Here are some other photos:

I think I'd proceed with your plan to paint it.

I don't think you can really judge until you have moved into the house & have lived with it for at least six months. There will be more pressing matters to attend to if you do not have the furnishings for the space yet. Think of those matters before doing any major changing of the house you have just purchased. Good luck & enjoy the space first before wanting to change everything.

It's easy enough to deal with the trim later when your confidence will be higher on what to do. When in doubt, live with it until the right answer comes to you.

Leave it!!!!

Leave the oak trim. It is easier to maintain!! After you live in the house give it at lest a year then decide.

The oak trim adds a lot of warmth and personality to the home. Give it a fair chance before deciding to paint it.

This is a matter of personal taste and preference. I could absolutely not live with the oak and I would forgo other purchases/renos for the home in the meantime just to paint it white. How about you?

Suggest leaving the stained trim for now. It can always be painted later. Or, perhaps you can darken the stain. Live with it for awhile before making a decision that cannot easily be reversed. Personally, I prefer stained trim.

Live in it for a year! I like it, but I would consider painting the spindles (?) on staircase as well as the risers if they are not white, for contrast.

And pick some great colors for the walls! Wood looks great with color so don't try to fight it with boring white walls.

The one thing we are set on is doing all of the painting before we move in, so I guess I will be figuring it out in the next few days...I have gone from DO IT to LEAVE IT in my mind every 4 hours in the past week, complete with thorough internet scouring of design pictures to back up my whims!!! gahhhhh

As a general rule, painting is the last step in pulling a design together. It is dependent on the fabrics chosen for the space. Paint can be custom blended to work with fabrics, but they are set in stone. While it is tempting to paint while the house is empty, you may be painting again in a year or so as you flesh out the fabric colors and patterns in your home. If budget is a concern, I'd postpone until you move in and arrange the furniture you have. Then photo and post as a new dilemma. We'll help you tweak, add and arrange the furnishings, as well as suggesting paint to go with the selections you make.

I would want to do that to - paint before moving in. I'm thinking it will modernize your new home a lot.

I'm quite surprised at how many comments suggested leaving it alone:)

I would paint the trim in your dining room and the spindles in your staircase. It will look updated. I painted mine before I moved in and that was the best decision I made. Here's the difference--- before and after

Whatever you decide about railings and beams, paint the chair rail in the dining room! Please! :) (just the color of the walls)

when in doubt about painting wood elements, don't decide. live with it for a while. You can always paint it later, but if you rush the decision and paint it now and end up not liking it, removing that paint will make you want to tear your hair out.

I would not object to painting the trim, but I also think it is pretty and there is too much claim that oak is dated - it comes from shows on HGTV and marketers who want to make people feel the need to be up to date and buy new stuff. Having said that I did paint the trim only in my 1970s home. It was pine stained very dark, so I painted it white. I did not paint cabinets or doors (except the bookcase in family room).

Oak is not a paint grade wood, although it can be painted. It is not paint grade because the texture of the grain shows through the paint which bothers some people. You don't want to paint nice wood doors or cabinets because wood moves with temp and humidity and there is a tendency for the paint to crack at the joints - and there are lots of joints in wood panel doors. (see first pic) I was discussing this on another thread and the person said that I was correct as they had painted the back of a paneled closet door, and months later the paint had cracked at some joints.

If you do paint doors and cabinets, there will be upkeep for it to stay looking good. If you are set on white doors or cabinets, consider selling the present ones and replacing with white MDF doors or MDF combined with wood. These doors are more stable so paint up better.

Another possibility is to paint the trim, but leave doors and cabinets wood. This combination works because of the brightness of wood combined with the warmth of wood.

Wood doors, white trim:

This is definitely a decision of personal taste, and I'd say go with painting it. Probably leave the handrail and posts alone or stained and varnished darker. I wouldn't paint it unless they are using a white varnish as only varnish will stand up to the wear of use.

I love Darzy's compromise suggestion.

Look closely at your "inspiration" pics: they often have things you are not focusing on that make them work, like lighting, thicker trim, flooring, wall color, etc, that you don't have, so you have to be careful saying "I like that room and it has white trim so if I have white trim I will like my room". This house looks nice, white may accentuate the smallish trim and look "off."

it does look a bit overwhelmingly like an oak forest. However, the main problem I see with the floor and door trims is that they are so thin as to have no proportion to the rooms. Your doors look solid wood. I would paint the trim in the dining room and the spindles in the staircase. If you can afford it paint the floor trims and window trims or change them later to a size that flatters the room. I would leave the doors stained.

Paint it!

I vote to leave it.

I didn't mean to suggest that your trim is TOO thin-it is appropriate for your modern home. It's just that painted trim I associate more with beefier traditional construction, probably beefier AND painted because it is made of MDF not wood. That's not going to go well with your spare, clean lines. The pop of wood is a nice highlight for these lines. Dont to make the mistake of treating this like traditional architecture.

i'd say paint the trim, then you would have more options for wall color. also i'd say wait on painting anything because to do it now (which is understandable) makes you have to choose a safe wall color, that will sorta not look bad with what you put in, versus choosing the exact right color for your furnishings.

but if you are dead set on a safe wall color, might as well not paint the trim at this time.

Thanks for all of the input everyone! So, we went to the house again today and after thinking about it last night and this morning, we are going to only do the spindles and chair rail as suggested by many of the posters. The trim has really been well-maintained, and I think once we furnish and decorate (looking for something like "organic modern" now that we are keeping the trim), it will be an acceptable. The colors we are keeping on the walls are SW amazing gray in the foyer and SW samovar silver in two of the upstairs bedrooms. Any thoughts on other complimentary colors?

Would love to see some pictures after it was done...Iam in the same predicament!

How about accessible beige SW and balanced beige I have picked those for my house I have stained trim. My interior designers sat those colors will match anything and they are the most popular colors in the SW line. Keep us posted what you decide.

Live in the house at least 6 months before you paint. I moved into my home in Feb. and just now decided on colors.. I would not paint that wood.

Paint it if you eant to go modern leave it if you want to keep it "vintage".

I would leave the trim. The paint everything fad will fade. I would concentrate on upgrading window treatments and lighting.

I am so happy you didn't paint everything.
You were not running out of time, what was the rush?
You are going to live in this beautiful home for a long time why rush to get everything done before you move in? Paint comes last after your furnishings are chosen.
Like another poster says, live in your home six months before doing anything.
How is it going now, it's been a few months?

Hi Gayle, I know it's been a couple years. What did you decide to do? Did you paint the trim or not? Our new home has oak trim and spindles that I don't think we're going to paint. If you didn't wind up painting over the wood, what complimentary wall colors did you choose? Any photos to share? I am looking for ideas! Thank you.

im debating the same thing but ugh what a job? i am leaning toward redoing my hard wood floors and leaving the baseboards all the same so when you look at the lower halk of the floors and base board it all blends, then i am thinking of painting trim around doors and windows white so when you look up and out it is all clean and the oak isnt breaking it up. the only problem is when i redo my hardwood floors i wanted to go a little darker which then the trim floor pieces wont match - its really a dilemma when trying to stay on a budget, painting all your trim in the house is a chore.. but wanting to update it. I know someone is going to tell me do it all right or dont do it at all? but any combo options people have tried?

Let’s see what you’ve done Gayle.

Yes! What did you decide? We'd love to see photos.

I want AFTER photos because I need to decide soon!