Trim- to contrast or not to contrast, that 'tis the question

When people get ready to paint a room, does the color of the trim ever come into question, or do people always opt for white? A great post on this very topic over at My Notting Hill got me thinking about the dilemma.

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I think the one-color approach works really nicely in this scenario because there is so much trim detail- the fireplace surround, chair rail, panels, crown molding, window trim... It adds visual interest to a large wall space without breaking it up as much as it would if the trim contrasted.

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White against another color presents you with a certain level of contrast, heightened, obviously, the darker your wall color goes. Sometimes, white trim against another color just doesn't give you the desired effect, instead. In the picture above, white trim would have been too busy, and competed with the architectural lines of the furniture.

image source via desiretoinspire

Another way to look at the white trim dilemma is to head to the dark side. This luscious chocolate brown room wouldn't be nearly as successful broken up with light trim. I think in the above scenarios, matching trim to wall colors is really seamless and clean.

I'm here to officially state, "It's okay to try something different!"

So, I'd love to know, how many of you have experimented with trim colors? How did it turn out?