Decorating and Design - crown mouldings color help please

Merry Xmas everyone!
For a gift my sons have offered to put up crown mouldings in our main living areas. We have red brown alder laminate floors, my walls are painted a taupey/tan/beigey color. My baseboards and trim is painted white.
My question is the crown mouldings can they be stained to match floors instead of painted white like baseboards? My sons seem to think the darker color will look better. My ceiling is white popcorn. Older style house.
Is the brown mouldings going to look dumb? Should they be white?
Please give me advice, I am not very creative.
Thanks in advance.

i vote white. i think, for the most part, for most situations, all the woodwork & doors should be treated the same. since your baseboards are white, the crown should be white. are your doors painted white, too?

i can see why the temptation is there to stain them like the floor, but i think the dark "line" running around the top of the room would be too much, too obvious, plus it would bring down the height of the ceiling, which no one usually wants.

i'd keep it white. classy. understated. just a finishing detail of the room. painted white, like the ceiling, it won't go unnoticed or disappear - believe me!

white! :thumbup:

Dear Ninip,

Particularly, because of your popcorn ceilings in addition to baseboards, I'd stay with white.

You do find dark moldings used with white walls and ceilings, particularly in rooms with tudor stylings or Spanish Colonial Revival styles. In both styles, the walls were often of a more rustic finish, and the wood could range from a simple rough-cut beam to something more ornamental. This high-contrast look is particularly effective when accompanied by terracotta floor tiles or you can go for a Moorish look with ornamental tiles and carved door and window features. But, certainly, from what you have described, I agree with Annette.

Regards,
Cheryl