Here is what I would do

-Paint all the trim white. There is nothing valuable or attractive about that orange wood

-For cost purposes right now, keep the windows and doors wood. People have white trim with wood doors all the time. It will look fine.

-Put in red oak, refinish old orange flooring, and find a stain that compliments the wood that is staying. Don't try to match that orange stain you hate, just find a stain that works with it.

I also have too much orange but I'm doing a color wash over it with acrylic paint (you can get a good sized tube of it at michaels) in raw umber mixed with water, then add a top coat. the color will be a medium walnut. Google 'chris hill houzz color wash' to pull up the article for instructions. So much easier than staining!

You know what they say about putting on makeup…highlight your best feature. In your case, the doors are the best feature. So, leave them as is. Trim? You are right…nothing great, so paint white.

Stain colors: I am not qualified to answer that part of your dilemma, except that I would choose the new floor color you love and have the existing floors refinished in that.

Carpet: this is where I would spend some money. I would replace all with one and the same.

I keep touting this product, (not because I have stock in Stanton carpet). There is a line called “Anywhere”. It is an indoor/outdoor product which comes in multiple patterns and multiple tones…all wood tones. It comes off the bolt at 13’, so, it should fit all bedrooms, hallway, staircase with no seams.

It is indestrutable. And if I had been introduced to it before I had done wool wall to wall, I would have used it all through the house.

I bet you realize your house needs some color?

agree w/painting all the trim white (nothing special about that wood). doors are nice, you can leave them or paint them. they turned orange because of the oil top coat that has now yellowed over time. only way to redo them is to strip/sand them to raw wood and re-stain them. or paint.

Forget those baseboards, take them all out. since you're redoing the flooring, now is good time to change them to the taller, simple white baseboards. they come w/a coat of primer on them so all you have to do is have them painted and installed after the new floor goes in.

if you get new oak floors, have all the others sanded and finished at the same time, with your new stain color.

paint the doors black w/white trim for something different. this would look nice w/your new carpet or your new oak flooring stained in a medium walnut shade.

Thanks for all the excellent advice!!!! So here’s our current plan ... 1. Keep the doors and kitchen cabinets as is. 2. Put in red oak floors in the hallway, stairs, and big office / multipurpose room. 3. In the areas with new floors, replace the baseboards with something taller (maybe 5”). 4. In the areas with new floors, paint the baseboards and door/window trim white. 5. Install new windows (in the office / multipurpose room) that are wood, already primed, and ready to paint white to match the new baseboards. 6. Paint the walls in the hallway, office, etc. to complement the hardwood floors and existing wood doors. 7. A year or so later (when we have the funds!) refinish the hardwood floors in the kitchen, dining room, and living room (and match the new hardwood floors). 8. Eventually work on baseboards and trim in other parts of the house with the ultimate goal of transitioning all trim to white (as well as replacing the extremely short/cheap baseboards).

Assuming we stick with the above plan, here are our next decisions. Advice is most welcome!!

1. Do we stain or paint the stair risers? The staircase is enclosed - that is, no bannister or spindles (rather just a handrail - see photo in my original post). The staircase has a nice sized landing (with pocket door to our family room), then steps down one step, has another landing, and then turns with two more steps into the large office area. Seems like a lot of wood if we don’t paint the risers!

2. Given that we plan to keep the orange-y doors as is, what is a good stain option for our red oak floors? Special walnut? Early American? Natural? What would complement the doors, as well as go with our kitchen cabinets (see above photos)?

Thank you all so much! This is my first time using Houzz and I’m super impressed with all the helpful advice. :-)

Jessica

jessica,,doors are much easier to change than the floors, so get a darker tone like the walnut. on the doors that face the wood floor, maybe you could have the flooring guy strip the doors and apply the same stain/finish to them?

you may be able to do it yourself. if you give the doors a light sanding, 120-150 grit, you may be able to go over them w/a gel stain in the special walnut. (try varathane or General Finishes, no Minwax!) they look like Doug Fir. it will take away the orange tone and add a bit more depth to them. maybe try it on a door you plan on painting? like the inside of a room or something? if you can, remove it from the hinges, lay it on a sawhorse, do the sanding to remove the top coat, wipe w/a mineral spirits to clean, let dry a bit, then wipe on the gel stain, working it in and wiping off the excess. dries in a few hours. you should see a change.

you are removing the carpet on the stairs? do we know what's underneath them? are the treads oak? are you putting in a runner?

what color are you doing the walls? if doing a light color, you could redo the handrail in the same tone as the floor or the treads/risers. All depends where you're going w/that.

Demetra, can you post a link to the Chris Hill instructions? I'm unable to find them. Thanks!

dough71, I'll try to post the link, I tried to on another thread and it didn't work. In the meantime you can Google the keywords 'chris)s hill cool tip mimic stained' and you should find it easily. I need to learn to copy links onto Houzz, though, so I'll keep trying :)

ugh, it's Chris , not chri)s

dough71,,,,here. I really don't understand the deal w/this technique. what exactly is the look he's going for? you're washing wood w/paint so it looks like stain??? he's doing it on bare wood so why not use actual stain?

If you tried to do this over wood that already has a stain and a top coat, it's going to look cheesy.

[https://www.houzz.com/magazine/cool-tip-mimic-stain-with-a-diy-color-wash-stsetivw-vs~11086814[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/cool-tip-mimic-stain-with-a-diy-color-wash-stsetivw-vs~11086814)

I know it's been a couple years since this post, but one more thing I would add to your list of To Do's is to change out your cabinet hardware. I discovered that Hobby Lobby has some nice looking hardware for very reasonable—add to it their 40% discount, or better yet, wait until it goes on sale at 50% off which happens several times a year and you can make a big impact for the bare minimum. Would you mind sharing your "After" photos of what you've done so far?

My house resembles yours and been struggling with the same issues. I’d love to see some after photos as well to get ideas. Thanks!

Ditto - would love to see updated pics! We’re looking at lighter floors to compliment the wood trim - our whole house is in that oak - we love it but def want to update a little

Not that anyone’s going to see this now but when people update a staircase, do you ever leave the sideboards the stained color? Or if you’re going white with baseboards and door frames you have to match? It’s just going to be very difficult painting.

HU-477562887: Paint the sideboards the color of the trim!