Keep all your internal doors and door trims white if your skirtings and walls are white as mentioned.

thanks How2girl and siriuskey for comments. I've since found out the shellac underneath the lead paint is more easily removed with metho, but the timber is still uneven - bleached in parts, and then when I tried to wash the metho off with water, it's left grey stains and water marks! What a learning curve. Siriuskey, getting painted items professionally dipped seems sensible with hindsight, given the total chore of safely removing lead paint, then the shellac.... then the resulting stains I note also there are two types of timber, one for the framing and another for the infill panels....glad to hear these came up well for you SK Looks like I may have to stain the bleached timber to get some warmth back, but then will try polyurethane you both suggest.

This can be because the raw material is different between the architraves and doors, or perhaps they were not primed properly and needs more coats.

We have used black carcasses for a black and wood kitchen. Looks great and everything is easy to find. Cost an extra $1000 on the total reno but absolutely worth it imo. The white would look cheaper especially when pulling out the black drawers to see the stark white inside. We also opted for dark drawer runners.