I need some help/ideas for painting the interior of my house.

[MandyH]

We live in an old house that was built in the 1880's. It was originally a dog trot house that several people have worked on and done their own thing too. My issue is this: We have 12 foot ceilings so we have a LOT of wall space. Right now the walls are painted a neutral beige color and ALL the trim is white. I HATE white, maybe it's from all the years of working in nursing and having to wear white uniforms. Anyway, we couldn't for the life of us get the old wood stripped down to the original wood color. We tried sandblasting, stripping, sanding, you name it, the paint was 100 years old and probably lead based but it wouldn't come off. I have old mantels, a big entrance way etc... all painted white. I need ideas on painting all the wood trim in the house. Do I repaint the rooms the new color I want to, and them paint the trim a little darker shade? Or paint the rooms darker and paint the trim a lighter shade? I am just sick of generic beige and WHITE trim. Oh yeah, the trim comes up about 12 inches from the floor, so we have a lot of trim, AND we have like 9 foot windows, the old weighted ones that are huge, and they have trim all around them. I have thought about chair rail all around the room, but those big@ss windows are always in the way. Somebody give me an idea on what to do. Thanks!! Oh yead, I have all the retro furniture and colors in the house to, so it is not modern by any means. I have antique furniture and my carpet is a neutral beige color too.

 

[bluie]

You could do a whole room in all different shades of the same color. Or you could do the walls in a subdued color and then make the woodwork pop by painting them in a bright color. You can do anything you want. It only has to please you.

 

[MandyH]

I am wanting to stick with the Victorian ere look since that is kinda what the house looks like. But I looked on Sherwin Williams website for color ideas and Lord help me, I don't know if I could live with the colors they suggested. I am trying to do this on a TIGHT budget, so I don't want to do it but once. I just should have left the avocado green carpet and gold drapes hanging!!!

 

[lleighmay]

If you really hate white trim why not paint it all out in black or chocolate brown? They're neutrals too and (especially black) will go with pretty much any of the lighter colors no matter what they are. They should also help add weight to the room and bring down some of the high ceilings/windows. Personally I would stay away from really dark though if I wanted to paint the walls in a dark color.

 

[MandyH]

I don't know about dark walls. I am afraid with as much wall space as we have it will look like the room is closing in on me if I paint it dark. The only thing I did see on SHerwin Williams that I did like, was the idea of paiting my room the color I wanted, then using the crackle technique on the trim and baseboards. I could us the color I paint the walls as the base coat, and then use a chocolate color on top of that to simulate a wood color?! I wish to heck that I could get the all the paint off down to the original wood. It is a DARK brown, beautiful color.

 

[Chicabee19]

We found an absolutely beautiful color called "sugar" - we painted all of our trim with it, and it just glows.

 

[lleighmay]

I know what you mean about paint removal- for a few years I rented an 1847 Greek Revival plantation house which probably had 100 different paint layers on the woodwork, not to mention the walls (I used to joke that the paint layers and the mouse nests within the walls were my only insulation). Maybe if you want to go back to the wood look on your trim you could do a paint/glaze treatment such as wood graining or dry brushing which would take it back to looking like wood? It would be very labor intensive but I think it would be worth if if that's the look you want. I know from experience that crackle over vast areas is very hard to get it to look even and not really shabby as though it needs to be painted.... There are a number of good books out there on techniques and I bet your local home improvement store paint section would even have at least the basics on how to do it (and let's not forget HGTV and DIY!) Good luck to you- I'm sure it will be beautiful and personal no matter what you choose to try (that's why I love old houses so much)

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

I'm thinking chicken wallpaper. And lots of it.

 

[newchickenfamily]

Quote:

 

[kodiakchicken]

Kristen -

First off, let me tell you how glad I am to find someone else that hates white. I cannot stand white walls and just want to scream everytime someone tells me they are doing something different, just to find out their "different" is beige!

Do you have a color in mind for the walls? That would help a lot in providing suggestions for trim colors. With high ceilings and heavy woodwork like you have, you will most likely want to offset it with a strong, contrasting color. It is a bummer that you can't get all the paint off, but what does it look like? Is it sanded and looks like a whitewash effect now? You could always leave the trim half stripped, seal it and go with the shabby chic look.

Don't be afraid of dark colors on the walls. Many of the victorian era homes with large windows and high ceilings pull off dark, dramatic colors fabulously. You'd be surprised to find that the walls don't feel like they are closing in so much as they feel warm and inviting.

I did a treatment on my walls that gives them a somewhat tuscan look. I painted the walls a medium/dark gold (never in my life did I think I'd use gold) and then "washed" over them with a watered down acrylic brown paint. It looks really, really cool and the living room is so inviting. I'll post a picture if I can find one. I have light oak trim but have thought about painting it dark brown or black as an accent.

Give me some more ideas of the colors you would like to have and I'll see what I can help you with. I love home decorating and wrote a column about it in the local paper for a couple years.

Here's a photo with a snippet of the wall in it.