While in pics my molding appears to be similar to the walls, they're actually very different in person. The walls have a significant amount of texture and color in them and the wood is of course smooth and shiny and different in tone. I also have the opposite in my victorian where the crown molding is painted but the doors and trim are not. Again, no racing stripes. Now in that last kitchen....we don't see the kitchen well. Personally it does get that racing thing visually from a computer because it appears that the chair rail, base board and crown are all the same, with no differentation in the wallcovering or color between, hence the stripe. Now closer up we might find that the lower area has a texture that defines it....which might make it work nicely in person, but on the computer, it does look terrible. But that's the chair rail. Remove it from the pic and you have no race stripes. Boring room maybe :P But no stripes ;) IMO Painting that molding would do nothing to effect the stripe issue. Painting the walls (lower) a different color to accentuate the molding would solve the issue immediately :) But it's again a different issue since the OP does not have a chair rail problem. I have several rooms with different molding colors on the window verses the crown, as well as rooms where the crown and the toe don't match. They look lovely. No stripes :) just nice finishes designed to work within the room they're in. The reason the house flows well though is because I kept the main trim (windows) the same color. In this case the OP can do either and either will look nice. Because the mantle build out is the same color as the molding it would flow well together, but given it's also a specific item (mantel) it can have that furniture look by painting the other molding and leaving it the wood tone on the actual mantel portion. Mantel? Mantle? Manaties? gad I'm a spelling idiot!

Thanks so much! The PO originally had the beams stained a dark forest green and we could either sand and refinish all 12 - 20' long beams or paint them. So we went with white and really like the result. Thanks for your opinions, I feel more confident about continuing the brazilian cherry now. Love GW!

OK, this is making me feel better. I am having a hard time making decisions lately (8-month pregnancy hormones, I think). I got a great deal on some white blinds from JCPenney ($36 for a 47" wide blind on super-duper sale) so I will try them out at least. Since they were cheap, I ordered one for the guest bedroom too to see how it looks, but I won't stress if I don't like it. Whew! Sweeby - I REALLY wanted the maple to work. I incorporated several baskets, colorful fabrics, etc, to see if that made the maple have context, but they still look weird to me. A better decorator might make them work... I will try to post a picture as soon as I get the valance finished and hung. Everything about the nursery makes me smile but the window right now.

With led bulbs you can configure your lighting to be 4000K. This will reduce the yellow at night with lights on.