Woodwork finish: paint or varnish?

[LindsayO]

I've just moved into a 1890s built flat. The previous owner or one before that started to renovate/redecorate but left lots of jobs half done.

One was the woodwork. All the panelled doors were stripped back to the bare wood and then left unfinished so they now have some not so lovely greasing marks around the handles, some of them are missing the strips of molding that hold the panels in, they have all been fitted with brass handles, but you can see the places where the keyholes and doorknobs were as they have been filled with what looks like putty

The trims (skirting board, door frames, picture rail, dado rail, bay window frame with large internal shutters) have all been painted white gloss in places, satinwood in others. But someone has tried to proze open the shutters which are painted shut, and chipped the paint in the process. As a result I can see that it looks like there is only one layer of paint directly on top of the old dark wood stain.

So obviously I need to do something about this to make it look good. I could either
1. Strip everything back and redo everything, either in paint or varnish/stain
2. Paint over everything

I want to get the shutters working again and I suspect this will damage the paint, this together with the fact that the paint seems to have gone on directly over the dark varnish makes me think I should srip everything off

so my question is: am I just making alot of work for myself and would I just be better off painting the doors and the places where the paint has chipped?

 

[OJ]

Surely it's a case of personal preference?

OJ.

 

[LindsayO]

OJ,thanks, well yes it is in the sense that if I cared alot one way or the other, but all I really want is to make the whole thing look consistent and presentable. So what I'm really asking is

If I take on stripping off all the paint am I taking on a huge amount of unnecessary work?
versus
If I just paint over the bare doors, will I end up having to strip the shutters because someone painted direct onto varnish and its all going to chip anyway

Does this make sense?

 

[roboughton]

OJ,thanks, well yes it is in the sense that if I cared alot one way or the other, but all I really want is to make the whole thing look consistent and presentable. So what I'm really asking is

If I take on stripping off all the paint am I taking on a huge amount of unnecessary work?
versus
If I just paint over the bare doors, will I end up having to strip the shutters because someone painted direct onto varnish and its all going to chip anyway

Does this make sense?

If you have the time and the money strip it back and start from scratch that way you know the job is done bob on!!! It will save you sitting there and picking at bits you wished you had sorted.

 

[Zampa]

I would remove the old wood and replace with new stuff...the time, money and efort if takes to strip paint in many cases just isnt worth it.

 

[LindsayO]

Thank you for your reply Zampa
I dont think I would be capable of replacing the wood. Its not just the skirting its internal wooden panelled shutters in a bay window and panels under the window plus curved pillar type thingies and an Edinburgh press

I dont have any carpentry/joinery experience at all, but I reckon I could figure out how to use paint stripper or a heat gun

 

[iwilson16]

In my previous flat (an old victorian Edinburgh tenement) I stripped the
old wall press by physically removing it from the wall and sending it off
to be dipped-and-stripped.

The owner before me in that flat had stripped back all the wood in the
living room using paint stripper and wire wool. I think it took him an
age, but the finish was superb. A lovely red pitch pine. Not sure how
he sealed the finished wood though.

I think you risk scorching the wood by using a heat gun.

In my flat before that I had a few doors dipped-n-stripped. Its a but of a
harsh process, and can warp the wood. The door panels are usually
cracked though.

Ian