Aesthetic Connundrum

[shadesofmauve]

I'm having the sliding glass door in my bedroom replaced when I get the studio windows. It's single-paned aluminum, the most poorly insulated part of the house and an eyesore to boot. Replacing the slider is a no-brainer -- I should have had it done when I paid for the front windows.

Unfortunately it brings up the problem of trim.


My house has mix-matched interior trim styles. Not just mix-matched from room to room, but within the rooms. I haven't helped this situation any, because I had windows replaced almost as soon as I moved in, well before I had any kind of vision or plan. I can't just pick something that matches the rest of the house.

If I knew what paint colors I wanted in the bedroom that would help, but Erik and I haven't come up with a paint scheme we agree on in three years of me owning the house (No, technically he doesn't need a say in it, but I'd rather not have my bedroom be a place he hates to be... :P). It's a sliding door, so any mismatch with baseboards will be incredibly obvious; I need to have it trimmed in a way I'll want to continue throughout the room.

Of course, thinking about it makes me question the trim I had put on the other windows, too. ARGH.

In the rented bedrooms (oak floor, crap mahogany trim and doors) I paid for paint-grade poplar, intending to paint it (because hey, renters! Low-upkeep is good). When it was installed I thought it was pretty, though, and I put a ridiculous amount of time into staining one of them instead. I haven't finished the second one at all, because madalchemist is busy living in that room.

The living and dining rooms open onto each other and have four different trims between them. Off-white molded MDF crap around the baseboards, blockish butt-jointed off-white wood around the slider, ancient beaten up mahogany around the door, and newer not-yet-stained mahogany around the window. It's a mess. I chose the not-yet-stained mahogany to match the mantle and tie in with the wood door (it's fir, and it's freakin' gorgeous) but the trim on every other wall is painted fiber board. The wood-on-white looks beautiful next to the green wall... but the green wall has off-white fiber-board trim.

The dining room's no help -- I want to paint it a very bright color that will really only work with white trim, which pretty much necessitates white trim in the living room, that would then leave the window frame not matching the baseboards, which I'm pretty sure is some kind of design sin. So I probably should have paid less and painted the trim.

What was I thiiiiinking?!

The only thing I know for sure is that I want to replace the fiber-board junk with wood (painted or otherwise) because you really should be able to bump your trim without denting it.


TL;DR: My house has an identity crisis, I can't make decisions, and fiber-board sucks.

Comments

[shadesofmauve]

Is the trim UPVC?! I have vinyl windows, too (the new ones, anyway -- the old ones are single paned aluminum) but there's a wooden sill, wood trim, wood making the box that goes around the window and arrrgh I forgot all my building terms. Fully wood trimmed, I suppose.

EDIT: There's a pic above in comments.


I want the baseboard to be all the same, I think -- though it has joins now! -- but wonder if people will notice my window doesn't match. I'm hoping if I change the baseboard to the same trim profile it'll look intentional, at least.

[pyoor_excuse]

The window structure is UPVC, in the UK there's no boxing trim around the windows (unless it's a victorian or even older house). Above the bay in the library there's a massive sheet of plastic replacing what was, presumbably, once wood. Whilst our windowsill (inside) is wood, I've seen plastic ones. Our baseboards are wooden tho' - in fact, all except the strip of MDF* that I stuck in because the original splintered to bits when they were removing it from the kitchen are original 1930s wood which is much nicer, and much tougher than modern architraves seem to be.

* Whilst I concur on the whole 'MDF is hideous stuff' concept, the price difference between MDF and the proper wood ones was vast - and this stuff is fairly tough (high density) MDF, so it doesn't dent if you knock it.

[shadesofmauve]

Ah! Okay. I've never seen a plastic sill before, but originally this house didn't have boxing trim, either -- I don't think they used it much mid-century. I had the window company trim the front ones with wood when I had them replaced, because I prefer it to having the drywall go right up to the window.

I actually love MDF... as a painting support. I seal and gesso it, and it makes a lovely smooth, light surface to paint on. It's very dimensionally stable, so I don't have to worry about the painting cracking or warping. But my paintings aren't down where I kick them. :P

I'd probably have to look at MDF trim if I wanted to trim out the whole house at once, but since I'm planning to do long-range piecemeal I can afford paint-grade wood, instead.