You might find the design seeds threads useful. There are a few places in there where I took a design seed and showed how it can be used to blend colors throughout different rooms in a home.

I've always found it difficult to just come up with a color scheme out of the blue. Instead I've found it more helpful to have a color guide...be it a design seed, a piece of art, fabric, a plate, whatever...but something from which to extract colors so they can visually distinguish the spaces yet all play nicely together.

A few photos of your rooms would be helpful to get an idea of how open the spaces are, where natural color breaks might be and how best to use color in the space.

For example, you talk about the colors above and below the chair rail, but that depends on what you are trying to accomplish...do you have artwork on top which you would like to have stand out against a darker background? Do you have higher ceilings you'd like to bring down or lower ceilings you'd like to bring up? Do you have simple furnishings that would benefit from decorating the walls with color? Or do you have a lot of stuff in the room so more color would only add visual clutter? Put your color choices to work for you so the accomplish what you want.

Here is a link that might be useful: Using design seeds

Dining room. Kitchen is to the right through the opening, notice there is NO soffet(?) at the doorway, the ceiling continues from one room to next. That is how the whole first floor is, one continuous ceiling.

Front entry, open to upstairs hall.

Cabinet color (not style)

New range, and the reason I am leaning towards grays.

Family room from kitchen before floors got finished.

Future kitchen, family room would be sorta to the left, dining room is through opening at the back. Sorry for multiple posts, not sure if tablet can post multiples at once. You sure can see why I need to repaint!!

seems like the kitchen has the most elements that need tieing together so you may want to use that as your starting decision and jump off from that. It would be nice to see the samples that are on the wall that you don't like. It seems like you are clear on wanting some sort of grey, but I think the cabinet color may be getting in the way. Warm and cool can blend or fight depending on the shades. You may need to think warmer. Or maybe just much lighter, at least in the kitchen.

You mentioned about one continuous ceiling implying that all the rooms had to be the same color. I don't get that. The dining room looks like it has a wall stopping point at the kitchen. No? It's the walls that control stop/start.

I personally do not care for dark on bottom and light on top. I actually had that (dark off-white over barn red) during my country colonial era, but I don't think it is a fresh today look. Uber traditional. Just my opinion tho. In your case with the molding going through so much space, I think it will be too busy and you will tire of it. Whatever it is, I think it needs to be the same treatment throughout with what you describe. Maybe you can get some DR drama by just going bolder and deeper on top in a shade that complements the other rooms.

Oh, that right wall in the dining room is coming down completely? Too bad. The kitchen diagram was posted while I was composing my earlier reply.

The wall between kitchen and dining room is staying, it is a 4 ft opening between the two. I do think (now) that dark around all the picture molding will look to busy. Thanks for the input!

Oh, the pics are very helpful. What is that in the family room where the mirror is...is that a hallway or doorway?

What color is the fireplace surround...gray or green?

And I'm still a bit confused on layout. What room is left of the family room that has the chair rail that stops and the wall paper border?

It's a beautiful home and I think the right color scheme will do wonders for the place.

In the DR, I would keep the woodwork light and just paint color on the upper wall.

Where the mirror is in the family room is just a bumpout. prior owners had the old school widescreen (and deep) TV there. I just talked to my contractor this morning about putting in a dry bar there, same cabinets as in kitchen, with glassed wall cabinets above. this would hold the liquor cabinet, wine glasses, and down below the stereo/TV equipment. (TV sits above fireplace in corner).
The fireplace surround is black/gray, with veins of white. I guess it's a granite, but not sure. Flooring guys got alot of stain and poly on it during floor refinishing but they are supposed to try and get it off. it also has a large crack across a corner. I was originally going to replace, but if I go with the gray color scheme, I thought it would work as is (once cleaned).
that corner you see where wallpaper meets kitchen is a hallway leading to front entry.
The bathroom you can sort of see in the entry picture is very small and painted a deep dark blue, and I really like it against the white sink and a silverish mirror frame I have in there.
My painters suggested Sherwin Williams instead of Benjamin Moore, I havent done that search yet here on GW, but I guess they are less expensive, which I really need to consider at this point given all the extras I've put into my new kitchen!

Thank you!

If you want to go less expensive, ask about Pittsburgh paints...I found them to be of good quality and much less expensive.

I have a similar open design with beadboard instead of picture molding.
Have you considered just leaving the lower portion light and painting it a white that works with the new gray?
Personally, I would never paint my beadboard anything other than a white/cream. I find it helps balance the 10+' ceilings.

This post was edited by annz on Sat, Feb 1, 14 at 0:39

A professional painter once told me to go with Pittsburgh paint. When I got my house years later, though, I used BM. BM Aura, (Which I did not use), is awesome paint but it's very expensive. I think you need only one coat, though.

