Hey CMayes -- I saved your photo and flipped it around. I think if you paint that moulding, you should definitely paint the beams also -- the moulding and beams together are continuous looking and IâÂÂd keep them all the same (all stained or all painted). Whatever you end up doing with the Beams/Moulding, you should consider doing with the wood Mantle and the Surround . I think that paneled Tall Wall should be painted that buttercream color. That Tall Wall (stained) really takes away from your mantle and fireplace. Finally, painting the fireplace. IâÂÂve done it before and it turned out super. However, your brick is pretty nice looking and neutral -- IâÂÂd maybe leave that alone. Are you gonna paint that lower paneling, or leave as is? I think that would like nice either way but painted would make the room look bigger. Good luck -- I feel your pain -- I am redoing a similar room and it is a doozy with so many elements -- you are off to good start thought. Love the art work btw!

Imsparkie, your kitchen looks really cool - I hope you keep us posted about your progress. I understand the effect that you are trying to achieve. Having some depth and variation is a really great idea for adding interest to slab fronts. I'm planning solid oak gray stained slab fronts for my small kitchen, but I was driving myself *nuts* trying to figure out *how*. It was a thread here on GW that pointed me to an excellent option: Rubio Monocoat. It's a Belgian product that is designed for floors so it's more than up for the job for cabinet fronts. From my research, it is a new category of products (there are a couple of other brands of this kind of modern hardwax oil). It has many many benefits over custom stains, hardware store options, etc. What I found is that those products weren't opaque enough for the look that I was trying to achieve. I have applied it myself and it's an *easy* DIY job if you do proper wood prep (use their cleaner) and follow instructions exactly. I have no experience with wood finishing so knew that complicated application methods weren't for me. I loved the samples that I tried. The finish is beautifully matte, yet water beads up nicely and it seems very durable. I recommend that you order samples and try this yourself if you're interested. Plan to take some time getting the right combination if you use two-step process. The wood species makes a *huge* difference. If you want to see grain, oak is by far the best readily available option. Also, how the wood is prepped makes a difference in how the Oil soaks in (sanding, Monocoat Raw Wood cleaner, 'water popping' to raise grain), so ideally you'd be working with a sample cabinet door for your final testing. Some of the Monocoal Oils are coloured (incl a number of whites), but if you want a more opaque finish with stronger colour, you can apply a 'precolor' - I'll be doing that with my gray stained cabinet to achieve an 'almost painted' look that still shows the dimension and depth of the grain. You will probably need the precolor to get the colour strong enough for your look. The cool thing is you can MIX precolors with each other to blend a custom colour. You can also mix the Oils with each other. So the possibilities are endless and you should be able to create the look you want with experimentation. Because there are so many colours of precolors and oils, the combinations are endless and creating large sample boards is a *must*. Natural Oil Finish 2C Part A (no accelerator B) http://www.monocoat.us/Natural-Oil-Finish - recommended to use no accelerator for cabinet fronts for long 'open time', but takes 21 days to cure (instead of 7). Precolor Easy 14 Unique Shades http://www.monocoat.us/Precolor-Easy/ Application Instructions: https://store-adb79.mybigcommerce.com/content/pdf/RM Furniture Data.2.14.pdf pretty impressive resistance testing results: http://www.monocoat.us/Resistance-Testing/ See my thread for endless detail about my quest for an elusive finish look :) . http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0416442910326.html HTH! If you're interested in pursuing this, I have some ideas about how you might achieve lavender/white look with Rubio products based on my test boards. This post was edited by feisty68 on Sat, Jun 21, 14 at 15:44

It really is a hard decision, but usually there is some sort of indicator to the right direction - you may just have to listen hard and dig deep to find it. People gave all sorts of good things to clue in on in this thread from just sitting and staring at your kitchen daily and it coming to you over time....to looking at inspiration pics and tuning into which ones make you sigh in wonder.....to just making a final decision one way or another and seeing if peace comes with it. For me, I did decide on white with my previous cabinet maker, and I was excited, but still felt very nervous about it. The glaze or no glaze choice was not sitting right at all either. I wanted the warmth of glaze, but not the potential to be dated or the lack of control over how heavy or light it was applied. In the end, we switched cabinet makers, and I realized that stained wood really does fit more with our house. That's what all our millwork and window casings/trim are. So that's what we chose (stained birch, actually), and I feel peace about it. There is something about the warmth of wood that paint can't really replicate. Yet, I get my white painted fix too - we have a cream fireplace mantle and surround, so I am adding to that in the adjacent kitchen with a creamy white island, hutch, and columns. I am still toying with the idea of using black or green on the island instead of white...we will see! BTW, our kitchen should be completed by the end of the year. Our aim is Nov 1, but I think that's going to be pushing it.

Staining it will make it obviously fake, painting it will make it hidden fake.