Mitre cuts have been around for a very, very long time. They sort of got displaced for a while when they invented the technology to make the corner rosettes which were a lot easier to put up than cutting mitres. The tudor style originally was a link up to the whole "let's get back to the simpler times, and gold old days" of the arts and crafts movement that came in in the latter part of the 19th c. It's always possible that the house was built by someone who wasn't a purist and just happened to like the moulding, and the builder shrugged and said, "you're the boss", and installed the cherry moldings. Notice I say cherry and not Brazilian cherry. On a side note here, I think they had to specify Brazilian when they mentioned "cherry" for any wood product or floor sold today or they'd get sued for false advertising, since it's not really cherry, and somehow it all got twisted into being something really fancy..oooo..BRAZILIAN CHERRY. We had to cut down one of the trees in the woods behind our old house. Turned out it was a cherry tree and my brother in law , who was in the woodworking business, said we should call around to sell the wood, since it was worth money seeing as how it was a cherry tree and the stuff was harder and harder to get.

I have brushed nickel and blue glass in my kitchen to match the decor and have white in other areas. the white plastic does look cheap. I think it depends on the size of the can, height of the ceiling and overall decor. I don't think I would like brushed nickel in living areas and bedrooms where there is no other matching decor. I may try to paint my white plastic ones to match the ceiling more closely.

Your woodwork is stunning! Please don't change it. I like the floors as is. Are they in good condition? I agree that you don't want them the same color as the trim, but I would want to go lighter rather than darker. Not only do you get more contrast, but dark floors show every speck of dust and pet hair.

This is a beautiful early 20th century home. The only thing I can see removing are the vertical slats under the picture molding. The baseboards and picture rail should stay. I have a feeling the crown molding used to be natural wood as well. The putty color looks odd. Either return it to the natural wood or paint it the ceiling color so it blends in and disappears. The woodwork would actually look better and the rooms less dark if the wall color wasn't such a bright white. It needs a warmer white like BM Navajo White. It breaks my heart when people paint this kind of natural woodwork. I know it's dark, but my generation spent hours removing white paint from this type of woodwork in the '80's. Please don't paint it white so that Gen Z (or the next generation) has to spend hours stripping and sanding it. :-)