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I am currently helping my parents (my mom and step-dad) build their retirement house. My mom is retired (disabled at 59, due to arthritic thumb joints) and my step-dad will be retiring at the end of this year. They have just closed on two acres of property where they plan to build it. I have been scouring the internet for house plans than meet their requirements (master bedroom at least 15' x 16' with large walk-in closet, covered rear porch or screened porch, one-story with basement, 1500-1700 square feet). We're still sifting through the ones that could potentially work....
As were were looking at some of the latest plans I found a few days ago, my mom told me that she does NOT want white trim on the interior. The house will have crown molding in most rooms, probably chair railing (or wainscoting) in the breakfast nook and/or dining room and obviously doors, door frames, baseboards and shoe molding (where needed). She want to paint the walls a color very close to what they currently have. I would describe it as a light-medium khaki.
What trim color would look good with walls painted that color? I've seen trim painted various shades of khaki, grey and even olive green, but the walls were always the standard issue white that you find in most new homes. I'm just trying to think ahead and get some ideas.
You can use a cream color with khaki. Or you could have wood grained trim.
Their previous home had oak trim/doors throughout. I remember the endless hours required to apply three coats of stain and two coats of polyurethane....I don't think any of us could or would go through that again. Even though it was much more expensive than using regular trim and doors, they never really liked the look of it (and neither did I)!
If the walls are on the darker/deeper end of the khaki spectrum, I think a light creme colored trim would be beautiful. After showing her some examples online, this is the way my mom wants to go (at least for the moment....it could easily change before we reach that point in construction).
She has also decided that she doesn't want white exterior trim either. Again, I'm thinking that beige or 'off-white' will be her best bet. She plans on the house being painted a deep green or brown.
We have it narrowed down to four different house plans finally. Three of them are "Craftsman-style" and one of those has beautiful medium-dark wood-look shutters and accents on the exterior. A few also have wood-look shake/shingle accents (on one or more of the front gables) that are actually cement-fiber (Hardiplank). I like the combination of textures and colors and think it makes the house far more visually appealing.
My best friend moved to Pittsburgh (from our native Atlanta) last August. He bought a custom home (where the owners planned to retire, but the wife was transferred in February 2015 to another city). It has a combination of dark red brick (with charcoal gray mortar), dark red Hardiplank siding, gray Hardiplank wood-look shingle accents and some white trim. It sounds like it would look very 'busy' (aka- "tacky") but the execution is really beautiful.
The weirdest thing is that the house had NO crown moulding at all. It had pocket doors for the master bedroom, bathroom and closets; custom kitchen with dual ovens and Sub-Zero fridge, and even a built-in bar with a wine chiller and separate sink. The dining room has wainscoting with a door hidden for storing table leaves. But they didn't install crown moulding!??!? He recently rectified that and had it installed in every room (even the laundry room). The bathroom cabinets are a light olive green and he went with the same color for the master bed/bath trim and it looks amazing!
I've always been a fan of white trim, or some variant of white. Not a fan or any stained wood for maintenance reasons unless it's specific to a style, like an old Craftsman bungalow. Recently walked a new construction where they just sprayed the trim and walls the same color and sheen. It looked 'lazy' to me, in an otherwise nicely detailed house. Maybe the owners wanted it that way... but as a buyer, I'd be seeing all that trim I needed to paint.
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