My first response when I saw the photos was, why would you want to paint that gorgeous wainscoting below the chair rail? That woodwork speaks for itself and is beautiful. I wouldn't break it up at all.

NOt sure how cool grays would work with the warm reds/cherries in your cabinetry and floors, so maybe look at warmer grays. you might want to carry the chair rail/wainscoting into the family room.

Also, first floor walls don't have to be uniform in color just because it's an open floor plan. A painter can help you on the breaks.

We had similar molding in our dining room and kept the chair rail and below the chair rail white (BM Dove White) with BM Thunder (from the Affinity deck) above the chair rail. The color is lighter during the day with the sunlight.

With a very open floor plan, I would strive to not have too much deviation/transition in paint colors between rooms. I am not a painter or designer just a homeowner who has built a couple of houses, but it has been my experience that when you have a very open floor plan, the flow works much better if it is one color or if different colors that they are very close to each other.

You've got the brown in the flooring and the cabinet, you've got the gray in the FP surround and the range and you have the navy in the PR, so why not work with all of those to create a color scheme.

For example:

Go deeper into the gray:

Or add another color like a green:

Or softer colors for accents like pale blue and coral

AlyB: agree, re: BM White Dove. It's a wonderful, soft white. I did all of my trim in White Dove at the recommendation of a pro painter. Apparently it is the white of choice now, here on Cape Cod. Love the wainscoting in your dining room. I love wainscoting and crown moulding. Can't believe how many houses now are built w/o crown moulding.

Here is something I did at the Sherwin Williams site. The colors are Monorail silver (has a bit of a blue tint depending on the light) and the tanish color is Taupe Tone. I was thinking Pediment for below my chair rail, it is almost whiteish, a bit of gray. And snowbound white for all the trim. It is a very cold color scheme. I put samples on the wall this morning. i like the colors best with natural light, the monorail silver looks quite blue in my lights at night. The Taupe Tone changes a LOT. Sometimes it looks almost brown (still a cool brown) and othertimes it looks gray. I am looking for tranquil and serene, which I guess means cool tones for me. It will be a stark change from my current colors, which all read warm to me, except for my PR.

I really like the 'with more gray' color scheme you showed! I think I'm a little afraid of the saturated darker colors in my large rooms....maybe I can add some of the darker colors around my fireplace surround. And whoa! Paint quote for entire first floor, including ceilings, excluding PR and closets, and including the master bathroom (has desperately needed painting since we moved in over 8 yrs ago), was over 6k!! Ouch. It include repairing drywall, and removing and recaulking crown. Also includes upstairs hallway and stairway, since foyer is open to downstairs.

Here is my floor, cabinet color, and the four SW color samples, snowbound, pediment, taupe tone, and monorail silver. Photo taken under a flourescent light....

The taupe would be in DR, LR, and foyer, stairs and upstairs. Monorail silver in kitchen, FR, and hall. Pediment below chair rails, inhall, DR, LR, Hall and stairs. The other color is the sample of my lacanche range in faience.

Counter tops will mostnlikely be fantasy brown...mine has lots of grays, whites and a bit of brown.

AlyB that roomis gorgeous!

Very nice color blending. I like them all.

I'm personally not keen on using a different color than the trim color below the chair rail. I personally like the same color on the wall part and the trim part and the molding part. If I look again at the pics you posted, looks like you have that concept now. Is that guiding your selection? Unless you're going for serious contrast like the Alyb room, I'm not sure if the tone-on-tone contrast gets you much (plus its very labor intensive to do that inner molding a different color than the wall color!)

My current colors below the chair rail are slightly different. And the trim will be in a different finish than the wall, so you have to cut everything in no matter what. Snowbound white is super bright to me, if I do go with same color, I think I'd have to pick a different white, something a little duller. I do see most pictures have the same color for the trim and wall...I'll have to give that more thought! Thanks for the input.

AnnieDeignaugh, thecolor in my PR looks a lot like the deep blue in the 'deeper into gray' scheme, yay!

Here are some pictures of the colors in the morning light. First, a corner shot of my stairway landing, it has the Taupe on top, my current white on the trim, and the pediment below chair rail. (You can see some of the old colors too, plus the new floor)

Here is the same color scheme in the DR. (Taupe, snowbound white trim, pediment below chair rail)

And finally, here is the monorail silver on top, snowbound on chair rail, and pediemnt below. This would be in hall, and a tiny section of kitchen, and the monorail silver woul be everywhere in the FR (no chair rail).

I do like the multi-color lower in the DR. The 3 colors do look nice together and it creates interest. but I think it may be a bit much all around. Good point about the cut-in for finish differences. Forgot about that. I forget if I skipped that or not in my DR moulding. I might have.

How about trying a section with the Taupe on top and the Snowbound (or any white) on the complete bottom just to see for yourself the difference.