Painting Baseboards

The baseboards and trim in our kitchen were so gross! There was some kind of glue along the bottom, probably from flooring that the previous owners had replaced. Besides being gross, with the cabinets painted white and the trim all dark wood, the trim really stuck out in a doorway in the middle of our kitchen. Sorry, I could not find any pictures of the kitchen that included this doorway before I painted!

I had some paint leftover from cleaning up the cabinets that I decided to put to use painting the baseboards and trim. I started by sanding the trim. I had to use a scraper on the larger globs of glue. Once all the trim was sanded, I swept and wiped down all of the trim with a wet cloth. After allowing it to dry, I painted several coats of the cabinet paint on all of the trim, allowing time to dry between each coat. Finally, I removed a vent from the floor and spray painted it white to match.



It looks so fresh and clean! Not to mention more open. The doorway used to be the first thing that you saw as you entered the kitchen and now it blends in beautifully with the cabinets and backsplash. It really makes me think about painting out the rest of the baseboards in our house. Though I would love to paint out the baseboards, there are things like the fireplaces, banister and window casings that I do not want to paint. Is it ok to paint some of the trim, but leave other pieces stained? I have seen a mixture of white and stained wood banisters and really like the look, but am not sure about painting all the baseboards in a room and leaving the rest of the trim stained. I feel like they are not relating to each other and therefore the room would look unfinished. What do you think?