We are looking at updating our kitchen in the home we rent. (We're renting it from family so our "landlord" let's us do some renovations!) I love a neutral kitchen- white cabinets, pretty counter, great backsplash and I would LOVE gray walls! I'm tired of my "Totally Tan" walls all throughout my house. But we have (what I would call) medium oak colored cabinets, trim, doors, beams on the ceiling... everything. So I don't feel like cool gray walls would go well with our medium color oak trim (?).
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| Late Night Photos- Sorry! |
There are two things holding me back from whipping out a paint brush. One- We don't own the house! If it were up to me, I would have probably painted a while ago. Second- Once you paint- you can't go back. It's pretty wood... not cheap looking or anything... I just tend to be more of a crisp white trim kinda gal! Eventually (in a year), we will move and our family will move back in. So I have to think about what they like.
There are parts of the oak wood that I think are best being the wood tone- like our mantel; I don't think it would look right painted white on our brick fireplace. Which then makes me think that I don't need to paint the adjoining built-ins because they are so close. Which then means that maybe I shouldn't paint the trim because it is all in the same room. Which then makes me think that I shouldn't paint the cabinets in the kitchen because the kitchen is open to the living room.
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| Ignore the messy counters- just keeping it real! |
BUT... if I paint the cabinets in the kitchen (which I know would be pretty), then I will want to paint the trim and chair rail... which is open to the living room so I will need to paint the trim in there as well. Then I wonder if I need to paint the built-ins and possibly mantel... See where I going. I love the look of white trim so much that I feel it will be like if you give a girl and paint brush... yada, yada, yada!
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| Right Now (Before) |
Help me! I need some advice!
This is so tricky! I tend to run down the rabbit whole of all or nothing. BUT, I don't know if that is always the best case. My parents painted their kitchen cabinets white and left the rest of the trim in their house a dark wood and it looked good. From your pictures, I actually think you could paint the kitchen cabinets white without it looking silly against the wood grain.
ReplyDeleteMy two cents is to actually leave the cabinets and woodwork. I normally would say "go for it" but since you don't own the home and are planning to be there only a short time, it might not be worth it. UNLESS your family wants you to paint it for them! :) I understand being sick of the tan, could you try a pretty bluish gray that would complement the cabinets and woodwork? To give my opinion on mixed finishes, in my former home I painted the trim in the kitchen white but chose maple cabinetry (similar to what you have) when we redid the kitchen. It looked fine and I think yours would look fine too! If we had continued to live there I would probably have redone the trim eventually while leaving the cabinetry. So I do think mixing works. :) Hope this helps a little.
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