Well in my old house I had the opposite in one room. Never got around to paint the baseboards or crown. When I replaced the windows I added molding instead of sheetrock, but didn't feel like staining it so painted it white with the idea to do it to the rest, but never got around to it.

You can see it here:

{{!gwi}}

I can tell you what we have in our house. All the windows have stained trim (in a honey color--maybe the one you don't like in yours? But I love it!) Anyway, the windows were all replaced by the PO, who installed and stained the new ones. The rest of the house trim and baseboards, however, are still original to the house (1939) and are all painted white. The doors, also mostly original, are painted white as well. The only new (french) door we added as part of an addition, we stained to match the window woodwork--that is the only door with stained trim. In our house, I think the combination works well. We have a lot of wood furnishings, as well as the floors, that are a similar tone to the window trim, and the white works well with our cottage/country-ish decorating style. We have talked about painting the windows, but my DH is against it because once you start repainting windows (which eventually needs to happen), it starts affecting how well they function (as we have experienced in other older homes we have lived in) How well it would work for you might depend on what color your doors are, what color floors/carpet are and how those blend/contrast with the stain or paint color.

I think you should follow your instincts. If that stain isn't making you happy, I would definitely paint the baseboards. You might even decide to do the windows as well, which I think would be easier than re-staining. I would stick with white baseboards, unless you're sure about the crown moulding. In my opinion, they should be the same color (or should match the windows); and you might not want to put a color up there. I've also seen where people have used paint and stain combinations on crown moulding and it looks great. I'm going to be using a couple of different paint colors on some of mine. I think crown moulding adds to any room. Be sure not to make the mistake of getting it too small for your ceiling height, though. Go for the paint!
Can you tell, I'm kind of a paint person.

That's a tough one for me! I know from a lot of reading and many visits to historic homes that mopboards and woodwork don't always "match"!

It was quite common to paint mopboards BLACK or faux marble them in the Colonial and Empire periods. Often, window and door casings were painted white, or faux grained to look like a more expensive, exotic sort of wood.

So, NO! I wouldn't preclude any combination when contemplating the woodwork of a room in its entirety.

Thanks for the advice (and the picture, lyfia!)... I guess I'm thinking this would be okay to do. To answer questions, we currently have plain old lauan doors that I would leave stained for now as to paint them would make them just that much more boring. I might eventually switch to paneled doors -- not sure painted or stained. We are on a tight budget, so I am attempting to upgrade little by little.

It's funny.... I noticed that in my dining room, the PO painted the baseboards and chair rail to match the light walls but did not paint the windows or the one door frame in there. This really doesn't look strange to me.

I guess I'll give it a try... as soon as I'm done with my 50 zillion other projects I have in the works. LOL

Thanks again for posting... If anyone else would like to chime in or post pictures, please do!!!

Lis