I sympathize with you. My hand is still steady enough, but the eyes-not good. Are you painting the walls dark over a lighter paint? If so, here's what I would do. I'm not an expert, but I've done my fair share of painting and I've learned some tricks which work for me. First, you need to make sure you totally cover up the lighter paint. Do this by painting a thin line of the white trim paint along the edge of the trim and over the lighter wall paint color (you may want to fine sand that edge first so the trim paint sticks well). You don't want any of the original paint color showing and this is the only way to guarantee that. Allow a couple of days for that trim paint to dry. Using the Frog tape, tape along the edge of the trim (this will be harder on the crown molding-maybe you can get someone with better eyes to do that taping for you). Then press down the tape really well with a putty knife-a couple of times so you get a really tight seal. Then paint the dark paint, try not to go too heavy with the paint into the tape line-but you probably know that already. When the paint is dry-half a day or so, remove the tape, You should get a nice crisp line. Good luck.

I think this application can be good...particularly in an historic, vintage or more rustic home. Our house is an 1880's farmhouse and much of the woodwork was painted by the PO in Baby Turtle ( a BIT coincidental since I'd used it years before in my Denver LR!) The foyer walls are a rich gold and look great with the BT. That said? The BT doors opening into the various color bedrooms upstairs was NOT a "good look". It was also quite dark in the hallways so those areas I re-painted off white. I've been contemplating painting the foyer of late...the white/green combo of the wood casing on the doorways and the white of the windows/ screens against the BT kinda drives me batty. They can't be painted since they're the "tilt in" Anderson windows and it would prevent that operation. In my Denver TV room I painted all the wainscotting, trim and bookcases in a deep swamp green and the walls were a pale gold...rest of house was off white trim. In our ranch in CO which was again an old farmhouse, I had a mixture of a deep rusty red trim with stained cedar planking in some rooms and a rich gold trim on doors leading to the upstairs. Kitchen was a warm white. I think it's easier to pull off in older homes where it's not so "open". It also gives more of a vintage/historic vibe. Here's a pix of our foyer now...pardon some of the junk strewn about...I've been in a decluttering mode of late. :)

Barb - I love your ideas. And it is so funny that you wrote about Powell Buff. I have about 5 samples of that plastered in different places in my kitchen. Also, I had to laugh about how nice you were with calling my foyer a grand foyer. :) I come from a 1300 sq. ft 1920's house (just moved about 4 months ago to PA from upstate NY). I call my foyer, a waste of space. I would much rather have another bedroom upstairs for a playroom, crafts, etc. Not that I'm in need of space, but I'm not one much for tall spaces. Small and cozy does the trick for me. Just weren't those kind of houses for sale where I was looking...at least not that we could afford. Anyhow - back to the task at hand. My house completely connects - the kitchen to the family (almost one room). The family has a back staircase (another silly thing), that runs to the hallway upstairs that connects to the foyer downstairs. So in other words, every room upstairs and downstairs connects. ugh. So my plan is that all trim in the connecting part of the house (minus LR, DR and bedrooms) will be Navajo White. Because that matches my kitchen cabinetry. And all ceilings will be Navajo White as well. This is being painted during nap times by me. (which is why it takes me too long to respond to the GW forum!) Yesterday, I managed to prime all of the trim in my foyer downstairs. Hurray! So, whatever is in my walls on the foyer needs to run to the upstairs hallway, which runs into one wall in the family room and will also be in the kitchen. blah. So I'm thinking of using Powell Buff for that color. I'm hoping it is a good match to Navajo White. Three walls in the family room will be SW Baguette. I'm very happy with this color. Just wishing that I didn't have the whole back staircase issue that makes everything connect. So Powell and Baguette, with Navajo will be the two primary colors in the downstairs. I could always consider Wilmington Tan for the LR/DR trim. Only issue is that it doesn't look quite as good with the Stickley furniture and sitll might be too dark around the windows. But perhaps you were on the right track by suggesting Powell Buff for the trim. Maybe something with that depth, just another color (because I will be using that in my other spaces.) OR I could just flipflop those rooms and use Powell on the trim and Navajo on the walls? Would that be strange, too? I'm not sure if any of this post will make sense. I'm sorry to ramble. Perhaps, if you are interested I can post more pictures of my space to help it make more sense. I've been working on this since I moved in, and now that things are finally getting primed, I need to make decisions so that I can get to the exciting part. In any event, thank you again for your advice and help. I am so grateful! Carolyn (aka repainting, again, and again)

I'd paint your trim the same navy as the walls for an elegant, urbane look, and then put the metallic silver on the ceiling. That, plus some ornate wallpaper with the same navy as the ground color, and a heavily draped bed in regal colors, would be wonderful.