Hi there, Here's your post with pictures: Because of water damage to our kitchen floor our kitchen/dinning room/living room floor is getting replaced. Right now everything in our house is the same wood tone.. the kitchen cabinets, the doors, the trim, the table and the floors. It's time for a change. We also plan to replace the counter tops, skin, faucet, range hood, and put in a back splash. We are most like also going to replace the white range, dishwasher and fridge with a stainless set. This is our kitchen/dinning room now. We plan to replace the light colored laminate floor with Engineered Hardwood Maple in a darker shade.... Flooring link But that would look awful with our oak trim. So I have started with painting all our trim white. I'm still not sure if I should paint all our bedroom doors white too (they are a solid oak, as is our trim.. I would like your thoughts on that. I like what these folks did.. white trim and closet doors but dark doors. Posts like these make me want to paint my kitchen cabinets white because they are so beautiful. Or should we stain them dark, like these? Or should we keep the cabinets as they are and just change the trim and floors like this? If we go white cabinets this is what I�m thinking of doing: off white cabinets, dark brown counter top, and dark brown subway tile back splash. I would love the idea of having a butcher block counter on the island though. I would also love your thoughts on the floor in the kitchen/dinning area. Right now the laminate floor is in the kitchen, dinning room and living room (since we have a very open floor plan). The dilemma is what to do in the kitchen. Should we continue the hardwood into the kitchen up to the cabinets or should we put tile there? If we paint the cabinets white I was thinking we would go with the hardwood. But if we stained dark it would get too dark. Right? And please tell me: Paint? Stain? Or keep the cabinets as they are? Thanks.

Les, thank you for your thoughtful input. It's really not about voting, at least I don't think so. I just really want to make it all look the best I can given the colors I have chosen. And given the fact that our house has gone through multiple changes through the years. We are trying to take it back, as much as we can, to what it would have been in the late 1880's. Yes there is a disconnect between the back addition and the rest of the house. Just was not sure how to "fix" it. At one time that addition also had a porch where the window is. When the previous owner renovated he removed that porch as it was not original. This picture was taken in the late 1950's He actually removed another porch on the garden side of the house as well. In total (counting the screened porch on the garden side)there were a total of 6 porches on our house! The windows in the addition are actually much smaller by comparison to the windows in the rest of the house. The windows in the brick part of the house are 84" and that's the inside measurement. All ceilings are 12' in the house. Sorry if I get a little carried away. But making our home the best it can be is a passion with me, can you tell? :-) oceanna, that is the same way I felt the first time I walked into our home, and still feel that way today! But it seems to be a never ending process. So much to do, so little time it seems. Actually people do slam on their brakes or drive very slowly past. One lady even ran the stop sign out front because she was looking at the house. (She stopped and told me about it the next week - got a ticket too!) jlc712, thank you. We love it and hope that when we are gone the next caretakers of our home will treat it with love as well.

Hi, Troy! Did you do anything when painting outside to prevent wind/dust/insects from getting into the paint as it dried on the doors? I lack indoor space for painting and I'd like to rig something up outdoors if I could. I have to second eam44's suggestion regarding the backsplash. I made the mistake of pairing a multi-hued glass mosaic with a patterned granite and had to tear the whole thing out. Unfortunately, my countertops were covered with building paper while the backsplash went up, so I didn't get the full effect until it was removed. My reaction? OMG and WOW (and not in a good way)! I couldn't believe it because the colors were pretty much spot on ... it was all the conflicting patterns that sent it over the edge into "too many clowns in the kitchen" territory. My sample lied to me ... the effect when it covered a larger area was pretty bad. Anyway, I looked at your blog ... love what you are doing and it's looking great! Any pictures of the house?

If you are concerned about matching a color into another brand, then don't do it. It might be hard to get the cabinet guy to switch brands but the house painter probably won't care. I will use paints from wherever the customer wants but some guys are allegiant to one store.