A decorating cul-de-sac? Magnolia again or...?

[Andys]

I'm pretty sure this is a regular query here so if you're fed up with the 'what shall I do with my painted beams' question, please feel free to give it a miss!

This is our stairwell, in the central bay next to the chimney, the timbers are gloss dark brown, the wall is magnolia in all likelihood and the carpet's the sort of beige you can sprinkle digestive crumbs on and not notice.

We have our trusty pot of Fired Earth 'Ivory' emulsion (indistinguishable from magnolia as it happens) on standby but as we're going to all the effort of getting our very short ladders out it'd be nice to do something, well, I dunno, stylish and sophisticated. And for the glossy timbers, not on anyone's nelly can I face embarking on stripping them. A different shade of brown maybe? A darkish cream? (Or is that a bit Georgian). Maybe matt varnish over the gloss brown to make it less sparkly...?
Any thoughts anyone?

 

[MikeG]

Don't varnish the paint. It won't work in the way you want. If you can't face stripping them then how about putting a light chalk paint on them? It's utterly matt, and will cover almost anything really well. Personally, I'd try to have the timbers painted much the same as the walls. If you've got a decent stair underneath the carpet you could consider having stair rods holding a runner-carpet (there's probably a proper term for that). Take your colour cues from some fabric or wall paper in the vicinity, maybe the landing curtains or the like. Even if you do nothing, though, you've got a nice area there, and even just a few pictures on the wall and a strategically placed vase of dried flowers would be enough to dress it up nicely.

 

[malcolm]

I'm a little biased - my house was magnolia from the wood chip wallpaper inside to the masonry paint outside so I tend to decorate in any colour but magnolia. Worse than that - I'm male so have difficulty choosing colours.

Light doesn't seem to be your friend in that stairwell. Painting it white would probably brighten it up a surprising amount from where it is at the moment. I would leave the beams as they are - it feels unfair to future owners to spread even more gunk over them. Let them matt by themselves over time. I find natural wood against white beautiful, much more so than against other colours. Maybe it will help the brown paint out too.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Tis the opposite of my situation. I have recently got a downstairs room plastered and have put on a washcoat of white (it will be yellow eventually), and have stripped all the woodwork. The original colour on the wood was obviously a dark brown, perhaps even a stain or varnish as it has impregnated the wood somewhat. I think it looks very good as is and wish I could paint the wood dark brown or even do a grain effect, but my partner decrees that it must be white.

 

[Andys]

I'm male so have difficulty choosing colours

This is a problem for our entire household, like the time we accidentally painted the bedroom that dark beige colour used on late '80s inkjet printers.

I do agree with plasticpigeon, I'm not sure I could bring myself to go the whole hog and paint the timbers white - it's perhaps a bit too much

Don't varnish the paint.

No, I think I won't. It worked as a quick-fix on yacht-varnished oak beams but there's no point over paint I suppose!

 

[Owain]

If you're courageous you could paint the infills in different colours to give a Mondrian effect - this is it done on a Huf House (Grand Designs)
https://homedesirable.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/6a0120a578a7ad970b0120a64f41d5970b-800wi.jpg

Replace the handrail (which isn't even the same colour varnish as the beams) with a really chunky bannister rope.

 

[Andys]

paint the infills in different colours to give a Mondrian effect

Wo ho ho, oh yes! ...like an H M Bateman illustration: The man who painted his 17th century cottage in the Mondrian style.

a really chunky bannister rope.

mm, these look fun
http://www.stairropes.com/customers.html