Another painting question

[artist]

Thanks for the advice about the trim and doors. I've only done the entry door so far and it looks great. I'm going to try doing one of the flat doors first and see how it looks before I replace them with raised panels. If it looks good I'll just purchase new hardware for the doors.

My other question is about the light switches, outlets and the heating baseboards. Right now they are all painting the wall color. I was wondering if the light switches or anything else should be painted the trim color. Thoughts?

[Mrs-M]

I swear by white switch plates and outlets. They look clean, fresh, and new. Colour-coding everything to match in a home has a tendency of creating a heavy feel, and my personal opinion of cream or (off-white coloured) switch plates/outlet covers, stay away from them, they tend to look as though they're cigarette smoke stained. As for baseboards, same thing, white.

As far as return-air vents go (if you have them in your home), that's entirely up to you as to how you feel about a contrasting colour scheme for those. Personally, I fancy the look of factory painted floor/return-air vents (traditional flat gray).

You know, Artist, depending on your level of creativity (along with how much effort you want to put in to the project), the flat doors you currently have could easily be masked-off and painted to create faux-panels.

[jania]

I really dislike painting light switches/outlet covers and cooling/heating vents. I prefer leaving them the "factory" color. In my house, which had everything painted over when I bought it, I am slowly changing over to the original paint color of the piece. Because of my color choices, I buy white switch plates and vents.

[Mrs-M]

Would love to hear from you, Artist, i.e., update/follow-up.