Help! My entire first floor has medium oak trim and ivory walls. I can't stand either, but I can't change it all right now as it's too large a project for my current budget.

The upstairs, however, has dark wood trim, and so my plan is to paint the walls and doors white, re-stain the dark trim, replace the beige carpet with a dark floor option (likely laminate), and replace the hardware with dark bronze. I'm in love with the look.

The problem is that if I redo the stair treads in the dark wood as I'm hoping, along with the dark trim, it will butt right up against sections of medium oak...including the front door. What do I do???

My recent thought was to use the trend of ombre stairs to shade the treads from dark to the medium oak on the way down, but I'm concerned it might be too busy (especially with a dark railing), and I can't find photos of anything quite like it. (Ombre colors, yes, but not ombre wood tones.)

How do others get around the trim issues when trim meets in a room?