apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Almost did the very sample thing as the first picture. Love it.

It's more of a European thing. You see it in England and France a lot. I think that you need real, old-style (meaning beefy, tall baseboards, etc.) trim work to carry it off.

I've heard the opposite - this is something you do if you do not have beefy baseboards and trim, e.g. for plain and small baseboards you paint everything the same colour so as not to draw attention to the shortcomings of the trim work.

We have that in our master bedroom (and yes, it does have 100 year old "beefy" baseboards, etc.), and it just looks drab and boring to me. Then again, we don't have such austere, modern furnishings. Our wall color is very similar to the second picture, but not so olivey green--a bit bluer. It's a nice color, but I'm planning on painting the trim in there white as soon as I get a chance, to brighten things up.

I love the look.

With light/shadow, the trim looks painted, truly. For a perfectionist who can't paint as neatly as he would like, one-color walls/trim is a good thing.

Its just more modern looking painting all the same color. If you like a more traditional look go for the contrasting trim look.

Just depends on the look of the room/home to me. Sometimes it can be really gorgeous though!

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Given the amount of work required to either make and install beautiful woodwork or strip decades of paint from it, I prefer to highlight woodwork, big or small, with a nicely contrasting white or off-white semi-gloss enamel paint. The color contrast and sheen of the woodwork against wall color assure that the woodwork will always be highlighted in the room regardless of wall color. Using enamel makes woodwork repainting rare therefore preventing precious mouldings from paint build up.

We just finished painting our apartment yesterday. The painter didn't believe me when I said paint the chair rail the same color as the wall, so she painted a test for me! I held my ground, and you are correct. The small rooms do feel larger.

In our bedroom, which has two windows opposite French doors, I realized I should have kept the window trim the same color as well. When viewed from that vantage point (and there really is no other), the room is now visually broken up and feels deceptively small.

We just painted our new place the same way. We used the same color throughout, but used a semi-gloss on the trim and flat paint on the walls and ceilings. It made such a difference and looks much larger.

I lived in a very small place that had a dark wood built-in wardrobe and a dark wood box shelf above the bed. I painted both the same colour as the walls (a sort of parchment colour), I did the walls matt and the wardrobe/shelf eggshell. Even though I left the skirting boards and windowsills white, it made a huge difference, the two pieces just blended into the background and made the room feel significantly larger. My landlady went bananas though!

Is it modern? Traditional? Check out the all green dining room and all blue bedroom at Mount Vernon. Intense. Nice virtual tour on the website. Click on the floorplan for the room you want to see. http://www.mountvernon.org/virtual/index.cfm/ss/2/

Since I seem to be the lone voice of dissent here, maybe I should add that our bedroom that is painted that way is ridiculously large--the prior owners knocked out a wall to turn two bedrooms into one giant long one--so the room is prone to feeling cold and cavernous. If one of the benefits of same color trim is to enlarge a small space, that could be an additional reason why it's just not working for me.

At one point I painted my living room and trim the same color on an accent wall (not nearly as ornamented, but mostly window and mullions) and it ended up being very 60s (which was my intent). The baseboards throughout the rest of the apartment matched the accent trim, tying it all together.

In my new place it's all white, since the feel of the space is very different.

I tend to like contrasting trim in more casual areas (like a breakfast nook) and solid in more formal areas. contrasting trim in a formal setting seems a little fussy to me (particularly if there's a lot of it). but, of course, it does depend on the house and the room and the personality/style of your furnishings. I like the ideas of different finishes if the same color to distinguish them and had never thought of this-- any pictures?

while we're on the subject-- I beg anyone who is repainting their trim to properly sand it first to preserve the detail! it's so sad to see formerly beautiful woodwork ruined by layers of glunky paint, (common in rentals, *ahem* my room).

Isn't sanding to help the paint to adhere the with surface?How does sanding prevent glunky layers? Typically the glunky layers have more to do with the amount of paint layered on the surface.

I meant sanding off layers of paint that have built up rather than just roughing up the surface and adding to them.