Your Baseboards and Crown Molding - Should They Disappear?

When painting the inside of your house, you not only have to choose attractive wall and trim colors, you have to decide where to put them. One important decision is whether or not the baseboards, crown molding and other details should be accented.

I firmly believe that you should accent only the details that are:

• attractive 
• suitable to the design of the house, and
• in the proper scale with the room

Many of today's houses have narrow, utilitarian baseboards and crown molding that don't deserve special attention, but people go on automatic pilot and paint them in the trim color, usually a white. This creates awkward, skimpy white lines at the floor and ceiling that draw the eye, and when the wall is a rich color, the high contrast makes their shortcomings even more obvious.

Crown Molding Enhanced With Paint

Don't worry, I'm not suggesting that you replace your trim! There are two simple solutions. You can either make it disappear, or you can enhance it.

• 
  
• To make trim "disappear", paint it in the wall color so it becomes texture. The ceilings will look taller and the room more unified and spacious. 
• To enhance the trim, use masking tape and trim paint to redefine it, as was done in the above example from one of our projects. Notice how small the wood section of the crown is, and how much larger and more attractive it looks after Roger enlarged and painted it in a golden bronze metallic I chose to complement the blue walls, gold ceiling and the mirror frame. 

If you want to enhance your trim, you don't have to have a fancy look and metallic paint. The technique works just as well in less formal rooms.

Our two hour color and detailing consultation ($225, plus travel charges in some areas) includes suggestions on how to make the most of the details of your house. If you hire us to do the painting, the consultation is free as part of our services. To schedule a consultation or a painting estimate, call me at 828-692-4355.