We painted the trim on our recessed cans in our basement (TV room, bar area, landing, and bathroom). Just used the same paint as for the ceiling. It's been nearly a year - no dust. (As dallasbill said, dust falls down, not up). We only painted the white ring that showed. We used the silver haze inside the cans and did not paint that. I'm very happy with the result. Wish I could paint the smoke detectors.... The kitchen might have different issues with cooking greases etc....

Darn it, Autumn! I had forgotten that I liked a tile by Jeffrey Court, but it was in the Atlas collection in the Riverwash color. I just emailed them about a sample. I really like the tile you show above and it would probably look great with the soft white cabinets. Regarding the cabinets, my debate was between the arctic white and polar white. I chose the polar white because I wanted "white white" and the arctic was a little too stark for me and the polar was still white without looking cream. It's funny how different colors look differently in each person's house. And I love the idea of doing a dark perimeter counter. I went back and forth about that forever! What counters are you thinking about so far? mom2sulu, we had our floors refinished about 5 years ago because of some water damage from a leak in the water line of our fridge. So we did not have them redone with the kitchen remodel. They are oak. As for the color, the floor guy used min wax stainâ¦he mixed some red mahogany with the dark walnut color. I really wanted it stained darker but he HIGHLY recommended not going any darker (for what reason I don't know). I still wish it was a tad darker and maybe a little less red.

The ring is generally permanently attatched to the cone that goes up into the can, and the whole assembly can be removed. A wide variety of mechanisms are used to hold the trims in place. Some are held in place by springs that push out against the sides of the can itself. Some have toothed springs that bite into the soft metal of the can and make them a bit harder to remove. Others have wire clips that extend up into slots in the sides of the can (pull down and squeeze clips to release) while still others can be disengaged by twisting them one way or another. Some can be removed while the bulbs are in place, and some can't. You'll just have to play around a bit to figure out how yours work. It occurs to me that some very inexpensive cans have their trim rings built into the can itself; in that case, you might be able pull the whole fixture down enough to paint around it.

Its best if your electrician buys the trims or lets you use his discount at his supplier. Just because your GC won't markup the prices doesn't mean the electrician won't. In any case, you need accurate prices for the trims and that's very hard to do online. If the wrong trims were delivered or were defective then or later, you would be the one taking the hit. [The only building materials I ever ordered online were PVC downspouts and its been over 2 months and I haven't seen them yet. It turns out they were made in Denmark and had to be shipped through Canada to SC and then to MA] The next thing to do is to find the best local supplier, go see the fixtures in the showroom and get real prices. Maybe that will involve more than one supplier. Until that happens you are spinning your wheels.