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Best color for Shutters, baseboards, crown moldings?

16 years ago

Hi !!!

We've been remodeling our house for some months now, and the time has come to chose the color for teh baseboards, crown moldings, trims. etc..

I always knew i wanted trims and moldings really white, I love the Colonial look... so I first chose the color for the plantation shutters, which is bright white. I've always loved the contrast of white trims, mouldings, etc.

But when I started looking for baseboards, crown molding, etc the guy from the crown molding company told me the white white looks cheap, that is better to go with swiss coffee (???) Specially because I eventually want to install wainscoting in some rooms, and the white white would look "too white"

So I've put the shutters on hold, till I decide on the color... but I just can't.

I'm having dark hardwood flooring installed all around the house. I like colored walls, but i don't think i would go with very dark colors...

Putting the two colors together the swiss coffee looks too beige, but if I put against some other color looks white-y.

What do you guys suggest?

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Comments (7)

patricianat
16 years ago
I have what would be considered Suisse coffee on the Behr chart on my shutters and trim. I like it. I think white is pretty in many applications but for me, it just was too stark.
patricianat
16 years ago
bumping this back up for other posters to see, who are absent in daylight. :)
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Oh, that's always a tough one. I tend to go with more traditional choices and would suggest match the crown. Painting trim/molding the same color as the walls comes with caveats. Biggest one is every time you want to change wall color, you also have to paint the trim. Well, I suppose you wouldn't have to but then that's a different approach altogether. Here's a link about ceilings and trim. Specifically about painting the trim same as walls. Here is a link that might be useful: Trim / Ceilings
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BM Aura is very nice paint. I have only used it once. (IIRC, it was originally formulated for very deep, rich colors.) If low traffic & no children, it should be fine for your walls. I used it in a dark navy on a couple of nightstands, and it has stayed a little soft. Because of that, I wouldn't recommend it for trim. If you haven't bought your wall paint yet, take a look at Scuff X. The sheen level in Scuff X runs a little higher, but it also comes in matte. It is great paint! We have it on the walls and trim in our lower level. (For the trim, it was sprayed.)
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lindybarts
16 years ago
All my trim is "The Right White" from Restoration Hardware. It's a nice crisp color without being stark. The shutters I got from JCPenney match pretty closely too.
diy_dirk
16 years ago
lindybarts...

Nice post. Great looking woodwork.

cristalight...

DW and I have been using Ben Moore Dover White.

Cheers DD
Sujafr
16 years ago
You're so wise to be thinking this through! We were having our remodel done while out-of-state, so trusted our contractor for some of these issues. Our cabinets were quite white so I chose a white trim paint to go with them and the contractor was to use it on doors, etc. Instead he used BM Atrium White telling me it was similar and a fairly standard white for trim, but not so stark and he thought it blended well with the cabinets. It is a decent white, but has a pinkish tone to it I don't care for personally and definitely does not match my cabinets or interior doors. Sadlly, it bugs me more than I care to admit to see all the trim that color right up against the whiter doors! Also it did not match any shutter color whites available--off a little there as well. I wish I had more crispness in my trim, and at least for me, would have preferred the whiter look. (Even though I have slightly buttermilk white on some furniture.) I'd love to know what you choose since that's something I often consider re-painting, but hard to justify all the work it would involve. The lighter your wall colors will be, the more you'd probably prefer a whiter white in order to have contrast. (My walls are fairly light.) Good luck!
moonshadow
16 years ago
All my doors and trim are Cabinet Coat, stock "White". Perfect white, I love it!
patricianat
16 years ago
I think Sujafr put her finger on something important, crispness or not. Crisp white gives a very good look to rooms and the off-whites, ivories and beige-whites give more of an old-world look. Maybe a collected look or a fresh new look. I think both are very nice and perhaps it depends on the look one is trying to create.

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