Hi Dirtymartini. I don't know, "awful" is such a harsh word. I'd probably go with "interesting", as in "That was very interesting, Marty", Lorraine's wonderfully tactful comment in Back to the Future. You ask if you should even add crown molding at all? Good question, and to answer, let's stop & look at history. In traditional houses--Colonial, Victorian, Craftsman, even up to postwar Cape Cods, crown molding was expected. Fancy houses had elaborate designs in molded plaster or carved wood, but regular middle class houses had crown molding, too, the only difference being that the stuff in those houses was cheaper & smaller. But it was still there. Even no-frills Victorian-era workers' cottages had it, although it was pretty meager. But houses--respectable houses-had crown modling for the same reason that women wore gloves when they left the house. It was expected. It was proper. The Modern movement came along and banished fussy crown moldings along with the trim around doors & windows, on the theory that unneccessary applied ornament harbored vermin & dirt, and if you've ever popped off the trim from around a door in an old house & seen the black soot streaks underneath, you know how right they were. But that aspect--health & cleanliness--wasn't the real reason the Modernists banned trimwork. No, it was all about aesthetics. And at first, the clean, stripped-down Modern look was very expensive. Actually, it still is, if you do it right. One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons has a designer explaing into a potential client, "Yes, of course we can do Minimal--but not on your budget." But once plasterers & drywall installers got with the program & learned to do neater work--no more gaping, drafty holes between walls & ceilings, or around doorways--they didn't have to rely on the trim carpenter to come along & hide their crummy workmanship. And once they got that skill-set mastered, it was just a matter of time before budget-driven developers (who cared nothing about aesthetics) eliminated all the trim they could eliminate in new houses, leaving only the baseboards & some vestigial ranch-profile trim around doorways that had actual doors, which, with the rise of open plan houses, were getting fewer & fewer in number. It was Modernism by default, not choice. That was then, but this is now, so let's look around. Today, with the resurgence of interest in traditional design, most new houses again have crown molding. Unfortunately, a lot of it is often way out of proportion for the rooms where it's used--either too big in small-studded rooms like yours, or woefully undernourished in double height rooms--and lots of people living in otherwise handsome, clean-lined Mid-century houses & later open-plan houses are sticking it up in places, where, stylistically, it doesn't belong. Just because a thing, in itself--or in one particular context--looks good doesn't mean that that same thing will look equally good in another place. The demure white gloves that look so natural on Grace Kelly & Betty Draper would look out of character on Carmela Soprano. How about broad horizontal stripes? Great on some people, but disaster on others. But here's what's weird: people understand that concept of appropriateness when it comes to their clothes, but they don't realize it applies to their homes, too. Will adding crown molding work at your house? It's hard to say. Maybe yes, maybe no. So, instead of deciding one way or the other based on what you saw at the neighbor's house--or based on what we, who don't know your house, say--why don't you ask your house what it wants. It will tell you: all you have to do is learn to listen. The mix-'n'-match look? That question's easier. No. Sure a lot of people do it, but a lot of people use their cell phones while driving, too, and a lot of other people jaywalk. Doesn't make it right. Magnaverde Rule No. 5: Stop, Look & Listen.

If all the windows are stained, and all the trim is painted, I think you are fine. As long as it follows a pattern, that is ok. There was another thread earlier about doors and paint vs stain and I think the conclusion was the same. If all the bedroom doors are one finish and the closets another, it is ok to mix. Just come up with a plan, follow it and you will be ok. There is no "one size fits all" here. Personally, I think stained trim can be lovely, but sometimes it can also be overload. I think having some stained and some painted may be the best of both worlds.

Those pictures are of farmhouse style? Really? They look kind of froufrou to me, and in my book, farmhouses are simple, modest, utilitarian structures. But maybe now that traditional farms are pretty much dead, "farmhouse" is just another label for whatever some highly-paid interior designer thinks looks "traditional." I'm with the rest of the crew here. With 8' ceilings, that's no mansion you have there. Trying to make it look like one with fancy crown molding will just make it look like a parody of one. I say let your house be what its architect meant it to be. But that's just my opinion. It's your house, and if crown molding makes you happy, why not? I'd suggest the narrowest, simplest molding you can find. If the the next person who buys your house doesn't like it, they can always pry it off and patch the holes.

Donald, the new window and door trim will be just shy of 3 1/4 inches which is all there is room for on some walls where the doors are too close to a corner or cabinet. I read the door and window trim should be narrower than the baseboards are high; is half too great a difference? jewelisfabulous, I have done that. 5 inch seems ok but a little short, 6 inch seems perfect but there are relatively few of those, and 7 seems a little tall but maybe just because of the contrast to what we currently have. A 7 inch is my favorite profile. Thank you both for your input and I welcome any more.