I have the exact same trim and doors in my old ranch. I wanted to change out all of it (trim and doors) but found that after I updated the trim to a nice wide white (I added a bit of extra trim at the top too to really update the look) I actually like the doors again. It's a really pretty contrast. So I'm all for updating the trim but the doors are debatable.

I completely agree with diyer59. I have oak doors and woodwork. I think it is always in style. If you paint, in a few years painted doors will not be "fashionable". You will have a real project on your hands to try to remove all the paint. Good luck with that!

I agree with rauraum, solid wood trim and doors are precious, even if it's not the "right" kind of wood. Paint your walls, save your wood.

please do not paint.

Again. ITS YOUR HOUSE. YOU ARE LIVING IN IT. Forget what everyone else says and do what makes you happy.

There are a LOT of people that prefer painted over wood or vice versa. I live in a city with a LOT of old housing stock. A lot have painted trim, a lot don't. I've never heard someone say "oh this finely crafted home from 1896 is now worthless because the trim was painted"

It also has a lot to do with your style of decorating. If you have moved toward much more modern furniture/furnishings, etc., the painted trim works better. I also think that when you have trim that's painted in a crisp white with a high gloss, it gives you much more freedom to express wall colors that are easily changeable. When you have deep/dark wood trim, darker colors sometimes make it overwhelmingly dark or don't look right w/ the wood trim.

My current apartment has painted woodwork, I repainted it in high gloss and it looks fantastic. It's a very decorative woodwork - the baseboards are likely 8-10" high and the headers of the doors are great stepped mill-work. Would it look great unpainted, absolutely? But it certainly doesn't look bad painted.

Furthermore, sometimes woodwork is painted because it's just so far neglected it's too much time and money to bring back, so it looks much better painted than scratched up and looking like hell.

Ultimately, nnavert, I'm on board with you -- if my home had the narrower woodwork such as yours I would paint it. It doesn't have the visual interest of the older more decorative woodwork.

Our 1978 house has the narrower dark oak trim and plain dark stained doors. Even our closets are bifold, but we changed the master bedroom doors to mirrored paneled double doors with lever handles. I would like to paint all the trim off white but I think it would look wrong on narrow trim so we are leaving it if and when we sell for someone else to change if they want. Some people do think it is a crime to paint wood. I am not one of them. When we plan to replace our windows we want to install white windows with white grids. Our family room has dark beams, not oak, that I like so we replaced the patio door with dark stained wood with dark grids and I like it. We painted the paneling on the bottom portion of the walls in the family room with paint the same color as the rest of the walls.

Also we are the third owners of this house. I would have liked white trim but that is what we have to live with.

I think the only place I don't have oak is on my walls: kitchen (and beams), floors, solid six panel doors, even on my appliances (subzero, dishwasher and compactor….) I'm oak-ed out! We recently remodeled our Master Bath and bedroom with all BM Linen White trim. Love it. I even fashioned a fake taller baseboard by adding trim and painting in-between. (thank you Pintrest) I can't wait to paint the trim on the rest of the 1989 5 bed/ 5 bath house. But, I will keep the solid oak panel doors stained…thinking espresso… to match the new bath.

Lash out with the paint, you wont be dissapointed. We have 8 kids and have just recently moved to and remodeled an old house. Our previous house had all timber doors and surronds, so this time we thought we'd go for a cleaner look. Put a bit of colour into your walls then paint the doors, surrounds and skirting boards off white. Use a semi shine paint and it's very easy to wipe clean. you'll be astounded at the difference it makes. Our old house now feels lovely and clean and is always commented on by friends how the painted walls and doors etc have given it a new lease of life. Go for it.......

I'm Baaack! I thought I'd resubmit my opinion that you should upgrade the trim and paint.

Argh! I'm wishing I had my not-so-great before and after photos of a project I did years ago at hand to show you. I transformed a home by beefing up the moldings and adding wainscoting. It looked so lovely.

But here's why I think you should paint. The wood is a shiny finish, which is outdated, and the quality of the doors is not high. The molding is very spare. If you paint the trim, you'll only call attention to it.

It must be so confusing having so many opinions it's a wonder you're not mad! Go with what your heart tells you.

I had all that oak wood also. Doors, floors, kitchen cabinets. Half the walls were also oak wood. I felt it was too much. So about 5 years ago I painted all the doors and trim in satin white. Over time I hated the white. It seemed to glare at me. So, I sanded the kitchen cabinets instead of painting and put a different shade of stain on them. They turned out beautifully. Instead of changing the oak half of the walls I painted the upper portion a different color and it totally changed the look of the oak. So my suggestion is to paint your walls and leave the oak alone.

