Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Trim Colors Are Like Shoes!

Do you have white trim throughout your house?  Do you love it and the crisp way it makes your trim stand out?  That's great!  Nothing like fresh white trim to brighten up a room, particularly if you have fresh clear colors...light or dark, doesn't matter, and your fabrics are white or a clear color with white...BUT...

There's always a but....

I am here to tell you that there are trim rules out there that don't exist...like all your trim MUST be white...OR...all you trim MUST be the same in every room...OR all your trim must be high gloss, or semi-gloss, or satin gloss.....

Historically, trims were always a color...have you ever seen an authentic Victorian home with white trim?..color was a sign of wealth...white paint was cheaper to produce...colors were much more expensive...
so....who makes up the rules...personally I think a group of builders got together and said " We have got to convince everyone that white trim is HOT!...that way we do not have to be extra careful with the crown trim against the ceiling...and we don't have to keep up with what trim goes where...and we can buy in bulk and use the same trim in every house we build..." So white trim has been everywhere...all over the built in cabinets which I fondly refer to as The White Elephants....our kitchen cabinet, bathroom cabinets, everywhere the same...until now

The shoe rule:  Paint your trim a color that looks BEST with your walls and your fabric, i.e. furniture fabric and curtains....Take your fabrics and say " If this fabric was my jacket and THIS fabric was my shirt, etc., what color of shoes would look best with this outfit ?"...

You have got to be saavy enough to realize that this is a concept to get you thinking "out of the box" and to not take everything literally to the extreme....i.e. for those of you that would answer " I would wear RED shoes or shoes with GOLD GLITTER" does not apply to this rule...but in most cases it works in helping you with trim and cabinet and built-in cabinets....

O.K. a few examples...you have sage green walls in your living room and your fabrics are a great off-white natural linen with a pattern of a variety of greens, rusts, and soft golds...and let's say that you have a soft natural vintage look going on....I would probably suggest a very soft lighter taupe/khaki perhaps like Benjamin Moore HC-81 Manchester Tan or 956 Temporal Spirit....basically the color of the linen in your background fabric or a little lighter/darker than this tone....much softer than bright ready-mix white which tends to be a little on the blue-gray side....Oh and you will not like a high-gloss perhaps with this vintage look, semi-gloss or maybe the new Aura Satin if you want to go green....move into your foyer...maybe you have some great art to showcase...maybe the walls are the color of your trim, i.e. HC-81 Manchester Tan and maybe I want a soft off-white trim in here that still looks good with the colors next door....I choose Benjamin Moore OC-45 Swiss Coffee...great soft off-white...a little gray,  a little cream w/o going yellow...very flexible...maybe you think this is a little boring...so I am hanging my art up...have a great rug...and I just painted my oak railing..Ben Moore Bittersweet Chocolate...or Mink...or Silhouette (a great iron-black with a touch of brown) ...throw in the back of the front door as well!  The trim around the door (by the way) stays your main trim color, in this case the Swiss Coffee...Now I have a little classic drama going on....across the hall is the dining room...what could it be?

same green as living room, but the trim and wainscoating ( if there ) is the exact same color but in semi-gloss...

or how about Manchester Tan (same as in Foyer) but a sage green trim and wainscoating...

or how about the rust with chocolate brown trim?

maybe a soft-gold (that works with the fabric in the living room) and continue the Swiss Coffee in here...

Or maybe the Manchester Tan again with 965 Temporal Spirit which is just one shade darker....ELEGANT!

Get the point???

Go into your kitchen...can your cabinets and trim all be Swiss Coffee...Yes!   Can your walls be a soft taupy yellow ( Like Oc-8 Elephant Tusk ) with sagey-green cabinets...Yes!  maybe you a great pantry door in your kitchen...want to jazz it up? Paint it a slightly brighter/stronger terracotta or the same as the dark black/brown you used in the foyer....

Treat your trimwork as architectural accents...we are just now getting people to break up the furniture sets and blend pieces a little more...I know its harder to do but SOOOOOOO...worth it....I tell my customers that your home should be like a suitcase...and you are on the greatest journey in the world...and the particular "trip" you are on at that time in life ( i.e. style of home and location..) dictates the clothes (furniture and fabric and art) you take on the trip...and you have to have shoes...several pairs...some dressier , some more comfortable for walking, but you need to be sure that your clothes all work together...maybe mix them up if needed and that your shoes look good with their specific "outfit" but still looks good with other outfits as well...

Your house does not looked chopped up because you are pulling a thread of color from one room to another...this thread can be a wall color, or trim color, or rug color, or curtain panels or a sofa...there is continuity through the layering of colors and textures...

and just a side-bar...if your "suitcase" is in Florida...most of your "clothes" should look appropriate in Florida...i.e. lots of whites, off-whites, soft pebble colors, with jolts of greens and aquas...texture, stone, glass....sisal rugs...maybe the wool plaid and heavy dark leather accents should be used if you ever live in a home where its cooler?  Color reflects and works not only with the fabrics and furnishings you have selected but should also create an ambiance appropriate to the style of house, its' geography, and the people who live within...Color Jedi

5 comments:

  1. Kathleen, you are too brilliant for words! Amazing! I learn something every time I'm in your presence and now through your blog too! I'm so blessed to know you personally and to have your blog to enjoy now too! YAY! Keep it up you are doing fantastic!

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  2. I have to say, thanks to you, I have some gorgeous trims that are definitely out of the box. Dark blue trim against light walls in my son's bedroom gives him a masculine room that doesn't scream baby boy. And, I like the graphic punch. Nantucket Gray on the wainscoting (instead of white) in the laundry room/mud room hides some of the, well, mud! :-) Thanks for all your tips!

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  3. Kathleen, I (Candy) so enjoyed meeting you. Your blog is fascinating, and I look forward to learning more and more about decorating with paint as I follow your tips.

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  4. Wow -- so interesting! What if your windows are bright white and not paintable, with fake white panes inside of the glass. Aren't you kind of limited to white then? Can you paint all of the trim around the windows a different color? What about window sills. I feel wedded to white because of my windows! Thanks!

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  5. Kathleen -- you are a genius! I just posted pictures on my blog of the room i repainted with your help. Quinn really loved the new pictures you suggested he paint. i was going to do the four canvases -- but has you can see they turned out to be way bigger than i thought they looked in the store.

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