Restoration & Refurbishment

Old 70s architraves, doors and skirting - to replace or to not replace?

Anonymous user 15/03/2024 - 2.42 PM

I have a flat that's not been decorated since it was built in the 70s (previously posted about this) and will be renovating it soon. The thick, chamfer style architraves are painted off white gloss and hold dark brown fire doors throughout (the dark brown kind). The skirting boards, are chamfer and extremely bulky. Both are made from decent quality solid wood. The skirting definitely needs to go as we will be plastering the walls,and laying new flooring. Plus, they're pretty hideous. We are thinking of replaching them with MDF ones, probably a less bulky chamfer style perhaps. Since the architraves and doors are made of good quality wood, are they worth salvaging (sanded and re-painted)? My fear is that any modern skirting boards will be too thin and against the old architraves and they would look very odd and not uniform at all. Or, would we be better off replacing the architraves and doors too with MDF ones? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks a lot!