Wednesday, August 28, 2013

DIY problems: black trim with black doors or white trim with black doors

The past few days have been permeated by the stench of DIY failure.  Pretty much every thing I touched came out all wrong.  And it was a fair number of projects.

I will spare you the details of All Things Gone Wrong, but will ask your opinion on one that I haven't decided how to fix.

Originally I decided to paint the upstairs trim and doors black.  The baseboards were painted black by the painter, and he also did the trim around the master bedroom door black so I could see how it would look.  All of the upstairs doors are still white, as I haven't yet gotten to painting them either.  Last week I decided I would get started on the trim.  I taped off all the trim, sanded them down, and started painting them black.

Unfortunately the trim all needs to be primed, as the black paint slid right off.  I also discovered that the doors and trim are painted with latex on top of oil, and the top layer is peeling off, and sigh, this is turning into a really massive project.

Before I went any further, however, I sat down and looked at my inspiration pictures of black doors and trim. Shockingly (!), I noticed that 99% of the pictures I have saved with black doors HAVE WHITE TRIM. The horror.   I looked further, and found pictures of black door trim.  All those pictures with black trim have NO DOORS, just open doorways.  (I found ONE picture of an interior black door with black trim.  All the rest black door/black trim are exterior doors, usually casement style.)

I am having a wee crisis of confidence in my decision to paint both the trim and the door black.

What do I do??? The baseboards are black.  The door jambs and doors are white.  Keep the jambs white and baseboard black as they are now? Paint everything black? Paint all the trim back to white and paint the doors black?





Another factor to consider--What about the interior of each bedroom?  Paint the whole doorjamb so that the door trim is also black inside the bedroom?  Just paint halfway, so that the interior door trim is white? My painter will loooove that.

Help!


9 comments:

  1. Wow, that is a pickle. :) I really like the look of the black baseboards/door jambs with the white door. I kinda think painting the doors black would be too much. I don't really like the white door jambs with the black baseboards. I would have to vote for only painting the outer parts of the door jambs black & leaving the part inside the bedrooms white. I have to assume your decor/color scheme for the hall isn't going to carryover into the rooms, so it would look odd in each room to have the black door jambs, especially if they have white baseboards. In that last picture, my first thought was that if you wanted to incorporate the black trim with the downstairs, it would look really cool to have that middle portion between the moulding under the spindles (sorry, I don't know what it would be called) painted black as well.

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    1. I do plan on painting the railing black (but not the spindles) eventually, although I'm not sure what to do with that molding portion under the spindles. So many decisions.

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  2. I vote black doors and white trim - I know this will probably be more work, but I think it will give you the look you are after. I would also paint the hand rail ( not spindles) black.
    I am having my own dilemmas about painting. I unfortunately have wooden doors and trim and I want to paint them so bad, but my partner is very much against it which makes it difficult to modernize. I am still working on him , so wish me luck
    Kind Regards
    CAthy

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    1. I am kind of leaning towards this too, even though it seems like the most work. Good luck convincing your partner to paint over wood!

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  3. I like the black trim with white doors, and I would keep the trim on the insides of the doors white.

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    1. I think the white on the interiors would look better too. I'm not looking forward to all the work of painting each side of the jambs a different color.

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  4. I hate these kinds of questions! I'm facing a similar one in our family room. We painted all the trim the same color as the wall. Painting the doors the same color seems like it will be weird to me. Paint the doors black? I dunno. Do you have any pictures with both doors and trim painted a dark color? I think I'd have to see something to know...

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  5. I am a HUGE fan of black and white, so am happy to see you are using bl/wh in your decor. I think all the trims (baseboard and molding) should be the same color. I really think you could go black trim w/ black doors or white doors. If you leave the doors white, I would put wider molding around the doors (I know, more cost and labor and time...) but I think the current door molding paintd black looks to narrow with the white door. Painting the door and molding black would eliminate the need for wider door molding. Also, I would paint the inside and outside door jams the same color. Good luck. It will be fun to see your decisions and progress! Linda R

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  6. Ok, 10 min later update...I checked your Pinterest pics and altho you did have many pics of bl doors w wh trim, I am certain that you should go with black doors and black trim. It will look smashing! Linda R

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