If downsizing is in your near future, leave it alone. It doesn't make sense to drop the money on all that, plus some buyers may love the wood and sway them to buy the house. You just never know -- and wood is coming back in a big way. But really, that's going to be a lot of $$$ to get a quality job done.

If you want to freshen things, paint the walls a color that brings out the beauty in the wood -- that's where things are falling flat IMO.

That golden oak is beautiful!! I would not paint it. It looks great with the white walls.

"It looks great with the white walls."

I don't see white walls on my monitor. At all.

"If you want to freshen things, paint the walls a color that brings out the beauty in the wood -- that's where things are falling flat IMO"

It is a neutral tan/beige now. What type of color are you thinking?

The reason we are thinking of a change is the room is rather dark and this would be a way to brighten it up. We go lighter on the walls but how much. I don't think plain white would be good, maybe a lighter off white?

There are lots of good guides out there, such as this:

https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/the-best-paint-colours-to-go-with-oak-wood/

All computer monitors are different (and all wood tones unique), but it can be a starting point to decide on and try some samples in the rooms.

A light neutral would be nice but it's not that simple, have to contend with undertones and light (or lack thereof) in your space. I believe Sherwin Williams still offers free color consultations with a designer, that may be worth checking in to.

I don't think I would paint it. I do think you could go with a lighter off white for the wall color. If you put the house on the market and get consistent feedback that the golden oak is a negative, then maybe you could pause the listing and paint if necessary. To me it looks like well done woodwork, not the paint grade-but-stained millwork you often see in 1970s-90s houses.

I say consistent feedback because you don't want to base it on what just one or two people say either. The house I bought was pulled off the market because of some feed back about there only being 1.5 baths. They hurredly converted the half bath into a full bath in the cheapest and fastest manner possible and the actual offers that came in (including mine) all agreed that the added bath was a negative.

My painter would charge a lot to do a quality job on that woodwork and you would have to decide whether you would get return on investment for it. This is not something that you want someone to come and throw a coat of paint on in a day or two.

Cue all the people to come in and say they know someone who could do it perfectly for $10 an hour and be done in two days.

If you are planning on selling the only thing I would paint is the crown molding, paint it the same color as the walls or ceiling. It is so distracting.

I would not paint any of it. The new buyer may love it all, and if they dont, they can be the ones painting it. You have some beautiful wood in that house. Cream color walls, might be nice.

Thanks for all the input and advice. I don't think I'll paint the woodwork, but will probably paint the walls. Like a light/warm/gray color.

As far the painting the crown, I don't know. It would be the only piece of molding in the home that was painted.

Paint the walls white. It’ll freshen things up. Plus, any gray color would wither be too drab or clash with the warm woodwork.

No gray against that beautiful warm oak.

I agree, no gray with all that gorgeous woodwork. White or maybe cream.

We ended up painting much of the first floor Shoji White SW 7042. Looks better but every time we go to some ones house with white trim we like it more. AND we've decided not to downsize at least for a number of years. Any house that I've seen that would be desirable at even at 50-75% of our current size it seems to cost 70-85% of what ours cost now, factoring in commissions and moving costs. And my current mortgage is at 2.5%.

So we are still considering painting some trim white. The windows and doors are the most intimidating. I was googling some pictures this morning where all the trim was white, but the oak doors were still stained like mine. The windows also were wood but the trim and jams white. Looked pretty good and then we could do the stair banister spindles white only. Might look good with all the oak floors.

A question about painting the windows. Where would I stop the white? At the casing? The first jamb. Everything but the actual moveable window? Like the picture below, what green line would be the dividing line?

I wouldn’t bother if you’re down sizing. My husband & I just bought a house from a couple who were downsizing. An older home and they had done some things like this to make it more sale-able. However, we bought with the interior of gutting and renovating because we knew buying an older home would need that with having outdated things like oak everywhere. So it wasted their money as we pulled out all their touch ups within days of possession.

If you were needing to paint the room I would paint the trim up by the ceiling so the trim doesn't have a boomerang effect