Depends on whether the wood is friendly to the blue-- it can be a GREAT combo. Full disclosure: I really dislike white painted trim. It can be nice in a formal, Victorian style house with ornate moldings that would be too much if left natural, outside of that, it says 'discount aisle at Home Depot' to me. But what you are after is a look that works-- individual details [like the color of the woodwork] need to enhance and support the total impression. They can be perfectly wonderful in and of themselves, but they have to pull their own weight in the overall scheme. In other words, if the wood doesn't make the blue pop, paint it.

We originally wanted only very dark floors (brazilian cherry or bloodwood) and painted trim. We're also building a Craftsman style farmhouse. When our builder took us to see another house he was building so we could look at something totally different, we fell in love with the cherry stained woodwork, doors, and floors. While actual cherry trim and woodwork is prohibitively expensive, we got the same look by going with poplar stained cherry for our trim and solid doors. Our floors and kitchen cabinets are all cherry and everything matches beautifully. I love my stained wood now. Generally, if you request painted trim and doors, you'll get paint grade wood, which tends to have more imperfections because the paint covers them, or even MDF, which can save a lot of money with the same look. But if you're really not sure, I'd go with stain grade wood because you can always paint over stain if you change your mind, but you can never stain over painted trim. Even if you try to strip the paint (a HUGE hassle and mess), the wood underneath the paint might not be good enough to show through the stain.

No, it will not look odd at all. In fact, I think it's a beautiful look. Check out this older post about the same topic. There are lots of pictures in the post, and I linked a website with a beautiful house that has this (post from Apr 19th at 12:35pm). Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Another post on this subject

Thanks everyone! Yes, right now it is a combination. Kitchen, baths, bedrooms are all painted. It is the main hall, living and dining rooms that I would change that are stained now. Because they will be ripping everything out, we can put back whatever wood we like and either paint or stain it. Doors will all be stripped and redone too so that they could be whatever we want as well. I'm pretty sure that even if we paint, we will do some sort of hardwood. Insurance is prepared to cover it and even though I had a momentary thought of saving money and doing something cheaper so we could use the money to upgrade elsewhere, I just couldn't do that to my house. I would hear it crying everyday. I also know that people swear by MDF, but the few places I've used it, have always ended in disaster when water gets mixed in (not sure why but water always seems to find it). It sounds like I am not the only one who would have a hard time with this choice (foxes pad, our houses are quite similar and I knew you would express similar feelings! what is it with those DHs and their stained wood?) Kswl, I do have a call out to a good designer (if it's good advice, keep screaming it at me, I don't mind). I really hope she can take me on as she seems like someone I can work with. It is difficult to find someone who shares your aesthetic and has time. Especially here in the sticks where it seems most want everything to match and be made of leather or polyester. If I could afford to fly Lauren Liess in even for one day, I would. I'm just trying to get a vision clear in my head, so that no matter what the designer says, I can either comfortably accept or reject as I am the one who will have to live with it. 10 years ago when we redid our kitchen the KD had me ready to sign to order dark stained cabs for the kitchen when I had a sudden realization that I hated dark stained cabs and wanted light painted. Here is one pic from the where to put the piano thread. How lucky I took those pics right before the fire. Another garden web bonus is that I did a "finished bathroom" post after our reno listing all the paint colours, fixture names, etc. I would never remember them otherwise and it will make it easy to redo. Thanks again everyone. Really appreciate the input.