HI Everyone,

Well I've been 'googling' for days and decided its time to reach out to people who probably know what they are talking about.

We bought this 1914 American Foursquare 2 years ago, and really fell in love with the exposed trim. Though, most of the trim in the house is painted white (boo!) the living room is exposed.

The thing that is bothering me is why doesn't our trim color match the trim color of what I consider to be the norm for old houses. Its a very Golden color, fittingly stains I've used to match is Golden oak. When I walk down the street and see other similar style houses and glimpse inside their windows everyone has a much darker tone.

Personally my wife and I love that darker tone that everyone else has, and wish we could change ours.

So is there anything we can do to get that? Why is our color different than everyone elses? Some words I've seen thrown around when trying to figure this out is that most old wood was shellacked or ammonia fumed. Could it be as simple as adding a dark shellac, or would we have to sand everything down and restain? Sorry lots of questions, thats why I need help!

I considered that maybe the wood was replaced before the sale to make it look nicer, but I started stripping some of the window frames upstairs with several coats of paint, and found the same color wood underneath.

To help me illustrate my point here are some pictures of our home trim, and then below that pictures from our last apartment that has the darker wood color I'm talking about.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Ryan

House Photos/trim color we have:

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Old Apartment Photos/trim color we want:

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