Hire s designer for several hours of a consult. Colors are site and light specific.

*prepares to be crucified*

What about black?

*ducks and hides*

:-D

Honestly, a lot depends on the site and light, like Miss Sophie said, as well as the architectural style of the house.

In addition to the above, what syle doors? What style trim? What color walls? What color cabinets?

How is the wall prep work? What's the skill of the painter? What are your expectations for unachievable ''perfection''?

Black is an interesting choice. Great for high drama high volumed formal spaces. It is completely unforgiving of hack work. Every bow in the trim because the wall wasn't straight, or every nick that some careless sub left will all show up badly. It's best as a high end choice with high end trades coming before hand for all phases of the work up the food chain.

I'm with zorro on this one: stained doors and painted trim just have to much competitive contrast (dark vs light) to be visually appealing to me. I'd paint the doors and save some time and money.

Otherwise, you need some design consultation on site, since, as others have said, colors are light and shade specific. Have you worked out wall and ceiling colors? They all work together!

Good luck on your project.

My last house was stained knotty alder doors and thick white trim. LOVED it!!! Similar to this

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NightOwl, that's a lovely door.

Nightowl's wonderful photo clearly illustrates the difference between: 1) a custom designed home which was conceived from the outset as a harmonious blending of natural wood and painted surfaces, and 2) a random (perhaps last-minute) assembly of stained elements, painted elements and a lack of overall unity and harmony.

Thanks for the comments and @Nightowl, thanks for the photo. The stain isn't black, but it is very dark. I do agree we need a designer, but we keep running into those who want to sell their products more than they want t steer us in the right direction and yes for each one we are paying for the advice. I had ask for ideas on our fireplace material and her response was, "go back to your architect and ask them". So I am still looking.

Wall color has not been worked out, but the ceiling will be the same color as the trim - just a different sheen. The painter is a professional painter, but the select wasn't his.

I will get a picture of the doors and trim in couple of days to add here. The doors are at the shop to keep them from being damaged by the subs.

The stain isn't black, but it is very dark.

Yeah, I recommended black, not because I thought the doors were black (they are clearly dark brown on my screen), but because I thought a very dark trim would look nice with the dark doors. :-)

I typically like trim and doors to match stain/paint, but since you mentioned that the trim would be primed and painted, I went with what I thought was the second-best option.

That, and I read somewhere that painting trim a dark brown was almost always a no-no, because it comes across as a cheapened version of stained trim, and therefore should be avoided. Not that I haven't considered painting my own trim a very very dark chocolate, lol.

Well my husband has no patience and I haven't made it to the shop... so the paint I had already selected was applied to the trim SW Extra White. The paint is wet and shiny at the moment and the window is covered in plastic, so the color is not true yet. The picture is of the garage door, which is steel, but the color of the door was a match between this door and the front door, which are very similar in color. Also I will need to tell them to complete the frame in white. The second picture of the trim in the dining room which has a little more light coming through. My question is regarding the front door (3rd picture). At first I was going to paint the trim on this one, but a couple of weeks ago changed to staining the door and letting the base trim remain white but stop at the door.

So the question:

If I stain the trim what do I do with the window above. It is currently primed - purchased that way. Paint it the stain color or paint it white? I welcome your comments.

FRONT DOOR BELOW:

The door to the left is an office which will match the front door (trim color). These two doors are not in view of any of the other doors. The office has dark stained wood halfway up the wall and the door is see through.

I wouldn't choose black for any but the front door. One is PLENTY to try to keep clean!

Stain it the exact color of your floors or paint it white.

@Milly Rey to clarify the window above the front, which are you suggesting. White or dark color for the window trim?