No talent at deciding what will work! Help!

[LeslieYep]

Hi all, hoping you can help.
Our 2 up 2 down was built in the 80's to Tudor style. We love the homely feel, but it has started to feel dark.
Every room has fake, dark painted beams, which tbf, don't look hideous. Dado rail and Tudor style doors and handles all match the beams. Windows are wooden and are dark of course. They have to match the surrounding area, so can't change on the outside.
There's a beautiful fireplace, which we love and all windowsills and mantel are... dark!

We've decided to decorate our downstairs living room. We've opted for grey beams, which are complete and we really like. We've opted for a white with grey hint for ceiling and walls.
However, we can't decide what to do with the trims everywhere. I think we need to paint the beams in the kitchen and hall so the downstairs feel is the same. Don't know what to do about the doors or the windows. Not sure if doors are sandable(?) Or if we should replace with something lighter.
Get rid of dado? Paint it grey or white to match ceiling/walls. Sand down the mantel and windows?

There just seems to be so many options that we're getting a bit lost in it all.

Any opinions would be appreciated!
On mobile, so if paragraphs disappear, I apologise.

I find it quite hard to envisage how it is at the moment. Are the windowsills and mantel, and doors just dark wood? If so, I think I would paint them white. As for the dado rail, you could keep it (as removing them is sometimes tricky, I understand, and means replastering), paint it white and use slightly different shades of gray above and below. I saw the same with green recently, with a sort of sea green below and a lighter shade above and it looked very smart. Made the room look bigger, I think.

A nice idea to have different shades above and below. I think we will keep the dado, but yes. Everything is painted dark dark brown.
The doorways and skirting are really intricate too, but I digress...

Estate agent pic of living room...

That looks nice, but yes, I'd be reaching for the white paint for the door and trims, I think.

Blimey they went the whole hog in the 80s, didn’t they?
I’d get rid of the dado, even though it may need replastering. The ceiling appears quite low and the dado makes the walls look shorter. I’d personally get rid of the beams too but if you like them then they’d definitely look better white or pale grey. I think whatever colour you do the beams it would be best to match the door frame and skirting with. When done you definitely need some colourful wall art and blind too.

I'd get rid of the dado rail and if you can the beams as they make the ceiling look so low.

Paint the door and skirting white. Also the inside of the window frames. If you can't take the beams off painting them the same colour as the ceiling is a good idea.

If you can't get rid if the beams I'd paint the the same colour of the ceiling, that would improve the room massively.