# paint with character wood trim/moulding



## jpenns (Jul 15, 2009)

Hi everyone

My wife and I are painting and having a really hard time with choosing a colour for the entrance and hallway of our 100 year old character home. Primarily because of the predominance of a wood trim. Picture attached. We've painted a very light grey above the plate rail, but can't decide what to do with the paintable wall paper below it (currently baby blue). We're leaning towards a darker grey with a bit of brown in it. We're afraid that anything that isn't neutral will become overwhelming, just like the blue currently is, because it surrounds a fairly small entrance room, hallway, and then all the way up the staircase.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Check out some of the major paint companys websites.
Some have an area where you can down load a picture of your home and change the color on screen.


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## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

I built you color wheels with your floor color at the top as anchors. One wheel shows what happens when you tint a color, the other shows what happens when you desaturate and lighten a hue. You will note the second wheel has more grays. 

Color Theory 101. Tints of the same hue are called a monochromatic color scheme. They can be either boring or comforting. Analogous color schemes are built when you combine colors either direction but next to each other. They are considered a bit more energized but still comforting. Complimentary colors are those directly across from each other. They can be quite dramatic but used in equal strength can actually cancel each other out. A popular color scheme used a lot by designers is one involving split compliments. They are the colors to each side of the compliment.

I built the three bar charts based on the split compliments to the colors in your woodwork and am showing you different variations. The compliment color is in the middle. Obviously you could pick and variation from the different charts. The hue does not change. Your lighting can effect it though. And you often do not use matching amounts or strength of all the hues.

Hope this helps get you started. I of course had know way of knowing what you meant by a light gray so could not factor that in.


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## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

Had a few minutes this morning so built you some blends too! Each is anchored to your floor coloring (left) and compliment (right). One shows a straight path of colors that could work in a complimentary color scheme. The other two show colors running either side of the color wheel from your floor coloring to your compliment.


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## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

From the drapes that are shown in the top of the picture it looks like you're not afraid to use some patterns. What about swapping out the patterned drapes for something more solid (and cut to the right height) and going with a patterned wall paper in the panels and along the wall? It might look even better if it's something with a big enough pattern to be spaced along the panels as if mounted behind them. 

Just a thought. That and for colors I've found you have to decide what elements in a space are going to have the "most to say" for it. And then let all of the other elements fall in behind that, along complimentary color lines. That's sort of why I thought of using some big pattern in the panels and have it follow up the panel on the wall. Then the wood and the wall color would just fall in behind it. And you'd get the effect of making the entrance area feel bigger as the pattern continues up the stair wall.


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## mrwoodty (May 15, 2013)

I think a bold color to make the wood trim stand out, or even a wall paper. Just one guys opinion.


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