What does your realtor say is the target market for your house?

If you live in a cabin/Resort/retirement or second home area I would keep the wood, especially the beams and ceilings. Here people pay a lot of money for features like that.

Tge buyer can always paint the wood. But getting the paint off the wood would be near impossible.

From your description I pictured a pretty run down, low end place. In that case I think you are right. But that's not what the photos show me. Not everybody wants the "Fixer Upper" look.

Good luck!

This particular home would probably not be purchased as a second home due to it's out of town location. We get interest from families, or retired people with a lot of grandchildren, because the master BR and living space are on one side while the other side (kind of a wing) has 3 bedrooms and a family room.

Most people are overwhelmed by the quirkiness (one guy diplomatically said "it has a bit too much character for my taste".) If it happens to be your cup of tea you'd love it, but that's a small percentage of the population. There's just too much going on, and a lot of it can't be fixed (at least not for a price that can be supported.) For example, the multi-levels and weird floor plan. So I feel it at least needs fewer finishes and colors.

I do like wood ceilings myself so I'm leaning toward keeping those and just painting the beams, even though most photos where I see people have gone this route, they paint the ceilings too. I think I'd do that if the ceilings were dark brown like the beams. Regarding the beams, It's not like I'd be covering nice wood, they are very rough cut with a dark chocolate brown stain. The only way to make them look like wood would be a ton of sanding and faux finishing, and that could be done whether they were painted white or the current brown.

I'd paint the walls ivory or warm white first. Just wouldn't go for a bright cool white-I think the earth tones around fireplace (which is very cool by the way) won't support it.

The colors are a little bit chopped now-it totally works in some houses, but probably not here.

Trims are also different everywhere so I see what you're saying, maybe a good idea to paint them too.

I'd probably leave the railing as it is now. All the floor/stairs part.

After you paint-see whether you still want to paint these wood beams. Maybe you won't. Maybe you''ll be pleased enough with the result you get, and leave the decision about the beams for a future buyer.

Maybe you'll see painting them too will be the way to go.

It's just a lot of work. Keep the beams part until you're done with the rest of the painting.

I can see the lightest warmest gray. With a green cast. Great idea.

I'd be worried about very different trims though. To me, it would look better if all the trim is wood-but that's of course very expensive to change. What's now looks too unrelated. Like an addition was built later, which it probably was?..

What about sparing the wood trim, as Lily'smom suggests, but painting the white parts of the trim and the doors in the semi-gloss version of the wall color- whatever that will be? Let it fade in the horizon so to say, be less visible, let the buyers figure out later whether they want to change the trim for all wood or to paint all wood to be white or whatever they fancy.

Thanks for all the comments. I'm surprised about wanting to keep the wood trim. I was on the fence too, but when I searched "modern farmhouse" on Houzz, every single one had white trim with white walls.

Those of you who think light white/gray, is that because of the current gray trend or something to do with the wood tones? I have BM Ivory (Acadia white now) in another house and I love that color; everyone (including me) always says they hate white except that color looks so warm. But I have trouble knowing when to go warm because the wood is warm, vs go cool to contrast the warm wood.

I had an idea today that I could leave the wood of the actual windows as is (wood), and just paint the outer trim itself white. Then all the surface trim will match throughout the house. Would this be a nice compromise?

Yes, there are a few additions including a whole "kids" wing which I didn't even show, which has no wood anywhere except the family room ceiling. Everything else is carpet and about 6 colors of paint.

No, not because of the trend, because how well it may play with the wood. The wood (not surprisingly, since this is how it is in the nature)) is usually great with green..gray has several undertones ranging from purple to blue to green..the ones that have green in it will be great for wood. Depending of course on the color of the wood itself, but generally speaking.

Since you're better off with a neutral for selling-it makes sense not to go with green for example, but to have a neutral based on this green. Like the lightest gray Lily'smom was suggesting.

White is usually amazing with wood too(again, nature. Trees in snow for example. Look fab all the time)).

Cool or warm white-depending on the wood. If you had darker deeper tone-you could go brighter and cooler white.. I think.

(same goes for gray I guess..dark but cooler wood, like..I don't know..coffee bean? will go better with cooler gray. Same if the wood was blond and grayish. But your wood is warm..

So I'd keep to warm white/light warm gray..As a main color. Of course I'd check it first, in your light and all. You'll see what works better.