If that is your wish, then do it. Here is my thought, though...the white doors at Home Depot run roughly $30. Your oak doors roughly $200. If you want white doors, sell the oak doors and they will finance your new doors with money left over...

Your doors look solid and of beautiful quality. A new trim color preferably in the white to ivory palate will complement your door stain beautifully. I do think a high gloss works best. Update your hardware if it is outdated.

I like inspired spaces' idea, but you should do what you like. You can make either look (painted or stained) work, depending on how you choose to pull it together. I will say, however, I have a new home with cheap white fiberboard doors. The grass is always greener!

paint the walls first and see... the doors are nice..good quality. i would leave them alone..maybe just paint the trim but try the "tape" idea after you put some color on the walls..

Tour doors are very nice and would look great in white but I would change the trim for something wider and thicker for a bigger impact . And how about off white walls ? Timeless elegance ....

Hello, I would paint them with creamy white colour. It will give tenderness in your room. Even your floor will becomes more beautifull. Look at your floor and take one the color of it for the walls. It looks like there is grey, and sort of brown. Creamy white goes with them both. Enjoy :-)

Thank you to everyone for your help and comments. I will think about all your suggestions and send a before and after picture when done.

I am in the same oak everything dilemma. We've replaced the kitchen island with a deeper stain to match our dining room furniture which opens from the honey oak kitchen which will be restained or painted or whatever as soon as time and money permits. I've decided to start painting out all the oak trims but my dilemma is this fireplace in the family room, which also is off from the kitchen. Any budget minded suggestions on what to do here?

I hate to see you paint those lovely wood doors. I wish I had those as opposed to the fake white ones in my house! That said, there is nothing special about the trim and it can easily be replaced as needed, so I would feel free to paint that. I love what inspired spaces did with the white trim and darker wood. It looks updated and classic as well. I know wood is out of style right now and everything is white, but I am sure it will be back. Ultimately it is your house and you should do what makes you happy to live with everyday but I would just just take it step by step...trim first etc. and see what works.

We had the entire trim/baseboards/doors painted in our 2000 sq. ft. house 7 years ago. It makes a world of difference. It made my house look new again. Be prepared for some work, however. We hired it done, it took 3 guys 3 flu 40 hour weeks to complete our project. I also just updated a family room a couple of years ago. I had two oak entertainment pieces which I had painted also. Although it pained me to have oak painted, they turned out beautifully and look like new pieces as well.

@boomers775--have you considered staining your kitchen cabinets? There is an awesome gel stain product made by General Finishes. It is a gel consistency and is super easy (I'm not kidding about the easy part) to redo cabinets. I redid a honey-oak bathroom cabinet in the "java" color, and it looks brand new. There are lots of posts on Pinterest which would show pictures.

Don't do it!! You have lovely floors and the wood is beautiful. Consider painting the walls a bright color (sage greens, pale yellow or even oranges would work well with the wood stain. Then paint the ceiling the lightest shade from the same color family as the wall. Also, consider updating the hardware on the doors and your ceiling fixture. If your furnishings are mission style woods, accent the room with fabrics that carry your wall and floor colors. God luck!

Paint the trim... AND Paint your walls a lovely sage green, or pale yellow...

Dark wood with white trim looks great. We turned a small bedroom into a closet since we have very small closets. The door for the existing small closet in the room was falling apart. So we replaced it with an Oak door stain Mocha/Expresso, added new white trim, and it looks great. You can see the Door to the hall in the background. Eventually we will re-stain or replace the other doors. Hope this helps you.

Keep the trim the same because it mstchez your baseboards but paint the doors a dark color. Find the prominent color in your house and go from there. I lean towards grey. Its the new white.
Good Luck!

I am taking baby steps in the same direction. I am considering painting the wood all white or darkening the wood stain, although I have an entire house that would also need attention.

after thinking about it i would not paint the wood at all...as the base board trim will not match..i think the right wall color will make a world of difference.

Wood trim and doors really dominates a space. Definitely recommend painting trim and doors white. We did it throughout our house and it makes the entire house so much more fresh and inviting. It allows you to actual see things differently ...the view out the windows, artwork, fabric...

Only if you do something different to the walls.

Nnavert - You have a lot of good advice here already! I say thumbs up to white trim & doors, but keep in mind that not all doors need to match. Review each door on a case-by-case basis. Stained doors do add character and visual interest.

We did this in a recent project of mine - this house has both painted and mahogany stained doors: mahogany where we wanted visual interest and white painted where we wanted the doors to be less of a feature.

Best seen in the Web Bar, Butler's Pantry and the Entry Hall: http://www.houzz.com/projects/646430/city-glamour

Best of luck with your project!

