that would be a cool look. i haven't done the stained trim yet though/

I agonized over what trim to do also and then I saw my son's house; he built his house before Dh and I. He put white trim in his home and it is beautiful! That's all it took for us!! The only thing we did different was to put in clear stained doors; our son had white doors. I will include a picture.

Here is a link that might be useful: white trim and stained door

We have an "old" new house with stained trim. It's 2x4 and 2x6 clear pine, distressed (by us, one loooong, hot 4th of July weekend...in the South, no less!) Also stained doors and windows, also clear pine. Floors are stained oak. Nothing 80s about our home.

If you search GW, you'll find examples of stained doors with painted trim. If not in the Building forum, you'll find it in the Decorating forum. Or ask in a new thread if they've rolled off.

Here is a link that might be useful: My home

Builders do more painted trim than stained because they can use cheaper wood. Stainable wood is more expensive. We are using painted trim, but we wanted the study to be stained (wainscoting and coffered beam ceiling)--but at about $5000 more, we decided we didn't need it all that badly after all.

Dark stained trim (especially pine or oak) does feel early 90s to me. I've seen trim painted black and it looks great. Of course the wall color has to be just right. I am planning to do this in our new house - just imagine...you can't see the scuff marks or dust!

Another idea is staining with shellac -- it gets very dark, almost black with time.

Mimi72, oak feels that way to me. I don't care for the 50s pine either. We had it in the den of our last home and eventually painted over it. We were there 20 years total. The clear pine we have in our home does not have heavy variations, like the earlier pine walls or today's pine flooring - which is not "clear" pine.

If you are planning on painting your trim black, which I think is what you said in your post, you will see dust. Not weekly, but you will see it when it builds up which may be more often than you think.

We've always had stained trim, so in building the new house, I have stained all the trim and doors myself. It is a huge job compared to what it would have taken to paint them.
We used maple trim and birch doors. Everything required 5-6 steps. Everything had to first be hit with wood conditioner, then one or two coats of stain (maple is tough to get even), followed by 3 coats of sealer.

Some pros will probably notice I used no lacquer, and freak out. There's a local company, Anchor Paint that makes a fantastic product called "Fin Seal" that acts both like a sanding sealer and lacquer. It applies very well, with great results.

For me, it was worth it. Probably took me most of 2 weeks, but I just prefer the stained wood over paint.

twotwogo, I think the picture of the wood door with white trim came out great!

and Allison your house looks fantastic.

this is always the downside I see to Gardenweb, for me, what people here do isn't done in my area, and in general would be in $1M plus homes here. So I sit here drooling over everyone's homes.

I think I'm going to try and do something along the lines of twtwogo did, I just need to buck up and spend the money on something other than 6 panel doors.

cs6000, we did not use lacquer either. I distressed all the doors myself (with a regular hammer and a paddle that had nails shot through it - the framers made several for me). You should have seen the look on the head framers when I started beating up new doors. We also distressed the trim before it was stained. DH stained all of our interior and exterior cedar, but we left the doors to the painters.

Thanks, Chrisk327. Do check around for doors. I got prices from 3 places. One brought a door in for me to see, and it was too thin. Did not feel good at all... and it was more than the thicker, better, 2 panel doors we ended up using. They were purchased from a lumber supply instead of a window/door store, and not all that expensive.

I'm going to need to check a few places. it seems that the prices go like this
pre hung 6 panel - $125
prehung 2 panel - $400
prehung standard door in my area - $35

I can stomach more than $125, but 400 a door adds up very quick

Just be sure to see one in person - they can order if you don't have, you don't have to purchase it. The one I saw at window store was so thin, I would have been highly disappointed with a house full of them. And like I said, they were MORE than what we ended up paying. DH just walked in and I asked what ours cost. He doesn't recall.

Also, check online. I searched to see what was offered. My dad was building a lakehouse when we were building, and he ended up ordering his doors online. They are better doors than what we have, and cost more, but he got what he wanted at the price he wanted to pay.

Like everything else in the building industry, white trim is something that is popular right now. In the 90s, it was pickled wood finish. My rental condo has fiberglass 6 panel doors with pickled wood trim. It looks cheesy. In the 60s and 70s, it was dark wood. In the 20s and 30s, it was very dark stained rift cut oak for many parts of the country.

Currently, there are many custom homes in our area that do clear finish maple and VG fir for trim. You get more bang for the buck using painted white MDF (or paint grade wood) for trim, and that is why it is so popular. For the same $, you would get a puny little wood trim and baseboard if you go the stained route... You can use larger trim that looks impressive for much less $ than good quality wood trim that shows its clear grain. If you do it right, even with a little bit, it can look very different from the white trim.

http://public.superlativestudio.com/IDXDetail.aspx?segmentid=1628054&mlstableid=UPLOAD&mlsnum=633645258031904727_44448&rid=0amp;uid=44448

http://public.superlativestudio.com/IDXDetail.aspx?segmentid=1628054&mlstableid=UPLOAD&mlsnum=633785962429696940_44448&rid=0amp;uid=44448

http://www.ys-development.com/?mainPage=projects&project=0001

I just put up couple pictures of some stunning examples of clear finish wood trim. They can look quite up to date, warm from the wood tone and have a very special wood look that cannot be achieved from the painted white trim. Lower profile (smaller size) trim works better with modern architecture since ornate things clash with that type of artchitecture. So they can stretch their $ a bit further.

I personally like clear finished wood trim. I actually don't think wood doors with white trim will endure that well over time. I personally don't care for it.

thanks everyone for your opinions

Kaisermom-those are some nice houses, they are a lot more modern in style than what I'm looking to do.

guess we'll have to think about it, we're leaning more towards white trim I think at this point but the doors are still up in the air.