Dining room redo; matching existing trim

[Matt Roth]

One of my many upcoming projects involves adding crown moulding, chair rail, and panels connecting baseboard to above chair rail in the formal dining room. Sounds simple enough. Here's the problem: I'd like to use natural finished mahogany, cherry, or walnut, but our house already has a good bit of stained trim (honey color, poplar) around windows, door frames, staircase, etc. I'm not really a fan of the honey stained poplar, but it's probably not feasable to replace the trim throughout the house, or even in this room. I'd be open to replacing the existing baseboards, even the door and window trim, but the window frames and stair rails (visable from dining room) are probably stuck as is. I'm thinking two different woods in the same room would look goofy. Thoughts?

[George Bregar]

If you don't want to match existing then at least replace the trim to match new.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

Are you in Plainfield near La Porte or Plainfield near Indy?

Because there's a "seconds" store in La Porte, ran by a La Porte company
that makes trim. 90+% of the trim in my house is from there.

It's mostly pine, but they carry a couple of hardwoods.

[Chip Lindley]

Make your formal dining room consistent in the upcoming remodel. It can be "the Cherry Room" or "the Walnut Room". IMO, mixing two kinds of wood colored differently in the same room rather wreaks. Other rooms might be remodelled later to become "the Mahogany Master Bedroom, or "the Pine Pantry." A whole house need not be trimmed the same, but each room should be.

[Matt Roth]

I'm in the Plainfield near Indy. That's pretty much what I was thinking; the wood in each room should all match. Short of replacing 2 Marvin windows, the stair railing, and ballisters, I'm not thinking a match will be possible. Dang stained poplar!!

[John TenEyck]

Hey, if you want walnut, cherry, or mahagony why not? Just do the entire room with your wood of choice, as others have recommended. And I see no problem changing the profiles of your trim either, as long as it's consistent in that room. You might want to think about making the room dramatically different, as well. That way the new trim color/style won't look out of place, it will be part of the theme of the "new" room. Also, if your windows in that room are stained another color, and you don't want to replace them, you should be able to glaze them to match the new wood color. Sort of like faux finishing, a bit tedious, but it can be done.