Trim and Stain

Another decision I've had to make this week involves the interior trim wood and what color to stain it.  "No big deal," one might say.  But not so here!

First, you should know that I originally agreed to use flush interior doors, probably the most widely used door in homes and offices.  A few weeks later, when I chose cabinetry for the kitchen and baths, I picked an oak cabinet with most doors having a single recessed panel.  However, wider doors would have a vertical center piece (stile) dividing the door into two panels.  This, I assume, makes these wider doors stronger.  Still later, reflecting on the cabinet choice, and thinking that flush doors would be visually uninteresting, I opted for "Shaker" doors.  These have a center stile and cross rail which creates three recessed panels.  That door, I figured, would look like those base cabinets in the kitchen.

A typical flush door.

A 3-panel "Shaker" style door.

Now here's where it gets complicated!

When the time came to order interior doors, I intended to get pine.  However, we found 1) that there was only a minor cost difference between oak and pine, and 2) that while oak doors were immediately available, pine versions would involve a 5-week production delay.  Having already experienced a huge delay with the windows, I did not want interior doors to slow construction.  Therefore, I opted for oak doors.  We also had to decide what trim wood to use.  Pine stock being considerably less expensive than oak, I opted for pine.  In response, Kyle wisely noted that pine and oak have different grain characteristics and accept stain differently; he felt that pine trim next to oak doors would not look good.  So I tilted toward oak trim, cost notwithstanding.

But then, as I mulled over this issue, I realized — in one of those "I could have had a V-8" moments! — that the interior wood on my Anderson windows is pine, as are the interior sides of the door wall in the ground floor bedroom and the porch doors in the mud room.  So at virtually every window and door I'd have oak trim snuggling up against pine windows and doors!  Mulling further, I realized that unless I have guests in the house, the interior doors will stand open.  Thus, 99% of the time, my interior doors will not be seen against the door jam wood, but against painted walls — and the pocket doors won't be seen at all.  In this manner I have muddled my way to a decision to use pine trim, feeling like a flip-flopping politician "who was for it before he was against it before he was for it again."  Oy vey!

Yesterday, with the help of the good folks at Seven's, I picked a stain which is fairly close to the tone of the kitchen and bath cabinetry.  Once we see how that turns out, Seven's will custom mix a stain for the oak interior doors which, they assure me, will be very close to the color of the trim wood.

At the risk of repeating myself, when I was working with Bob to come up with a floor plan, I never envisioned how many little details this project would involve!  The choices are endless, and I'll have to live with my choices for years to come. •••