I'm kinda giggling right now, Gryphon...the home we're purchasing right now was built in the late 70's and ALL of the trim is chocolate brown wood & has 6-panel wood doors in every room.
My husband is DYING to paint it all white to make it look more "modern". :biggrin:
Our trim is all white, as are the doors. I've been dying to replace them with wood, and trim out in wood. Wanna trade? LOL