Skirting and doors advice

[Scottishgirl75]

Hi, I’m currently renovating our home which is long overdue! We’re doing a new kitchen, bathroom etc. We have oak stairs, doors and skirting etc. But I’d love to brighten it all up. I don’t want to start messing with the stair case but I’ve definitely decided to replace the skirting and architrave with white skirting but it seems this has to be MDF. Will this last long? Is there an alternative? We’ve had the oak skirting for over a decade and never had to touch it.

Also I had planned to leave the oak doors As they are but now I worry they are going to look old fashioned in the new interior. They’re 4 panelled oak doors, not really like the modern oak doors I seem to see everywhere. Should I paint them white too or is this crazy? I’d get it done professionally. I would really appreciate any advice with this as need to decide in next day.

Why not paint the skirting/architrave rather than replace with MDF? You could then see how the doors look against the new paintwork and make a decision then.

I’ve never replaced skirting and I can’t think of anyone I know who has, unless part of a massive renovation project.

Just paint them, and the doors.

Just paint the skirtings. Get a wee mouse sander - you don't need to make a professional sanding effort, if you rough it up it will be enough for paint to stick. Use a good undercoat first and both your doors and skirtings will be grand.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I should have said, we lifted all the old tiles as we’re putting down new floors and skirting has all been damaged. A few of the architraves were damaged from years ago when we moved in but we just left them until now. We’ve been saving for years to refurbish and then got a small inheritance so we’re finally able to do it all in one go! Builder told me to decide on skirting for tomorrow so that’s why I thought I’d ask for quick opinions/experiences.

Whut? You can buy wooden skirting no problem!

Yes I do know that but just wanted advice as to type of white skirting that looks best and whether to keep the oak doors or to paint them. I suppose I was hoping someone here would have done this recently and could advise. I appreciate all the replies. I’ve been waiting so long to do this work and now I’m finding all the decisions hard.

It always feels a bit of a shame to paint solid oak doors, a light stain with light wall colour and white woodwork can look really nice if enough natural light gets in, when they're not paired with stained woodwork they can be a bit of a feature, all depends on what state they're in, and if you like the grain.

A decent decorator will be able to save a lot of the timber, if they spray then the spindles are a bit easier to tackle, and the oak doors will look and feel really nice sprayed. MDF skirt is easier when it's a simple bullnose. It looks decent painted, and again can look really good when its sprayed. You can still get timber skirting but if you are doing it yourself go and pick it out, delivery tends to send you robin hoods bow and not skirting.

What period is your house?

It would be pretty sad to replace oak with mdf and could potentially devalue your house if you use cheap materials.

That’s good advice thank you. House just about 19-20 years old so no period features etc. and we hope to never move! But I agree, although I want a brighter more modern look, I also feel uncomfortable replacing oak with MDF. Is there a massive difference in price, I haven’t even checked this out but I will. I think I will try the light stain on the doors and see how they look.

Oak doors with white skirting and architraves actually look good. I've seen it and we are now in the process of buying oak doors for all our internal doors