-Christine

BEFORE you decide you need to read up on painting wood and understand what is involved, the surfaces will need to be cleaned, sanded, primed and then painted....or hire professionals to do this for you (check references and make sure they are insured) or you can remove the old trim and doors and buy pre-primed ones, which will only need painting. (and perhaps sell the old trim and doors online.)

I have oak doors and trim. I have a 70's home that needs updating! I am going for the white doors and trim. I think it will look beautiful! The walls should be painted a color and by replacing the hardware, you will bring your home up to this century! You will love it!

Trim - bright white, Doors - Black!

I could not live with black doors. I like the simplicity of the white. It is so bright and will go with any color that the walls are painted. Black makes a big statement, whereas the white adds a crisp clean look.

To Boomers775: leave the fireplace as it is, it's gorgeous and matches the floors beautifully

Our before was exactly the same. I painted ours white. Ton of work. Took FOREVER, but totally worth it. Love it. So much fresher. Colors pop.

My husband (who had never done any house projects before) and I did the whole house together with just the input of the local paint store and it came out great. Good luck!

I was struggling to sell my beautiful Tudor house.... until I painted out the oak! I left the front door it's natural oak but darkened the stain as well as the curved stair railings. The rest, I painted out white and it looked magnificent. I received 2 offers and sold my home almost before the paint was dry!

Your doors look like PINE not oak. Just stained a honey oak color. I love the idea of painting the trim white and staining the doors in an espresso finish. You will get an updated look and since there is no oak grain the doors with come out beautifully.

I would try some color on your walls before I painted all that wood trim and doors..I am in the minority but even having white trim in my own house I still prefer wood, I feel like at some point in time this painted trim will also become dated and it will start going back to wood again- I do love the look of the darker stained doors with cream trim

We just did a remodel of our 20 year old home with wood trim. We considered painting all the stain wood/doors white. Decided not to paint it white, but we did put crown molding in the rooms and painted that a complementary color. I think once you get a warm color on the walls you will not notice the wood trim as much. Choosing lighter color carpet or tile helps too!

One of the most admired selling fetures in our house was our carved oak pantry doors on an otherwise white dining room walls. Why paint beautiful rich-looking wood? Painted wood just looks inexpensive and not impressive.You can't make it wood ever again once you paint it. If you think it's too jarring, paint the wall, not the wood.

Yes paint it a crisp white. Oak trim screams "dated!" if you can afford it, change out the woodwork for something a little more substance all and paint that. Not white walls.

You know, it's nice to read all the comments regarding what you should do about leaving or painting your wood trim . However, remember that those commenting aren't professionals by any means. I'd LOVE to hear what professional decorators/designers advice would be. After all ,many people have horrid taste! Why would you leave it up to strangers to make that decision? I guess maybe you're just asking for feedback, but do you know who you're asking? Best of luck to you... Houzz, why don't you offer this service....online decorating advice?

I second what shed said! I am not a designer myself, but have always been interested in interior design and have an eye for it. I transformed my whole apartment from an outdated mess to a sleek modern space with some elbow grease paint and about 1000 bucks. (furniture, etc. Not included... I'm just talking about fixtures, paint etc.) I've gotten many many compliments on it. Including a great one from a neighbor who visited a high end design store in San Fran and just kept saying how much my place reminded her of it.

While recently house shipping, I have seen the hideous outdated taste of many... Most people do not have an eye for aesthetics.

Bottom line, again, do what makes you happy.

Do it!!! Paint your walls a light gray or other soothing color. Consider changing out door style or door hardware

Actually I think your woodwork is beautiful. But my dad was a master carpenter and I have an ingrained love of stained wood. I agree with some others here, try painting your walls first. With the right paint color on the walls your woodwork might not look as harsh to you.

i agree, just going by the pictures, the grain in your doors does not look like oak. But no matter. If you like the traditional stained look, keep it stained. If you like the fresher painted look, then paint them. There is no right or wrong.

I grew up in an old house (in the midwest) with heavy oak woodwork. And so did everyone I knew. Contrary to being different, all of our houses looked pretty much the same inside, except for how they were further decorated. So, makes no difference if your woodwork is white or stained....it will always look like someone else's, but, so what? Plenty of other opportunities to make your house your own.

Pesonally I do not like the heavy, raised grain of oak, so i would be painting my woodwork. (and yes i have all painted woodwork; it's lovely, not cheap-looking at all, especially when compared to that orange woodwork we all suffered through.) if painted woodwork went out of style in ten years, so what? I still wouldn't have oak stained woodwork because I just don't like it.

Don't be a slave to what is or is not "in style" or trendy. Trends come and go. Just do what you like in your own home.

I have not seen the white trim with dark espresso stained doors. It looks cool! But if you want to get technical about it, isn't espresso quite " trendy"? Lol

Absolutely......brightens the house tremendously. We painted the woodwork and bought six panel doors, white......love it.