Paint the spindles and stain the railing black! What do the stairs look like? paint the risers white and stain the treads black for a classic new england look, maybe! Keep all the doors fresh white.

Here's a picture of the stairway.

Look at the 1st photo - beautiful
https://www.houzz.com/photos/entryway-ideas-phbr0-bp~t_741 and the front door is stained with white trim.

or stain the treads and rail and paint the rest a glossy white....be certain to prep well as gloss hides nothing... :)

Front door, stair rail, and treads darker stained wood; spindles, stair risers, door frames, and interior french doors painted white. This is a classic combination.

Our house was decorated in the 80's too! The entire entry was dark wallpaper from top to bottom...we removed and painted...also had the stairs re-done/re-stained in a mahogany and painted. Also added the wainscotting for interest. All white trim, including the front door...always classic! Good Luck...:)

I personally love a mix of painted white and dark stained wood, the look is stunning and classic and keeps the home feeling warm and fresh. Because of issues with my old home, I had to do my entire upstairs with a mix of painted white trim and dark stained doors, the floor is a wood floor and the stairs are stained dark with the risers painted white. It looks amazing. Here is a picture of part of it, unfortunately I haven't had the time to update the space since last year. I am currently working on finishing the stair railing.

http://nikkimdesign.blogspot.com/2012/06/note-this-blog-entry-is-from-july-2011.html

We just did almost the same thing in a house we just moved into. We went with white trim and doors throughout the house, except for the front door. We replaced it with a steel door and painted in Willow (Benjamin Moore), but I think a dark stain would look good too. Personally I like highlighting the front door over all the other doors in the house as it creates interest. For the staircase we replaced all the spindles with wrought iron and stained the rail a darker wood. It looks marvelous! Our spindles ran into the carpet as do yours...it looks very nice.

Thank you all so much for the advice! It's great of you to take the time to help.

YOU HAVE WHAT I SPENT A LOT OF MONEY TO PUT INTO MY NEW HOME. LEAVE THE FRONT DOOR STAINED; LEAVE THE PANELED DOORS STAINED (THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL); LEAVE THE RAILING STAINED; PAINT ALL THE WOODWORK, INCLUDING THE SPINDLES, THE WHITE OF YOUR CHOICE; THEN PAINT THE TREADS ON THE STAIRS ANY BEAUTIFUL COLOR YOU WANT THAT WILL GO WITH THE REST OF YOUR DECOR. PUT A RUNNER ON THE STAIRS AND VIOLA!

You are very welcome, Janie. Let us know if you need anything further. Good luck with your update!

The staircase is the main focal point of the house, it's the first thing you see when you walk in the front door so you want it to look gorgeous. My suggestion to you is to leave the doors the way they are, they are beautiful and have character to them and stain the rails the same color. Defiantly do wrought iron it's much classier then painted spindles and will hold up for the long haul. If fees-able I would tile the front entry, because your existing floor takes away from your doors and kind of clashes.

I disagree I think white with that style would look very cheap...

CONSTRUCTIVE REMARK...IT IS SPELLED WROUGHT IRON.

Haha, fixed it! Although I'm sure she knew what I meant:)
My sister is a teacher and she is always correcting me.

BTW: House is spelled H o u s e... not H o u z z :))

Re: Ragsangle, I was discouraging her from painting everything white.

NIKKI....GREAT JOB. I CHOSE TO DO THE SAME IN MY NEW HOUSE. IT IS A STUNNING COMBINATION OF DARK AND WHITE.

Thank you Judyg! I am very pleased with how it turned out. :)

I agree with above recmd's to leave the stained wood . I think that if you paint over the natural wood you will regret it later. I think they are nice, have character, and i hate painted wood... what you have to tackle is a lot of work and time and painted wood rarely looks like anything other than exactly what it is - re-painted wood. If you are looking for a sleeker look or different door design, I would just replace the doors all together. Good luck and have a blast decor-ing! :)

I would suggest not painting those beautiful stained doors. Do upgrade the trim on doors and paint it white. See TheJoyofMoldings and MyFinishCarpentry for examples and help on diy upgraded moldings.

my cousin just painted her doors last year and I think it looks great!
http://www.threeboys.net/2012/03/casual-elegance-entryway-before-after.html

That looks beautiful rika!

Front door can always be different from the rest. I personally would leave it as is.

I think you don't like the stained doors because the trim around them is too thin and cheapens the whole look. Your stairway lacks presense because the newel posts are undersized and of a different style than the simple panelled doors.

I also noticed the lack of trim on interior door ways in the background of the picture. You need to pick an architectural style and retrim the whole house to coincide with that. But first I would spend the money to replace your carpet with hardwood and then replace the trim. It will change your home from builder grade to custom.

If you decide to paint, use a high quality paint like Benjamin Moore or something similar. We recently bought an 80's house where they painted the spindles white and railing black (which looks stunning), but the white paint was a brand from Home Depot and it chips easily and isn't holding up well. Use a high quality paint that will last.

Paint to trim SW Dover white, leave the hand rail brown. Paing all of the doors black...a really great look.