Hello, just discovered the site and this forum....awesome place; hope you guys can help out. My wife and I just purchased a 1927 bungalow outside Milwaukee (aluminum siding, 1.5 stories). In the living room and dining room, we have natural oak baseboards and natural oak door/window frames. However, the rooms don't have crown molding and we'd like to add it. Reading up on these forums, it looks like painting over the oak is a big no-no. In adding crown molding, should we go with a natural/finished wood to match the baseboards or could white crown molding work? In certain houses we've seen, the darker crown makes the room appear a little dimmer (and possibly the ceiling seem a little lower).

Thanks in advance for any help!

Welcome aboard, I'm new here myself.

Personally, I'd finish the crown to match the woodwork. What's your ceiling height like? If sufficiently high, I would think the impact of the new contrast in finishes would be minimal in terms of apparent room size.

My house was built in 1918 and has darker oak woodwork in the "public" rooms. At some point in time the crown molding was painted. I'm sure originally it matched the rest of the woodwork though. If I was rolling in the dough or had more time, I would have stripped and refinished it to match the rest of the oak. However, repainting it was definitely more realistic for us right now. An interior designer advised us to paint it the same color as the ceiling. We did that and it looks fine-probably would look better as it was originally--matter of personal opinion.