We are having our PNW craftsman painted later this month and actually chose a four color scheme. We had a color consultant help us narrow down the Miller Paint colors and finally settled on Smokey Quartz for the base, Champagne for the trim around windows (to help blend in the white vinyl windows), Bad Hair Day for the remainder of the trim including the dual king truss front porch and Monterey Chestnut for the front door. The king trusses are currently a transparent stain but the maintenance to clean and re-stain every three years got to be too much. Light colors for metal gutters takes a little more work to keep clean so you do not get the black crud on them.

If you have an 80's home, that stained trim may not be anything special. You might just be better off painting it too and giving the house a lighter look. As far as color everyone always suggests beige because it is safe. There are other 'not in your face' colors that will work. A light yellow might work with your house, particularly a vanilla or something that would compliment the gold in the room. You can paint darker colors, but that tends to make a room look darker and smaller. If you truly want something a bit darker, I might go as far as a medium color, but wouldn't go any darker than that.

Hi all, thank you for sharing your opinions and advice! Certainly giving me lots to consider and makes me reconsider keeping even if there is only one sanding left in them. So the reason he said there was only one sanding left was in reference to the amount of wood left above the nail heads used. the photos don't show it, but there are about 3-4 areas of the floor where it's more significantly damages from water, etc. where the recommendation was to splice in matching planks to that area if wanting to preserve the rest. one room on the second level as a big hump in it and due to sagging front porch underneath which we are repairing next fall, as well as large pet stains (I think) in one area. I don't want the floors to look perfect, as we refinished in our current century home and I love the character that lets you know they are original, but I worry about not being able to refinish 20 years down the road if this is truly the last sanding before hitting nail heads . But interesting comments about product where you can just spot sand. I will definitely explore this further. The advice came from our friend who will give us the flooring at cost but just charge full price on labour/installation, so I believe he actually could make more from managing the refinish and is just giving a heads up about the long term needs of the floor. But is by no means an expert on refinishing antiques so I am glad to hear other opinions and experiences here!

The wood trim is beautiful and gives character and texture to your house. I'm with everyone else suggesting that you use paint and tweaks on your lighting, art work, and furnishings to lighten the spaces. Here's an article on Houzz about paints that go with wood trim--not all of them are white. Many warm colors complement wood trim--oranges, turquoise and other blues,, cream https://www.pinterest.com/pin/346214290074417244/ For reference, I have a wood trim Ideabook with some examples from Houzz: