Project Wood Trim Wonderland on my Mind
After living in our home for years, we’re now getting ready to do some renovations. Over the past few months I’ve been putting more thought into the renovation of our home. And since we’re getting a new roof soon, it’s the best time to start thinking about the interiors as well! After the roof repairs, I plan to jump head first into the minor updates our 50’s ranch-style southern home needs. We have bathroom updates to do, a kitchen refresh to tackle, and we need to do something with the dark wood paneling in our living room before I’ll really feel content.
The wood is the one thing that I was stumped on for a while, but after sharing lots of inspo over on instagram, I think I’ve found exactly the look I want to go for!
I want this look: Light walls with Dark Wood Trim
The dark wood paneling we have in our living room in my opinion should be celebrated! We know it is real wood and it’d be a shame to pull it all down. Since it’s just a feature of one space, we want to bring it up to date by painting it a lighter color, like a cream or off-white tone.
The look of the dark wood lends itself so well to lots of light, open rooms, and surprising notes of greenery (oh, you bet I’m going to include SO many plants in the styling!).
A sunny corner with lots of accents of dark wood. (ApartmentTherapy)
Along with pockets and moments that contain lots of plants, I see the home having a traditional-leaning, vintage and thrifted style. Worn-in fabrics and slightly rugged furniture seem so homey to me, and I love being surrounded by those types of textures. Which is why I see a clean, soft white as the backdrop for the walls.
Transforming dark paneling into a clean, white slate. (All Sorts of Pretty)
Can it be done?
Since we’re planning to tackle this as a DIY, we’re hoping that we can make it happen with minimal mess-ups! I’ve been looking online to see what people have done to revamp their 70’s style paneling, and found some great resources that ended up looking amazing! At the right is an example where someone made it work and it is exactly what I want.
A Swatch of White Paint
I never saw a true white being part of this space. I really want to brighten up the walls by totally taking them from dark to light. We have enough windows in the front of the house, but the dark paneling totally absorbs all of the sunlight they can.
As a designer, I know that there are SO many variations of white! Some of them can look really similar when applied, but I really wanted to stay away from white with cool tones. I think this will take away from the deep warm browns of the trim and some of the other wood tones in the room. This is why I think having a warm cream color will really transform the feel of the space.
I went over to Lowe’s and picked up a ton of swatches of white, then narrowed it down to 8 favorites. Once we’ve done a few other things in the house, we’ll pick a few shades and do some test swatches on the walls.
My top 8 contenders for white paint for the walls in our living room.
Here are some examples of some of my favorites:
SHERWIN WILLIAMS SHOJI WHITE
Sherwin-Williams’ Shoji White on the cabinets. (Instagram: Lauren Leiss)
Sherwin-Williams’ Shoji White on the wall with white window trim.
SHERWIN WILLIAMS SNOWBOUND
Snowbound paint on the walls with contrasting trim and door. (Making it in the Mountains)
SHERWIN WILLIAMS WHITE BATTEN
Sherwin Williams White Batten paneling with wood accents and contrast trim. (Hooked on Houses)
These are the things I’m currently obsessed with and hoping to incorporate in the interiors of our home. Please feel free to share with me any interior design elements you’ve been loving! Also, follow along on instagram where I’ll be posting in real time about the things I’m loving or new inspiration. I’ll share more soon!
