We started with a room completely engulfed by rich, heavy honey oak trim. Every surface from the window trim and doors to baseboards, built-ins, and stair railing was saturated with warm wood. To make matters worse, all of that honey-toned trim was directly competing with our floors. Instead of feeling calm and inviting, the space felt stifling and visually chaotic. We knew that if we ever wanted the room and our flooring to breathe, all that wood trim needed to chill out.
Spraying trim and doors is usually our go-to for speed and a smooth finish, but nothing could have prepared us for the challenge of painting in an open floor plan. Despite our best prep work, overspray seemed to find its way into every nook and cranny (if you missed it, you can read about our prep and overspray nightmare here). Wrestling with the massive arched window was a true test of patience, but the end result made all the mess and frustration worthwhile.
While we decided to spray all the windows white, we spent a lot of time debating what to do with the massive arched focal window, which is actually a grand set of doors leading out to our back patio. Do we paint the trim white, or go bold with black? We worried it might look strange to have the largest window in the home black, surrounded by white ones.
When weighing our options, it helped to understand how each color fundamentally changes a space:
Ultimately, we took a gamble and sprayed the entire arched unit black, opting for SW 6990 Caviar by Sherwin Williams. The black finish frames the backyard view, showcases the window's gorgeous architecture, and makes the vibrant greens of our backyard pop.
To make sure this major feature didn't feel like an island, we tied the look together by spraying the breakfast nook doors black as well. Having black doors in both spaces bridges the two connected rooms and anchors the design. To finalize the look, we swapped the hardware on the white windows to black, making the whole main floor feel cohesive.
For the wall color, we used Benjamin Moore's Calm OC-22 to keep it consistent with the rest of the downstairs. Calm is the ultimate chameleon color. It’s a soft off-white with just a hint of a gray-lavender undertone.
It provides just enough subtle contrast to let the fresh white trim pop, while simultaneously calming down the remaining wood tones in the house.
I also bought replacement window grilles to pop back into the living room windows, which had been missing when we bought the house. Adding them back brought so much character and charm. I love the little bit of extra detail.
The entire room feels updated in comparison to its original 1990s vibe. By toning down the overwhelming orange tones in the trim and doors, we finally took the pressure off the flooring. The floor is no longer competing with every other honey oak surface in the room.
Do we love the floors now? No. But we no longer hate them either, and that’s a massive win.
