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[wismiss]

I bought a house built in 1980 and it has the typical ranch trim.  I am remodeling the living room, kitchen, and hallway trim with solid oak trim with a beautiful profile.  I will also be installing solid oak 6 panel doors with the trim.  

I had every room in the house painted before I moved in.  However, I cannot at this time afford to replace the trim in the three bedrooms.  I am thinking about painting the trim and doors in those rooms until I can afford to replace them.

My question is, should the trim/doors be painted darker or lighter than the walls?  Thank you for your posts.

[WhiteFlowers]

@wismiss

Congratulations on  your new home.  The update sounds fresh and inviting.  For me, I would go with the same color paint on the walls for the baseboard and doors. The reason for this would be to make the rooms look larger and give them the uninterrupted flow of one color.  This is would highlight the the special oak trim in the other parts of the house and not compete with it. 

 Whatever you decide to do enjoy your new beautiful. home. 

[SouthFlorida321]

Lighter white shades. 

[NickNack]

I would definitely paint them a lighter color.  When I was trying to choose colors for the siding on my house this summer I went to Pinterest for ideas.

[CAMOGIRL]

Hmmm.... depends what kind of look you're going for.... more traditional - I would go with a shade of white.... anything else... you could go for a darker shade of the wall color or a color of your liking.

[magicmoodz]

@wismiss

What color did you have the walls painted?  

[Sooner]

@wismiss  How exciting and what fun to have all these new things!  

White is always a perfect choice for trim.  BUT in recent years, I have seen some fabulous rooms with black trim.  It really snaps and makes a statement in a formerly bland area.  I'm sure you can see examples on the internet.

I think it would work especially well if the trim is rather small.  If yo paint it white, it might sort of disappear.

Edit:  I just Googled "rooms with black trim" and I must say many of them just look fabulous!

[KLm]

When I was building my house a long time ago, I glued myself...not literally...to presentations by Christopher Lowell on a channel I can't remember now. He said to choose your wall color and using one of those paint strips go one shade lighter for the trim and one shade darker for the ceilings.

I couldn't afford to paint my ceilings a separate color so I painted them the wall color.  But I did go with one shade lighter with the trim and have never regretted it.

[CelticCrafter]

All our doors an trim are painted pure white, no matter what color the walls are.

[ID2]

White, white and only white!!