Sorry for the last blog everyone - just couldn't shut-up!!! This one will be far quicker...
I have come across this for years - clients who are absolutely appalled at the idea of painting wood accents, be they furniture, cabinets or trim. I find the trend, like all trends, goes in waves and have noticed painted wood popping up regularly through design magazines and books every couple of years. (This season it is white and light grey that seems to be the most focused on.) But the question remains - should it be painted or are we ruining the integrity of the wood by splashing paint on it?
As a lover of nature and a stong believer in incorporating green items and functions in a home, I love the look and concept of wood in interiors. As a designer, my opinion is very straight-forward - if the colour or shade of wood doesn't work in the space, you need to change it. You could try to change everything around it to make it work, and sometimes this is a beautiful alternative. But in other cases, it still stands out as the one thing that is outdated. To save your precious wood, you could buy completely new items, and keep the wood you currently have in storage for the time that it will be "in" again (don't worry, it's not usually a long time). This can mean quite the 'load off' your chequing account, so I would like you to consider a couple of things first...
(Polite response) Re-staining wood is sometimes a wonderful compromise, as the grain of the wood is still displayed and the strength of the wood is upheld. This will also ensure that your wood furniture/accents are getting the moisture they need over the years to keep looking beautiful.
(Less polite response) Unless you have a cut tree in your home, with sap sticking to your floors, your wood is not "natural" anyway... It has been sliced, diced, shaped, shaved, primed and stained already...
(Least polite response) You can stop worrying about "protecting the integrity of your wood". Your wood doesn't care what you do to it - once it was chopped, it was all downhill from there...
The best reason for staining or painting wood for decor purposes is this - that piece of furniture, those cabinets, that trim is being maintained, re-cycled, re-used. If everyone could sustain the life of their furniture through a few inventive methods of updating them, there may be less trees chopped down as a whole.
So, if it suits you, paint away - it may just be a good thing!!!
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