Paint the walls? Or Paint the windows instead...

A friend of mine pointed out to me that instead of painting the walls in their house, they painted their window and door frames a color.  I hadn't noticed it until she pointed it out, but of course I did after she said something.  Indeed, they had painted all of the walls in their home white and the frames a nice, calming blue.  It fit perfectly with the character of her home.


I have always, always painted the frames white.  I have always figured that white is easy to touch up.  Our new house has wood frames on  almost all of the window and door frames.  But, in one of the bathrooms, the walls were peach (as well as the ceiling) and the window frame was black.  This week, I painted the walls white.  The bathroom is still old fashioned with all the original tile (peach and black) and blue tub and toilet, but the white paint makes me smile.  


Here's the old

and new:

The black against the white reminded me of my friend's house, so I decided to do the same in our bathroom.  I tried to find a picture of the walls and frame before, but I think I disliked it so much I couldn't bring myself to take one.  But, imagine walls the color of red burgundy wine and a white window frame--with blue and maroon tile on the walls.  This is a picture of the frame now surrounded by the white wall.  I think the blue frame complements the tile rather than overwhelming it.  I like it.  

So, I'm glad I did it.  But, I don't know if I would choose to paint all of the frames in a house one color.  I admire my friend and her husband for doing it.  I love the way it looks, but I think it can be a lot more difficult to paint a window frame and door frame than the walls.  I don't use tape so it was much trickier to paint the sides of the frame and cut in just right.  I was able to scrape paint off the glass with my finger nail, so that wasn't a problem.  But, it was much harder than I thought it would be.  

One of the things I love about fixing up a house is finding the projects you can do with materials you already have.  That's one reason I buy white paint.  It has so many purposes and can be used to paint trim, walls, furniture...  The blue paint that I used in the bathroom was one that I found in the basement left by the previous owner.  I think it's also what she used on the kitchen cabinets, but the rooms are far enough away from each other that they probably won't seem too similar.

So, that's what I was up to this week.  The last room has now been painted.  Yippee!  Now on to the basement walls and waterproofing masonry paint...