To Paint or Not To Paint

Being based on the North Shore in Sydney, I am often consulting on home renovations of Californian Bungalows or Federation homes. Many of these homes have dark timber trim on the interiors, which the home owner either loves or hates. I’m often asked whether the client should keep it as stained timber or paint it. It’s interesting because more of often than not it’s the man of the house who wants to keep the timber and the woman who would like to have it painted.

The dark timber looks quite heavy and makes the rooms feel very dark and old fashioned. This doesn’t always suit the lifestyle of today’s families. Most would like the home to feel lighter and brighter.

Now there’s no right or wrong answer here and it will really depend on the room, the decor, the house and the inhabitants as well as who has the sway in the relationship!

But I think one should also consider what features they liked about the home when they bought it too. Sometimes it’s the period features and feel of a place that makes people part with their money. You don’t want to then start deleting all those features once you move in.

There are ways you can work the dark timber into the decor and make it look fresh and modern without litres of paint. Perhaps the formal rooms or bedrooms, which are generally used at night time and therefore best to be dark, could be left with the original timber while the trims in the other rooms can be painted.

That’s a great way to keep some of the original features yet create a contemporary space for the family.