Stripped wood or painted archetraves and skirting boards? What's Mumsnet's view on this?

[ScreamingBeans]

I've got a Victorian house and I spent nearly a decade stripping the old paint off the wooden archetraves, skirting boards etc. and there are still some where they're painted.

It still looks a bit meh where the skirting boards join the wall but I haven't touched it for about another decade.

The advantage is it's no maintenance - I don't have to repaint it.

But if I painted it all white it would look really nice. Much better probably. But then I'd have to maintain it and have it painted again in about 7 years or whatever it is. And also I might be horrified that I no longer have stripped wood skirting boards and doorways.

WWYD?

I've just been staying in a rented cottage where they put in wood skirtings when they converted it. They clearly filled any bits and bobs (screwholes, whatever) and matched the filler carefully to the wood. Which has, as wood always will, changed colour, leaving the fillings standing out like lighthouses on a dark night and the whole job looking like it's got a bad case of chickenpox.
You haven't wasted your time stripping them, that's the gold standard for a good job (though I normally just sand very sharply) and you should get a great crisp finish to the mouldings if you prime, undercoat, and topcoat thinly and carefully with really good paint, and any fillings should be invisible if you fill neatly and sand really well.
For paint, I use satinwood, it gives a nice modern looking finish, slightly matt.