I'm trying to figure out what to do here with my house. Everywhere the molding is natural as well as the doors except for the exterior ones. I have a white popcorn ceiling (yea I'm going to remove that too) and in some spots crown molding was added but its white. In an effort to modernize the house should I try and replace the other molding so it matches white or paint the existing molding or what?

 

What's wrong with white crown moulding? It matches the ceiling color. Doors and other trim can be any other finish you want. Things dont have to all match in a house.

 

Can you show me photos of where this works? I can't find anything that looks good.

 

Photo: https://laurelberninteriors.com/wp-c...wood-trim.jpeg

Use google images.

 

Thats a before and after image and I saw that earlier.

 

They should have painted the floor too in that "after" picture if they wanted it all to match. LOL

Tons of turn of the century houses have stained woodwork and white crown molding. You can find your own photos I'm sure.

 

All white molding is easy, clean looking, and inexpensive. Most homes are built with that mode. However, a custom built home will have wood tone moldings. It looks richer. But is more expensive. How much time and money are willing to put in to have that wood tone? My house is part of a Ryan trac build of about 400 homes in the whole neighborhood. They all have popcorn ceilings and all white wood trim (not even mitered on the bottom sill molding). As we all tend to remodel, we put in better material and most want wood tone crown molding and window and door frame molding. Kitchen is probably the room that will most likely look best after a remodel. Scrap the popcorn, install new wood tone cabinets and large wood tone crown molding. The next most important area in terms of wood tone molding, I think is the entrance and hallways. First impressions, know what I mean. bathrooms, in most cases not a lot of wood tones. Living rooms, probably just crown molding, skip the baseboard since in most cases it's blocked from view.

 

I've painted a lot of new houses with painted crown and a lot with stained crown. And to a lesser part some with stained wood work except the crown which was painted. Stain grade crown costs more than paint grade and takes more craftsmanship to install. Caulking can hide a multitude of sins when the woodwork paints.

IMO it boils down to what you want tempered by what your budget will allow.