Varnished Doors, frames and skirtings Yay or nay

[MrMayoNessie]

Hi there,

We have been in our forever house for 10 years now and we are going to do quite a lot of renovations over the next couple of months, new kitchen dining room knock through, bifolds etc.

Drawing up a list of other things that we would like to possibly change and one item that has come up is painting all the doors, door frames skirtings window frames. They are currently varnished in a 1980s detached house.

What's peoples thoughts, Pro's for keeping varnished is nil upkeep just a wipe over. Con's as my wife says in Waynetta slob voice it's braaan, and possibly looks dated!

All the wood work in good order and great quality so we wont be ripping any out so if we do paint we will change the door furniture to chrome.

Just to out in context, its 11 good sized rooms, plus bannisters (which may be changed to painted newels and glass balustrades) painted so feels like I will spend the rest of my dying days painting and repainting the forth road bridge every couple of years.

I've attached a couple of images just so you can see.

I don’t think I could live with the varnish tbh. They do look quite dated and, after spending all that money on a new kitchen, bifolds etc, it would look odd with the dated looking doors.
I’ve just done 9 doors and miles of skirting in a white satinwood and that was a huge improvement just on the old cream gloss. It’s just as easy to wipe over but don’t be fooled into believing Dulux once will actually be one coat!

I have woodwork like that in my 1980s house. Its true it's zero maintenance, even when decorating I've never done the woodwork and we have lived here 30 years.
I recently had the sitting room decorated and got the woodwork painted white. My goodness the transformation is phenomenal.
Only now I want the rest doing and there are 11 more rooms to go.......

@Everythingiswonderful how did you do it yourself? I can't really justify having decorator do it. Did you use a special primer?

It if was a 60s modernist house, there's no way you'd paint that woodwork - they'd be original mid-century features.
In an 80s house, I'm not so sure! A big job but they are pretty ugly (sorry)

I'd paint them ( other opinions are available)

Thanks everyone this is really useful, I know you right and I think it will look so much better and tied with the rest of the changes, keep em coming !!

Paint! Honestly they are really dated (sorry) and once you get stuck into the rest of your renovations they will stuck out like sore thumbs. Personally I’d also be budgeting for new doors as they are also ahem of their era!

Hard pass from me!
If you paint them then it doesn't have to be white and you could do the doors different, but complimentary, colour to the frame and skirting. No real reason you'd have to paint more often than with varnish

Ah yes, mid-century or art deco doors fine but those would look better painted. Waynetta is right - too braaan

I presume both of you do things like painting so it shouldn’t take too long and the upkeep can be just touching up where paint gets knocked.

We painted our stripped wooden skirting boards and doors white and like a pp said, it totally transforms a room - it looks so much lighter and gives you a much better choice of colours to paint the walls.

@Boph our woodwork was cream gloss not varnish. We couldn’t justify paying someone to do it, we spent days stripping the woodwork upstairs with a heat gun, it was such hard work that I just painted over the downstairs. I was at the point of tears after stripping and then painting 3 coats of everything upstairs I just couldn’t face being as thorough with the ground floor. Should have done it the other way around really.

I think those banisters are gorgeous, OP. I wouldn't paint over them, or the doors as the woodwork then matches. Make everything else very modern and airy and get some mid century furniture in, make a feature of it.

If you really do dislike it later down the line, you can always paint them then, it's an easy job.

@FamilyOfAliensm, sadly no, wife would rather stab herself in the eyeball with a gloss white paint brush !!! As she tellls me "she is the project manager with the ideas"!

Well I'm voting against the grain. I prefer the look of varnished wood and would never paint over it but I guess that's personal taste. Or my lack of it!! We had painted woodwork before and it felt never ending to paint. Though from reading this I have learned I should heat gun the old paint off so what do I know.

Oh god they're hideous. Please paint them white! (Use non-yellowing paint otherwise you'll be doing them again in a couple of years.)

Other colours are available besides white. Satin or eggshell can also look much nicer than gloss (especially yellowed "white" gloss).

Unless you live in a mansion dark wood doors and frames etc make a house feel very small and poky.

The staircase I would paint on colours that complement the rest of the redecorate room. Personally, I wouldn't like that particular staircase in white. It could look good in two tones (posts in one, rails in another) that complement each other and the rest of the room.

All white staircases are dated and boring.

I wouldn't paint them. I'd have to pay someone to do it! I think it would be a complete pain.

You might want to think again about your plans not to change the doors though, assuming they are included in your "won't rip out" plans. Especially the multi panel glass ones - can you imagine painting those...?

Mine are all stained rather than varnished, so they aren't glossy iyswim. I would never paint them. I hate painting the woodwork when decorating and I quite like the look of the wood

Could you strip it down and paint in a clear varnish? If not, sorry but they have to go white or just go!

Hi all, just giving all an update, went for changing to white wood work and all the rooms upstairs are now in white, wow the transformation, thanks for all the comments.

i think you have definitely made the right decision there they look totally different and modern we went the opposite changed cheep painted white ones for oak veneered ones but oiled them so they stayed light wood and the paintwork white

This is a great transformation - well done! I love how light it makes the hallway seem.

What a difference, so much lighter!!!! I love the colour of the walls, what paint/ shade is it ???

Looks great! When they were varnished, those three doors together must have felt like being inside a coffin!

Wow, it looks so much brighter! What a good effort! Did you do it yourself?