Paint wood or not?

[PorridgeBowlHairCut]

New house, I'd like to paint the wood in white or cream satin. And then not sure whether to put a colour on the walls. I like the wallpaper above the fire.

It's a north east facing room.

We'd like it to be cosy, don't mind striking or a bit different.

Any ideas welcomed. Particularly on whether we'd regret painting the wood!

It's not to my taste as is, so I'd probably either remove it or paint it to match the wall colour personally.

It's a 1920s house and was part of the original features of the house as a kind of arts and crafts type thing. It's a pretty house on the outside. So I'm a bit disinclined to remove the wood.

it's not to my taste at all at the moment. But it's a big light double aspect room with original parquet flooring. I'm hoping that with our furniture in and a redecorated it could look quite nice.

Other end of the room

It looks like more there is wood due to the colour of the sofas, are they yours?

It's a clip from the estate agent's brochure so it's all the previous owners' furnture etc.

Ah ok, definitely don't remove it if it's original then!

It might be interesting to try and find out what colour it would have originally been and use that to help guide your choices? It's the orange tone of the current finish that is making it look dated I think.

I would paint it. I have a 20’s house with many arts and crafts features, and they look better when they blend rather than stand out.

In my head I’m thinking something like this....

It's a bit orange.

Oh it's beautiful! I agree at the moment the wood looks a bit orange but rather than paint it why don't you strip the wood to see what's underneath what is probably a 1970s varnish job?If it's paler then you could set the wood off with jewel toned walls - very nice!

I only say that because we had an arts and crafts cottage and the wood on its original state was pale oak so you might get lucky!

It’s probably worth a look under the varnish...