It doesn't mean the accents can not be different; talking just about paint right now

The rest is more difficult to figure out...I hope to be wiser in the morning:)

..You know what..the more I think about it..it's a lot to wrestle with, to paint all the wood, to paint half of the wood, etc. The buyers will come for location, acreage, and views..let them decide how they want this house to be. Pick your light and warm neutral(just sample it please..same paint can look totally different in two different rooms, let alone houses), paint all over the painted parts..I still think-take the same option of paint in semigloss for the trim. Unless you go with warm white-so your painted trim is basically what it needs to be already, to be less pronounced as different as opposed to all the wood.

Would be cool to hear more opinions..that's not an easy space, at all.

Thanks! Toward the end you said "unless you go with warm white". You wouldn't do the trim in warm white if the walls were done in warm white?

I really don't think I want to do something as dark as coastal fog, and I'm not sure I buy the idea of gray with golden oak/pine to begin with. I know people do it, but every time I see a photo of it I feel like it doesn't match. I have tried White Dove before, and for that application thought it was just gray enough to look dirty, but maybe in this situation that would be OK. I think I'll try samples of that and Acadia White (Ivory.)

Any opinions on the idea of leaving the windows wood and just painting the outer trim?

I will check with the contractor about painting the beams last. I just can't imagine anyone thinking those dark chocolate stained beams are good. There's no wood grain, it's just like dark paint on a rough cut surface. And I've seen so many Houzz makeovers where they took mountain homes with dark trim and ceilings and they painted it all "white" and it was so much better. I vow'ed I would never get caught in the "don't paint wood" trap. I think leaving the ceiling and floor wood is plenty. In fact, if I were going to live there and I wanted more wood, I'd add really nice wood doors which I like more than wood trim anyway. To me wood trim looks dated unless it's really nice wood and the walls are darker. Isn't that why all the trim is painted out in all the "Modern Farmhouse" photos.

Here's some photos looking into the dining room where you see how the dark beams really are just weird. Could I leave the ones on the ceiling and just paint out the ones like these that are on the wall? Not sure how that would work.

My agent thinks I should whitewash those instead of painting. I'm not really sure the difference. But I think anything lighter would be better; anything not so dark and imposing. Again, the beams can't be refinished, it is rough cut like a railroad tie. The only thing you could do is faux finish them to look like lighter wood. People do that around here a lot, but on much more expensive homes, because it's quite expensive.

I'm kind of coming around to what you said April, not only to give future people the option but because painting trim is more expensive and it might not look good anyway since it's so beat up. That is what I was originally going to do, paint the ones that are painted the glossy version of the white wall color, and leave the ones that are wood. (I'm just not sure it will be enough to unify, but at least it will help. I'm really just trying to get it close enough that buyers and visualize the rest of what they want to do. Right now it's too overwhelming.)

But I demo'd with a painting software and I think it would really help to paint the beams that are on the wall the wall color. At least then all the dark heavy stuff is on the ceiling (except the 2 posts). So I think I'll do that to start and see how it looks.

In fact, maybe I'll see if he can paint all the walls (and wall beams) first, and the trim last. So then I can look at it with the walls done and decide for sure about the trim.

What do you think about the wainscoting? I was going to paint, but if I leave trim wood then it should probably be wood.

"You wouldn't do the trim in warm white if the walls were done in warm white?"

-No, I would of course, I'd just go for a lighter color. Probably. Here, I'm not sure. Not an easy decision, when there are so many colors/stains going on. But you know what -semi-gloss is a definition by itself, just by being different sheen.

I think you're exactly right, with leaving the trim for last, including the painted baseboards maybe..after your preferred color on the walls, will be easier to see whether you need to tweak the existing paint or not. Same with the trim. I'd leave the wainscoting wood probably if the rest is wood.

The more I read about these dark beams the more I realize what you are trying to say, and why you feel strongly about them. I think I saw beams like these. They look a bit fake, right? Didn't irritate me at all; but I was an overnight guest))

You're in the house(unlike us); you see them exactly for what they are; you don't think they're made well. Go with your gut. I don't have an opinion about whether you should go with paint or whitewashing, I don't have an experience with whitewashing at all..Ask your contractor, in addition to agent, what does he think, what would look better on these beams, what finish they'll take better.

I like the terracotta tile, and overall-I'm sure there's enough of charm in the house and location, to bring the buyers in.

The paint won't be a magic wand to make it all flow perfectly, but I'm sure it will help a lot.

Thanks again. I don't know if I'd use the word fake on the beams, but more like they have a dark brown paint or super opaque stain which obliterated any wood character. I see this color a lot in old ski houses from the 70's.