Cute doors, but nothing special. Go ahead and paint them...but first seal the knots.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/seal-pine-knots-99384.html

Hi Kathleen, the doors appear to be well-constructed, with a nice finish. They certainly do add a unique character to your home, and an added layer design-wise. I would consider keeping them natural. Alternatively, if you would prefer a very fresh Scandinavian palette, I don't think it wrong to paint them. You would, however, still see quite a bit of the grain and knot textures.

i like painted wood but i like your doors just as they are, even more.

I have seen many Scandinavian style homes with touches of warm wood. Keep in mind that wood moves with changes in temp and humidity causing cracks in the paint at the joints. This could potentially be a real upkeep issue with your doors.

The wood brings warmth to the rooms. Unless I have the wrong Carl Larsson in mind, there is a lot of wood and color in his art.

You could change the doors and sell them for something that more meets your style versus painting the doors.

Crime! Just to add another dimension to the discussion, pairing natural wood doors with white trim (as you have done) is a nice way of compromising if one spouse likes all-wood doors and trim while the others like all-white doors and trim. It certainly worked in my case; in both out city house and country house, we have wood doors and white trim.

City house:

Country house:

1820 Stone Farmhouse Renovation · More Info

1820 Stone Farmhouse Renovation · More Info

I do love all white but those doors are actually very pretty and I think you might regret it if you painted them. If you did paint them it would create more of a sense of space but I feel that if your going Scandinavian then you are probably painting your walls white and these doors will add a little warmth to the palette and keep the character and charm of the home. Scandinavian style definitely allows for some natural wood whether it be in furnishing or doors and floors.

I see your walls have a hint of pale creamy yellow to them, once these are painted white then your doors will look fabulous. If you still don't like the look after you have painted the walls then you can always paint over after or white wash them as someone has previously suggested.

Kathleen, a few years back I also fancied painting all my doors white in a previous home but had the same hesitations as you.

So what we ended up doing was wrapping them all with some white plastic tablecloths as neatly as possible and lived with them like that for a couple of months to get a feel for white doors.

After unwrapping them we were delighted to have our wooden doors back and never talked about painting them again.

While white was ok, the wood added much warmth and personality that before the ' big wrapping experience' we just took for granted.

I too would leave the doors in their natural state. They add texture, interest and warmth to a white/pastel palette and are very charming!

Such great comments and ideas! Thank you. I think I'm going to leave them. The wood is a nice warm color. So appreciate all the input.