We had a house with a timber ceiling - it is a tricky decision. If it is a cheap display home build perhaps cover it, but if the quality is good it is a much harder decision. I think it looks good now and could be made very interesting. Also that look is "back". Make sure your lighting is very good and the heaviness will dissappear somewhat. The floor is lovely.

Rebecca - try oiling the timber and see if this brings it up. Rub it in with some steel wool and it can do wonders to bring life into the timber again and it is quite quick to do. The worry with painting is once that is done, you can't go back. I'm assuming you live in an area of similar homes so for selling purposes, I would check out all homes currently on the market in your immediate area, go to open house days, see how they have been renovated and gauge potential buyer's response to them, ask questions as to just what they are looking for in a home. Agents will help you with this too. I spent a year doing this before I sold my home and learned a lot from it. There are just as many people out there who want to put their own stamp on a home as there are those with no vision who just want everything pretty. Your front door, while it doesn't allow much light, could well be a significant heritage piece for the home so a solar tube or 2 could be the answer to bringing light into the space. Colourful artwork on the walls will then help detract from all the panelling too. Good luck with it all.

Will look much better white BUT! Having done this to big old sliding doors and window frames in an apartment with more ‘steps’ in the frames there are a couple of things to watch out for. Sealing - as mentioned in another post is essential, if the wood is stained then the colour will come thru to the paint. I did this just as the manufacturers were getting the water based enamels right and have done several recoats since. Agree that Zinsser are great paints, I have used their wall and ceiling paints everywhere, cost more, are a bit more ‘drippy’ but also have a sealer component and actually do a real white that doesn’t yellow. They also last really well on the wall. When you transform to white - especially if you are thinking high gloss EVERY defect in the wood surface will show up. This adds to the charm or is a problem, depends on your perspective. I dropped back to a satin finish on wood trims. There is only so much prep you can do, sometimes it is easier to fix the obvious dings and then do another round after the first coat of white, after the sealer. This is harder to explain - but you can end up with a dark line around each window pane - because the glass is sandwiched between two pieces of dark coloured wood and the ‘inside’ of the wood shows through the glass and you notice it from across the room. I painted slightly onto the glass, a few millimetres to achieve a fully white effect. You only notice it if you look closely. Fly screens - wooden fly screens have the same ‘edge effect’ metal flyscreens are a bit easier to paint. They all look significantly better in white than the dark wood - in my case the two sets of sliding doors have very wide frames. Depending on your skills and patience you may want to get a professional. I am about to replace the south facing repainted bathroom and study windows with double glazed UPVC tilt and turn with white frames - no more arctic bathroom, jammed winder, condensation or mould. These are now made (licensed) in Australia so only have to pay for shipping from Vic to ACT rather than from ‘overseas’.

I think this colour green is pleasing to the eye and compliments well against white and gives that nice pleasing wow factor to break up the room or to add some life to it. Make it a feature