Well, we have something like you describe, though our window trim is painted to match the baseboard. The doors on the first floor are stained wood, while the doors on the 2nd floor are painted. The windows and stained doors are Douglas fir and the wood on the windows was so lovely that we couldn't bear to paint it. Of course, then we had to paint the baseboards and trim as we did not want to mix woods here and Doug fir for all the trim would have been prohibitively expensive. Floors are red oak. Here's some pics: From Doors, Windows, Trim From Doors, Windows, Trim From Doors, Windows, Trim From Moved in

For the most part, my furniture is casual and neutral. The room next to the dining room (but not visible from the dining room) is the family room and it will hold a brown leather Ethan Allen sectional, muted orange wingback-ish chairs, and a rug with muted green, brown, gold, and orange squares. However, the orange chairs are in storage and due to some issues we had with the storage unit, they may not come out in usable shape. So the rug and orange chairs might be replaced with any variety of items in any variety of colors. Regarding metallic paint - that's not really in keeping with our style preferences. DH wants the dining room to be a dark room but I agree with johnatemp that I won't want to walk by a cave all the time. DH also had the same suggestion as creekylis -- to have the wall under the chair rail painted with the white trim paint to give the illusion of wainscoting. And I'm open to that. The walls are flat so I think that would look okay. As Les917 suggested, I think we need a rug to lighten the room a bit. I've been going through magazines and catalogs in an attempt to find a great room I can mimic but haven't stumbled upon anything that I love. But I think that we'll have a good result if we use the trim below the chair rail, chocolate brown above the chair rail, a sparkly chandelier, mirrors and lamps to create some light, and a good rug, we should be okay. Thank you, everyone, for your advice! try_hard ...

Yes the foam stuff - they have some small narrow pieces. I used some once on a vanity to fill in a narrow gap and make it look like inset doors. Much easier to work with than regular wood. BTW I personally changed out all baseboards and added window trim to my old house so this would be so much simpler to me. I'm considering doing this in our master bedroom, but with a few panels etc. to make a low wainscoting similar to what you see in late 1800's buildings in Sweden. The cuts were much easier with the hard foam stuff and I just did those with a hand mitter saw vs. dragging out my compound miter saw. I wouldn't use hot glue though - think it would be too thick on the back, but an all purpose construction adhesive or other glue should be fine. Changing out the baseboards isn't as easy as it sounds with carpet tack strips in the area unless the base thickness is less or the same as the existing base board. Also with the carpet in place it is hard to see that you get the correct gap needed.

Hi Lukkiirish. Painting the doors the same color as the rest of the trim has always been the way they do things in Europe. France has never seen a painted door it didn't like. On the other hand, doors stained--generally mahogany, since that was the fashionable wood at the time--to contrast with white trim became the standard in important houses in 18th Century England. And since what we call 'Colonial' is merely a simplified version of what's considered Georgian style decor in England, places like the White House have combined stained doors with painted trim for more than 200 years now. It's all good. Baseboards often match the rest of the trim, but not always. In grand houses they were often colored marble, and in less important houses, they were often finished in faux marble rather than pale paint, the better to hide the soil line from dirty mops, which is why they're still called 'mop boards' in England. The last time I was at The White House, the baseboards in the Blue Room were painted in imitation of yellow Sienna marble. In other words, when it comes to painting doors, whatever you decide do to, you'll have plenty of historic precedent behind you. Situations where it's literally impossible to make a wrong choice don't come along very often in decorating, so when it does happens, you ought to take advantage of it. Regards, Magnaverde.