White Painted Wood Trim w Natural wood door. (shutters, hardwood, paint) - Home Interior Design and Decorating - City-Data Forum

kinkytoes · 12-01-2010, 01:03 PM

My dining room is finished!

To save money, I decided to do the painting myself. The door french doors are unfinished pine, and I have a dilemma: Should I stain the door to match the oak floors or paint it white to match the rest of the trim?

I am leaning towards stain. At least stain won't chip and require sanding/repainting in 10 years...But I'm a little worried that it will look tacky since all of the other trim is white.

sanrene · 12-01-2010, 08:42 PM

A picture would help to visualize.

chet everett · 12-01-2010, 08:55 PM

...secondly, quality trim paint doesn't chip. That said, in ten years odds are good that you might want to do some "freshening up"!

I think pine can be stained to look ok, especially in a rural / rustic style home, but really the trouble it takes (you need to pre-coat the pine with at least one or two coats of sanding sealer as well as find a tone of stain that will not look ghastly on both the light and dark parts of the pine grain pattern) but painting makes more sense. For that reason I prefer to get a nice primed door unless I am going to spring for a premium hardwood...

fallingwater · 12-01-2010, 09:09 PM

Using a good paint will last many years and withstand many washings. I like the combo of stained wood along white trim but Pine is not the nicest wood ever IMO. I personally prefer white woodwork and trim.

kinkytoes · 12-02-2010, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fallingwater

Using a good paint will last many years and withstand many washings. I like the combo of stained wood along white trim but Pine is not the nicest wood ever IMO. I personally prefer white woodwork and trim.

You're all right about the pine...but I had to answer the call of the...pocketbook.

I won't be able to get the pine to look like Oak, but I think I'd like the colors to be a little closer. I hope that's not super tacky. You'll still be able to see the grain, and it looks kind of nice to me, actually.

Hopefully it won't look like I was trying to make "faux oak." gag

Right now the natural color of the doors is very light.

I have stained some old hardwood shutters, doors etc, as well as some new pine furniture, so I know it will probably take me a week or so to complete the finish. I was planning to use that stuff you use for porous wood, stain and tung oil.

I just wanted to find out if it would look really tacky and I'm just overlooking something...LOL but now I realize Pine is tacky.

BTW, I don't think there's any good quality paint when it comes to doors and windows. Try repainting a historic 5000 sq foot house... Ugh. All paints will fail at the points of friction, and when you put on new coats of paint, it just gets worse.

I'm kind of privacy conscious, but if I can find an anonymous photo hosting site, I'll put up a picture when I'm done. Thanks for all the advice.

Kandy · 12-02-2010, 07:55 PM

Paint it white to match the rest of the trim. It will look "off" otherwise.

kinkytoes · 12-29-2010, 04:58 PM

Too late, Kandy! I spent a few days staining with "Ipswich Pine" by Minwax. I pre-treated the wood, but I only put on one coat of poly. You can still see the grain of the pine and although I did commit a couple of tiny boo boos, but it came out seriously great. The color is close to the oak on the floor.

I think "tinypic" allows you to post anonymous pictures. I'll try to upload one there so I can post it and you can singe my hairs with the flames of your judgment. Shame CD doesn't host images.