apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i just rented a documentary by Chris Smith called "Home Movie." Has anyone seen it? It was SO interesting - all these people and the very specialized and unique homes they had created for themselves. Really amazing - not so much inspiration for my own home, but an insight into the psychology of "home-making." I totally recommend it.

Maybe it depends on the wall color, but any suggestions for a good white paint color for crown molding? And what are people's opinions on flat or semi-gloss for crown molding?

I'm not sure about the shade of white you should use, but I say there should be at least *some* sheen to moldings. I think if you leave it flat, it will look like it's primed but unfinished. Plus I think the sheen is a good contrast to the (I'm guessing) flat-finished walls.

defintely a semi-gloss on the mouldings. at least.

I second Seema's semi-gloss or glossier emotion.
As far as "temperature" of the white (so, whether a bright, blue white or something a little more off-white) I'd say it depends on the effect (brighter to me feels more contemporary), and perhaps it should relate to the color temperature of the wall color, to avoid too much of a jump in all categories of color, value and temperature.

So, I'm still stuck on kitchen month and I have a question. I have a ghastly rental kitchen. I think I can paint the cabinets white and change the hardware and that would help. (It's a tiny galley kitchen on the second floor of a Brooklyn brownstone.) BUT, the counters are that horrible fake butcher-block laminate crap. My landlord is a bit cantakerous when it comes to us doing any "work" on the apartment, and he lives right downstairs, so I couldn't sneak it in. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to improve the counters? Is there some sort of paint that might be passable? Seriously, the counters damn-near ruin the pleasure of cooking!

Maxwell,
When are you showing up on a new Mission Organization? I keep seeing you and Bryce on the reruns and I can almost do the dialogue word for word.
Wish you made housecalls or at least would come to Houston for a visit! My hubby thinks my gazillion boxes full of stuff might rattle even your calm approach to therapy.
Love reading this site and keep hoping I will get the urge to purge.

So my husband and i are looking to buy our first apartment (in Brooklyn). We've been going to open houses and not surprisingly the results are mostly depressing... But this weekend we saw a great apartment, space-wise and price-wise. The only thing is that it seems like it needs to be re-wired (there were a bunch of cables and wires running outside of the wall, and some of the outlets were mounted on - rather than in - the wall). Anyone know how much this might cost? The apartment was about 800 SF and i'm guessing less than 100 years old (radiator heat but no risers outside of the walls). Also I'm curious as to how much it would cost to skim-coat the walls - they had that awful stucco-like finish that our current apartment has.

Thanks for your advice...

michele -

You mention crown molding -- the kind that separates the wall from the ceiling -- but in general, I'd say that the other moldings should match it -- the Baseboard moldings, and if there are frame moldings (also called panel molding, because they look like framed panels on the walls, like Ross' 2nd apartment on Friends), and if there are picture moldings, which are usually about a 6" down from the ceiling, from which you're meant to hang pictures from silk cords or wire or fishing line. It's generally a good idea to let all the moldings in the apartment match (preferablly a somewhat neutral color), to unify the whole space. Oh, yes, AND doorframes and window frames.

The idea, visually, is basically 2-fold -- to establish the door frames and window frames as an architectural element, and, since they're likely to get a bit more wear-and-tear and fingerprints, to make them a bit easier to clean.

Therefore, make sure that if you're using a white, that that particular shade of it looks good with the various wall colors and/or treatments that you use.

I'd say a good rule is that you want the moldings to contrast at least slightly with the walls. If not in color, then in texture, with the moldingss being at least slightly glossier. If the walls are white, they're probably flat, then use semi-gloss or gloss. The problem I've found in New York apartments using an eggshell (fairly low sheen) paint on things like moldings, is that eggshell finish paint is, essentially rubber, and for some reason the soot in the air sticks to it and is very hard to clean off. If you insist on using it, you'd better go for a grey, so it won't be all that noticeable.

If you can force yourself to be able to stand the messy clean-up and the objectional smell (although some people LOVE it), oil-based paints are the most durable and beautiful thing for moldings, etc. Once they're all dry, etc., you'll notice at the touch that they feel very satisfyingly solid in a way that feels very historically appropriate to old apartments. I like the Satin finish for living areas and Brilliant finish for bathrooms and kitchens from Fine Paints Of Europe (used to call itself "Schreuder"), but Benjamin Moore's alkyd paints are also good. For either one, make sure you use a serious oil-based primer like "BIN" or "Kilz" first, though.

If your molding are in such horribly terrible shape that you find the idea of light reflecting off their craggy chippiness to be totally unacceptable, then if you insist -- make the baseboards flat. BUT ... if you do, you should probably use Benjamin Moore's new Regal Matte finish, which is a scrubbable flat paint. Mind you, it's not "wipe-able", per se, so you won't just dust it clean, but it is scrubbable.

You can paint crown to match your trim, to match your walls, to contrast with either or both of those. Wheat I like to do in a small room is paint it to match the ceiling color, but in satin or semi-gloss sheen. When you do this, it seems to enlarge the ceiling just a little -- but a little can help quite a bit.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions! Especially Curtis for so much detail. One question about the oil paint though. I'm not sure if what is currently on there is oil or latex. I'm pretty sure there is some rule about that, but I can't quite recall what it is. If there is already latex on there, can I still use oil?

Seriously, if you use "BIN" or "KILZ" it really should not matter what's under there. And on top of that, you could probably use either one.

That said, both companies make those primers in either oil or latex. But, I think that the oil version of each, which is oil, is probably better if you're going to use oil over it.

AND... you can use those tubes of universal tint to tint the primer, itself, in a color in the direction of your final color, so it's not so white (or ivory-ish), so you may not have to use so many coats of your top coat to cover it.