What to Paint Walls With Victorian Oak Wood Trim & Dark Oak Floors

Traditional Colors

• Preferred colors for painted walls in the Victorian era were deep tones of red or green and occasionally deep gold or blue. All of these heavily-pigmented colors were somewhat less intense than the pure deep hues commonly in use today. When combined with oak trim and flooring, the apparent volume of the space was reduced, with the effect of cozy intimacy. Border trims visually lowered high ceilings. Sometimes these border trims were hand-stenciled, and sometimes they were wallpapered.

Updating With White

• The Victorians were at home with personal clutter. Sparse furnishings and accessories at that time indicated impoverishment. Current interior design trends lean toward larger perceived volumes of cleanly organized space. However, preserving the beauty of oak woodwork and floors and still achieving an updated look is possible. Wall color is a good place to start. A warm white, like the color of French vanilla ice cream, is a good choice to open up and energize a traditional space while featuring the treasured antique oak trim and floors. The same color, perhaps a tint lighter, applied on the ceiling will increase apparent volume, making a smaller-scaled room seem larger.

Updating With Complementary Colors

• Complementary colors are always pleasing to the eye. A creative approach to color selection for a room with Victorian oak trim would be to select a color complement to the color tone of the wood trim finish. For example, if the color tone of the wood trim were orange, the complement would be a tone of blue -- the complement of orange, which is directly opposite orange on the color wheel. A medium to pale tint of blue, achieved by adding white to the basic color, would still add light and openness to the space.

Updating With Analogout Colors

• Analogous colors are beside each other on the color wheel. Colors that are analogous to orange wood trim are tones of orange or yellow, which can be adjusted by adding white to lighten it or by adding its complement to lower its intensity. By adding a small amount of the wall color to a standard white ceiling paint, the color scheme of the entire space becomes unified and harmonious.