Brown woodwork

[AccountantsDilemma]

I have lived in an early 80's built house for 4.5 years and having initially thought I could live with the brown window frames/doors, I'm now wobbling.

The door frames and skirting boards are white (I'm guessing dulux trade white as the previous owners did an all over quick paint job before selling). The doors and windows are stained dark brown (matching the exterior).

The house feels a bit dark and gloomy and I'm hoping that getting the doors and frames painted white would help things. I've had two quotes to do this, both in the region of £5k as it's a large property, and I'm worried it'll be painted and still not like it or prefering the brown (will be impossible to go back - will brown ever be back in fashion?!), the brown suits the era of the house and the doors and windows are beautifully crafted in solid wood.

So questions:

1. The outside will have to stay brown (restrictive covenant on a private road, is it odd to have a contrasting internal colour)
2. Has anyone done this and loved It/hated it?

Thanks

I think the colour of your floor may recede somewhat once the brown disappears from the room. It will look different in relation to cooler and lighter shades.
Here's another nicely coloured kitchen, just for inspiration.

Good tip wow, thanks.

All our skirting, doors, picture rails were on stained in dark wood. We have either sanded or used nitro mors and have waxed them in a lovely oak colour. No need to ever re-paint

The decorator is now booked in! Thank you all for your help. I'm going to get some sample pots for the kitchen later today.

Wow, that's a lot of brown, and I live in a wooden house where every door, floor edging and window frame is brown, and one massive room is entirely lined with brown wood. :o

It only works because of huge windows, skylights, and Australian light levels.

Get out the paint pots.

I don't think it matters if you have a difference between outside and inside. Maybe it would jar if you had competing schemes in same room? Have you thought about replacing skirting and frames/architrave? I got all the woodwork swapped out for half of what it will cost for yours to be painted and it includes all the skirting, frames architraves, internal sills, door steps and even the loft hatch! The existing frames/skirting were v standard so I got to put in lovely deep skirting that I have waxed and will never have to paint

Okay, seen the house, waaaaaay bigger than mine so refit would be £££££

I've been using Zinsser Bin as a first coat on all the wood in our house. It is wonderful stuff.

AccountantsDilemma, do you mind me asking whether your quote was for painting both outside and inside of the windows, or just the inside? I love the colour and style of your kitchen units by the way. I wouldn't change them if the choice was mine to make.

Good decision! We had all the brown woodwork on our 80s house painted and it's sooooo much better.

Our decorator recommended Dulux Super Grip primer. They said the Zinsser 123 is also great but the Dulux primer sticks to absolutely everything. Even so, it did take 3 coats to fully cover the brown so check what your decorator has assumed. And make sure the decorator knows that you're not painting the outside so they can leave a neat line.

Make sure they leave enough time to really thoroughly snag - window painting is very fiddly and it will take them a while to get it all neat. Our bannister also took aaaages to paint - the decorator was really careful with it to ensure no drips.

We also replaced all the brass window hardware with brushed steel, which made a big difference as well. And the brown trickle vents with white (just on the inside - I bought the same brand and model so they fit). This is also fiddly work if you decide to do it, and will add time for the decorators.

You may find that the freshly painted windows highlight the fact that the skirting and door woodwork is a bit tired. We found we needed to have everything done at once so it matched.

We also had our kitchen painted at the same time, similar warm tiles to deal with. We used Farrow & Ball Skimming Stone which the decorators had colour matched at Johnstones in a soft sheen finish which is lovely and had been very hard wearing. The colour is beigey and a bit grey in some lights but warm enough to go with our orangish tiles. We're very happy with it. We did an Elephants Breath colour match on the walls to make it a bit more modern.

A customer of mine has just painted all her dark brown woodwork white and says the house looks twice the size.

A pale duck egg blue could look lovely in your kitchen.

Love your house by the way!

And changing the wrought iron kitchen handles to something more modern would make it look like a brand new kitchen

A friend of mine got her wood kitchen done by these guys and it looks amazing
www.matt-finish.co.uk/

Thanks for all the tips!

charlestonchaplin: The quote is just for the inside (primer + 3 or 4 coats of paint on all doors and windows - there are a lot of them + paint the kitchen units), the same decorator has just finished the outside in brown (restrictive covenant). The kitchen is actually quite dark and dingy when you're actually in it so I think I will have it painted, I would have quite liked the style of it had it been in a light filled room.

sweet: I can't decide what to do about the hardware on the doors, our quote includes changing them to brushed steel but I don't actually mind the originals and I feel I shouldn't pull everything 80's out of the house. Anyone else have any views on this? I will post a picture of the door handles tonight/tomorrow to canvass opinion.

Alison Do you think I should change the kitchen handles? I was thinking about doing it (decorator thinks I should) but again I don't find them too offensive, I am conscious that I don't want to make the house look too modern. The link you have is for kitchen respray, off to google the difference between painting and spraying.....

I'm on a roll with this decorating thing now!

But I have another question, is it likely a tiler would e able to remove these tiles without damaging the granite back plate (don't know the name for it)

If you like the door handles, then keep them. Ours were very tired and scratched, plus I hated the colour of them so I was happy to update. It's worth it to get a locksmith with a shop to come and find new ones that fit though. Ours were a different size by a very small amount and it caused no end of faff for our poor decorator. He grumbled about it for days!

Have you thought Of brushed pewter handles? We did this when we were decorating an eighties property with lots of dark wood. I can't wait to see your after pictures.

Belleview - I am really leaning towards a blue shade for the units now thanks to you inspiration

I agree that blue/green kitchen units would look good OP. We had these at our last-but-one house (bought bespoke units and painted them ourselves) with pewter handles and it looked fab with the dark wood of the floor and granite worktops.

At our last house we opted for cream units, but chose the same greeny blue (Homebase Celadon eggshell) for the island, teamed with stained oak pilasters/knobs.

Definitely think you've made the right decision to paint the internal woodwork. Both the houses pictured were period and the first had original oak windows/doors which had silvered over the years - I would never have painted these, in or out, but I'd have no qualms about painting internal woodwork on a 1980s house......

OP I haven't used these yet myself but in your shoes, I definitely would.

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Bleucoin

You can change the floor, accountant, just tile over the top. We have UFH (wet system) and had a similar dilemma when replacing our kitchen last summer. Pulling the tiles up ran the risk of damaging the sub floor and therefore the UFH (which would have been a disaster as it is a big room and the heating runs throughout the ground floor), so we were advised to tile over it and that the tiling beneath would act as a sort of storage heater for the floor.

We're a year in and it has been brilliant. The new flooring is much more to our taste and fits with our new kitchen design and we've not noticed any reduction in efficiency or warmth in the UFH.

They have very good reviews and say they last 4 or 5 years.

I can't save the image on my iPad, so instead here's a link to some simple classic ones I think would look good!

www.etsy.com/listing/158078125/tile-decal-classic-moroccan-tile-pattern?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=fridge%20decal&ref=sr_gallery_23

AccountantsDilemma I am just about to exchange on a 1980s house with dark brown wooden windows in a conservation area (so brown they will likely remain).

I am seriously considering painting the insides white (all skirting and window sills are white anyway).

How did yours go? Was it the right decision?

Any and all advice welcomed.

@househunter2019

You can see the OP's results here:

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=56536420&sale=4927396&country=england

Thankyou Canyerjustfixthis that link was really helpful. White it is.