Before & After: Stripped and Refinished Living Room Trim

It’s been over a year in the making and there were times when we questioned the project altogether but we’re finally ready to reveal the refinished trim in the living room. But first, take a moment to reflect on the photo above. This snapshot shows the living room as it looked before we kicked off this project. The trim was still painted the same white that went on some time in the late 1960’s. (Fortunately the doors have never been painted.) The walls were still covered in the gray paint that we slapped on when we first moved in six years ago. (It was supposed to be gray anyway. It has always read as blue – much to our chagrin.) We had finally decided to upcycle the old kitchen cabinets as new fireplace built-ins and they’re sitting there, having been cut apart, stripped, reassembled and rebuilt.

This whole trim refinishing project actually started with those cabinets. We had been in a serious rut of procrastination while deciding what to do about the house’s interior trim. Should we take the easy route and re-paint the woodwork or take the much longer – and possibly more satisfying – route and strip it? It wasn’t until we started placing the newly refurbished fireplace cabinets in the room that we were forced to make a decision. Whatever we did with those cabinets – stain the stripped wood or paint it – would dictate how we’d approach the woodwork. Well, after we stripped the cabinets and set them in place, the honey hued wood seemed to warm the space. And with that, our decision was made. Stain the cabinets … and thus strip all the woodwork too.  

Mind you, we kind of liked the white trim. It’s not difficult to recognize the intention of the owner who first painted it back in the ’60s. The white trim seems to not just brighten the space; it also brings a modern sensibility to it. It transforms the interior from Prairie style to a more modern Craftsman look. But then we scraped the first patch of paint from the wood and revealed the dark grain beneath it and knew that we were making the right decision.

Suddenly, the house looks, well, like it’s supposed to look. The dark trim stands out – even more so now that we’ve repainted the walls in an off-white color. (We’re so happy to finally say goodbye to that gray-masquerading-as-blue!)

Every little aspect of the room works now. The dark trim plays nicely with the gray fireplace brick, not to mention working seamlessly with the wood doors. Even the windows look better now that they’re framed in dark wood trim.

Now, about those beams … Again, we can see what the owner who installed the beams was thinking. It was the 1970s and faux beams were all the rage. They actually kind of worked when the trim was painted white. As we slowly bring the house back to its 1917-era charm, however, the beams seem more and more out of place. We’re anxious to remove them but also wary of biting off a bigger DIY project than we can chew. Sure, removing the beams may be easy. After all, demolition is the most fun part of any project. Patching the ceiling, on the other hand, is a task too daunting for these novices. That said, the owners of the Elizabeth Murphy House have offered to come out and help us remove the beams later this year. We may just take them up on that!

For now, though, we’re going to sit back in our freshly rearranged living room and admire a job well done. Not for long, mind you. Stripping the living room trim is just the beginning. We’ve already moved on to the entry and stairwell and have plans to also strip the trim in the dining room in the near future. The end goal is to take the first floor of the house – the public space, so to speak – back to its original look. The living room is the largest room on the the first floor so we’re happy to have that behind us.

Onward we go!