Use Consistency To Create A Calmer Home
If there's one thing that makes a house feel peaceful and “right”, it's consistency.
Consistency of colour, finishes and details is restful to the eye and goes a long way to creating a welcoming, relaxing feel. Sometimes that's hard to achieve quickly. You might have to live with countertops, flooring or appliances that are mismatched and don't fit with the rest of the house, at least until you have the savings to change them out.
But one thing you can do fairly inexpensively and easily is create consistency in your doors, windows and trim. All you need is a little caulking and paint (ok, and perhaps a little DIY handy work).
A weekend refresh of your trim throughout your home can make a big difference in how your whole house feels. Take inventory of every door and window, plus all trim & moulding and then do a little DIY work to make them consistent, clean and fresh. Don't worry - you don’t have to do it all in one weekend! Just take it floor by floor, room by room and you’ll get there.
STEPS TO CONSISTENT TRIM AND DOORS IN YOUR HOME
The Inspired Room
Start with the entry door and work your way in. Your entry should make a statement about the style of your home and the people that live in it.
The entry door can be a bold colour, and yes it can be a different colour on the inside and outside. The style, too, can be grander for the entry door than for the rest of the doors in your home. But the feel of this door should set the tone for what's inside. Is it simple with clean lines and classic panels? Is it elaborate with curves and designs on the windows? Even if the inside doors are less grand than your entry, they should still maintain a consistent look and feel.
Then take a walk around and look at your interior doors. If you have older plain or outdated interior doors, you can add some simple DIY woodwork to turn them all into a panelled variety. If you have outdated fancy doors, take a look at salvage yards for plain hollow-core doors and update them yourself so that they're the same throughout the house. The tutorials below from Pretty Handy Girl and Jenna Sue Design are very helpful.
At the very least, make sure that your interior doors are all the same colour. Freshen them up with a coat of semi-gloss paint (I prefer white or off white - help with that here).
Tutorial from Pretty Handy Girl
Tutorial from Jenna Sue Design
Next up: your window trim.
You may have different windows in your home but they should have the same trim around them. Or no trim, depending on the style!
It's pretty easy and relatively inexpensive to upgrade your window trim for consistency. Tip: go classic with simple square-cut boards you can do yourself.
Or, if your trim is ok but it’s painted in different colours in different rooms freshen it up by caulking any cracks and nail holes, and then paint it out white. I almost always recommend plain untinted white trim in a semi-gloss (unless you’re painting your walls SW Pure White, in which case I also say paint your trim Pure White as well, in semi-gloss).
A common question - what if I have all wood trim and mouldings but want to lighten up? I've shared tips in this post on keeping wood unpainted but still lightening up a space.
Paying attention to trim, door and window details will simplify your home and feel more calm and peaceful. That's definitely worth a weekend of work, isn't it?
