I’m about to rip out all of the door casings (eight doors) and baseboard in my hallway of a one-story ranch house. Over the past few years I have added oak casings and baseboard to the master bedroom and a second bedroom that I use as an office, plus the kitchen. This got me to wondering if all woodwork in the house should be the same, or if it is considered OK to have trim differ from room to room (oak in some rooms, painted wood in others). I’d like to put in bright white trim in the hallway in part because the hall is fairly dim, even during the day. The walls will be a light green; the hallway carpet matches the three bedrooms, by the way, and is a nice berber with a color called “oatmeal,” which gives you a fairly good mental picture. The living room has an original red oak hardwood floor with the original painted and overpainted trim. So, would the design gods frown upon me if there was a different trim from one room to another? I haven’t seen any guidelines in any of the books I have on hand.
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Replies
Annarborguy—
One of the coolest pairs of doors I've been lucky to come across are the office entrance doors in master cabinetmaker Frank Klausz's woodshop. He brought finely-made hardware from Germany and built a pair of doors to his office using a variety of woods. I forget exactly what the trim is, but the door parts themselves are made from all sorts of species. For example, the kick rail is one wood, the mid rail is another, the top rail is yet another, the mullions and muntins (these are lighted doors) are made from several species... and so on. You get the idea. Frank even colored the glazing putty in different shades to match the specific muntins that surround the glass panels.
Now, Frank's doors may be perfect for a woodshop, and probably won't tickle the fancy of most of us homeowners, but the idea is brilliant. I think mixing up the trim in a home is a wonderful idea, and speaks to the originality and creativity of woodworkers. Having said this, I would be careful not to go overboard and mix up species when trimming one doorway. But I certainly wouldn't hesitate to move from walnut in one room to oak, maple or any number of other woods—even paint-grade—in other rooms and passageways to make my home look more interesting. With a modicum of restraint (I think I would avoid purpleheart or pink ivory, for example), you can have an original home that says more about you as a woodworker than any carpenter can ever create.
Go for it. Use your sense of color and style—and your love of wood—to help guide the way.
—Andy Rae
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