Message Boards

I live in a house built in the mid-50's that has that typical yellowish pine finish on all the trim and doors. We are getting ready to remodel the kitchen and would like to go with more of a cherry or mahogany on the cabinets. We are also tearing down a wall to make it a more open floor plan between the kitchen and dining room/living room, which is open to a hallway leading to the other rooms on the first floor. Should I stain/replace all the trim throughout the first floor to match the cabinets, or maybe transition through the rooms to a painted trim and not worry about the pine trim in the rooms I haven't remodeled yet? Same thing with the doors (which will get replaced eventually) - should I make them match the trim around them, leave them alone, or stain to match the cabinets?

A yellow pine finish is not very typical in my experience. More likely varnished birch. I'm not being picky; pine is sometimes a pain to finish, but birch is a bit easier. If you want to match a natural finish, it can be tough, requiring a lot of experimenting. It would be a lot easier to paint some of the trim. Doors in particular are sometimes hard to match stain to something else. Again, birch is common.

I caution about going to an open floor plan. They can be noisy and smelly. We have an open plan and kitchen noise makes it hard for another person to hear the TV in the LR, and vice versa. Kitchen odors can be nice when you are cooking, but stale cooking odors later can be not-so-nice.

Also, you have to be cautious about opening up a floor plan to be sure you do not remove support structure. If you are not sure about this, call in a structural engineer. Best to get a building permit to make sure you can sell the place later.

BTW, your location of "United States" is cute but doesn't tell us much. Change your location in your profile to be more specific, as I have done. The location can be important for certain matters.

Bob, in many parts of the country yellow pine is very common for trim.

Jousley, your trim does not need to match your cabinets. If your doors are good and you like them no need to change. It is nice to have all the trim in the house the same thing but it is not always possible.

I would ask you to think twice about your choice of a cabinet color... not that it isn't nice. It is just that the color is so trendy right now. Are you using that color because you like it or are you choosing it because that is what you see everywhere. Just give it a little more thought before you do all that work (and money) and make sure it is something you really like.

Thanks for the input. I believe I'll probably end up painting the old trim and maybe the old doors, at least in the living room and hallway for the time being. I have to decide whether I want to go with stained or painted trim in the new kitchen and when I start replacing stuff in the rest of the house. Metwo, my wife and I have always liked the darker, rich wood tones. I think it is something that we would really like, although we don't plan on living in this house forever, so we'll take that into consideration. Bob, the wall I'm removing is only about 9 foot long between dining room and kitchen. I'm not really removing it, as much as widening the doorway to about 7 feet to make room for a couple bar stools on the dining room side of the new peninsula I'm installing in the kitchen. Thanks again for the help.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jousley,