This home had stained wood trim, doors, bannisters and beautiful dark wood kitchen cabinets. The original wood is redwood with a red/orange tone. When they remodeled the kitchen they went with a deep, dark walnut cabinet. The master bed/bath/closet remodels done in the 90’s were all this light bleached wood. They must also have remodeled the hall from the garage to the kitchen and the half bath off of it at the same time because they were all the same light bleached wood. Two bedrooms had all their trim and doors painted off white. None of it blended or felt cohesive, it all felt very disconnected like the house had multiple personalities. Never the less we love wood and I was raised to believe that painting wood was a sin.
Then Bill took a job in another state. The market was slow and the house was not moving fast enough for us. At that time grey was king. White or black trim was popular. Looking at pictures of houses that had sold all you saw was white and grey. I sent Bill to MI and got out my paint supplies. If it didn’t move I painted it. If it moved I taped it down and painted it. He came home to find all the woodwork white.
At first it felt fresh, until we took the house off the market and were left living in it. It is time to “fix” the “fix” so I got my paint supplies back out.
I think this is one of those things I do which wounds my woodworking hubby to his core. I faux paint wood to look like wood. When I told him my plan I’m pretty sure he was wondering if I would fit in the woodchipper. He said, “I can make new trim and doors out of actual wood you know.” I said, “I know, but I was thinking maybe I could “fix” it until you can fix my fix.” He also said, “You know we can strip that paint off and stain them.” I said, “I know.” What I know is how much work that actually is and how little interest I have in doing that.
Because he works all day and I am retired it was already too late by the time he caught me.
After almost 10 years of living here full time we decided to pick a paint color that we liked for our bedroom. We both like green and while this pic makes it look like there is a lot of yellow in that green, there really isn’t. Changing the wall color from pale blue to oregano green, made all that white trim look icky. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that it’s not us and it’s not this house. This house is more of a mid century modern meets craftsman vibe. It’s all about the views of nature, and blending into it’s environment, not being the big white whale stuck in the woods. When I lamented mentioned this to Bill, he repeated, “We talked about this. We are going to replace all the doors and all the trim.”
Of course I got out my paint supplies and started painting the trim.
I had a brown latex from Sherwin Williams and a quart of gel stain in a cherry wood color left from painting the ceiling tiles in the basement bedroom. I thought those two should get together. What can it hurt? My husband apparently but he works and I’m fast, so catching me in time to stop me isn’t going to happen. We both know that once it’s done he isn’t going to get the gallon of white trim paint (that I have hidden) and paint the trim.
I did offer him an out, after I painted part of the trim brown. I asked him which he liked best the white or the brown. Had he said white, I would have changed it because it would have been a lot less work, but he said brown and sealed his fate.
In the picture you can see that brown has not been done perfectly. There are brush marks. You can see the white through the brown paint. If that’s how it was going to stay it would have needed a second coat. I knew I would be putting the stain over it so I left it rough. It helps to add more depth because it’s not all smooth and flat there are layers.
After the paint dried I came back in with my gel stain and a cheap chip brush. I do own tools for wood graining but using the cheap brushes, whisk brooms, and even paint brushes works. In this case all I had to do was brush a light coat of the stain on. Sometimes stopping and backing up a little bit to create that steeple effect of grain. If anything was too distinct I just ran the brush over it again very lightly to soften the look.
Until I put the new outlet covers on. 
The stain and paint comes across almost more of a walnut. These outlet covers have more of a red cast to them which we both really like. It feels more like fumed oak and it works really well with the green. The question is will I go back and “fix” all the trim by repainting it with a better base coat an then do the faux wood thing again?
Who are we kidding I will, it will drive me nuts to have the two different colors in the room and I like the outlet covers too much to buy new ones. At least we discovered this before I had done all the trim around the windows. Had I already done all that work up on the ladder yeah I would have learned to love it or buy new plug covers.
In case you like the covers here is the link. They don’t have every cover we need because they did love their outlets/switches. They had panels of light switches on the window wall and that did nothing. For years I would walk by them and flip them just to see if maybe something would happen. I started to suspect that somewhere across the globe, lights were going on and off every time I hit a switch. Any who, these are heavy duty covers while I’m not sure how I feel about the white outlets/switches in them I don’t know what I would replace those with.
Just as an FYI if you have ever gotten latex paint on your carpet, clothing, wallpaper this product might be for you. I have removed old, dried latex paint from carpet using this product. After having been successful with that my next attempt will be to remove paint from wallpaper above our front door and then remove overspray from the outside of our windows. I have found it in town at Wal-Mart and Home Depot you can also order it from Amazon here.
I got stain on the light beige carpet while working on the baseboards. I waited for it to dry and then went back in with small scissors and just cut the stained fibers off. Carpet is funny, the things you might use to remove stain, solvents, can melt or fuse the carpet fibers. Plus when you clean we sometimes rub and that only spreads the stain further and deeper. I knew that the stain was on the top of the fibers only. Rather than rubbing it in and spreading it or potentially causing the carpet fibers to melt or untwist thereby looking fuzzy I waited. Cutting just the tips of the carpet where the dry stain was doesn’t even show. I normally don’t put tarps down or tape because I’ve had paint/stain manage to get under the tape or tarp. I do put my paint supplies on a tarp and if I’m rolling paint I put tarp down to catch the overspray but for trim painting it’s just easier for me to work without a net.
