Hi there, I’d like some advice on what to do in our hall please. So we’ve recently painted our hall blue, which we love and goes well with our white skirting boards and paintwork upstairs (not shown).

However, in our downstairs area, we have a lot of this 1970’s UK style woodwork which looks really dated (BTW please ignore the quality of coverage at the stairs, it needs a second coat). This wood is on the skirtings, architraves, the staircase itself and an inner door.

So as I see this we have a few options:

1. Paint the wood white. If it was just the skirtings/architraves this would be my go-to option, but I think if we do this to the inner door it’s going to look cheap as there’s a lot of wood there and I'm concerned about the finish I'd get over this much wood. Suggestions welcome!
2. Sand the wood and hopefully get rid of the orange look and apply a different stain/varnish. I wasn’t sure if the colour of the wood is natural, so I tried sanding a small section (see the area that I’ve encircled in red in the bottom photo), but when I did the surface appeared to whiten almost like it has a layer of dust on it. I’ve no idea why it looks this way - if anyone knows why this would happen, please let me know!

If anyone has any suggestions or answers to the type of wood, it'd be greatly appreciated!