Crown Molding

• The recent trend toward installing crown molding in more and more rooms creates the opportunity for homeowners to express their own design preferences. Crown molding, applied at the juncture of wall and ceiling, serves to fill voids between the two surfaces and to add visual importance to a room. It is available in wood, MDF and many synthetic materials. The finest crown moldings, from antiquity to the present time, are made of painted plaster. Regardless of the finish of the doors, the painted quality of plaster molding cannot be changed.
  
  

Doors

• Doors have been finished in natural wood tones for ages. During the building boom of the early 20th Century, ready-made doors in natural finishes were available from mail-order sources. Some of the most affordable doors, those made of fir or pine, were so finished and exist today in their original, but aged, wood tones.
  
  

Trim Molding

• Trim molding, too, was widely available. Usually made of inferior grades of pine and fir, trim was usually painted. Sometimes, especially in bungalows and Arts and Crafts houses, it was clear finished. It was simply a matter of taste.
  
  

Mixing Finishes

• Painted crown molding and natural finished doors have worked together in houses both grand and humble for centuries. If you have beautiful wood doors, you're probably adverse to the idea of painting them. If you are adding crown molding, a matching natural wood finish might bring excessive attention to the ceiling. Likewise, stripping paint from crown molding is a daunting task many do-it-yourselfers would rather leave undone.
  
  

Matching Finishes

• If you prefer all of your woodwork to match in paint color, go ahead and paint the doors, trim and crown moldings to match. The result will be a crisp and uniform appearance. On the other hand, matching natural wood finishes can impart a masculine, clubby feeling to a study, a cozy den or a grand living room.