askjake

Painted vs. Stained moldings

I put up wood crown molding in my entrance way and around the door and floor moulding that all matches. I was going to paint it but it would look so pretty stained. The entry way is 3 sided and leads into the great room which is sunken and has wood and trim about 8 inches off the floor before the drywall. Would it look odd if the entry is stained but the rest is painted (in the great room) as the mouldings but up to each other at the step down into grt room from the entry. or other option was to just stain around the door but there again, the mouldings would touch. I know it probably looks best to do it all the same but trying to make the wood stain work and cannot afford to take all the other wood out and redo now. It is a large room and would take a lot. Thanks so much for any advice.

We encounter this same situation in many of our kitchen remodels - the cabinets are stained, including the crown molding, but the rest of the room's trim is painted.  And the two different trims adjoin each other.  In my opinion it looks fine.  Go ahead and stain the entry way, step back and take a look at it and see what you think.  You can always paint over the stained wood or replace the great room trim if you don't like it.  I bet you will like the look you get by staining the entry and keeping the great room as is. 

Wainscot question

Dear Jake, you have helped me with a question in the past regarding flooring, and your answer worked out perfect. now my question is about the squares on the wall. It looks like wainscot, but its only squares that are spaced under a chair rail. I have a wall with a brick fireplace that goes up the ceiling, so the wall is split in half by the fireplace one wall is shorter then the other. We put two squares on the longer wall. Now on the other side the shorter wall there is two outlets, one phone the other electrical. hOW should I space the squares and should theY be the same size square? Does it matter with the two outlets on that wall.

Patty,

This is kind of a difficult question to answer with out the actual dimensions of the two walls.  I assume that the wall on one side of the fireplace is not as wide as the other side.  In similar instances we have had to relocate electrical boxes, phone and cable boxes so the squares will have some symmetry to them.  If the narrower wall is within 75% of the other wall in width, I suggest you place two squares.  If it is less than 75%, I suggest you install only one square.