I should add that the other catch is that I'm torn about what to do because
1) we have to paint since we're taking off wallpaper in these rooms. So deferring the painting for a year while we get ready to do the floors isn't going to happen.
2)this house needs a good number of other cosmetic upgrades (we bought for the neighborhood and quality of construction on this house, but it needs updating!). We'll be tackling painting of trim, cabinets, possibly replacing countertops, painting a vaulted knotty pine (oppressive??) ceiling w/ scaffolding, and have 3 kids under age 7. So while painting rooms now to work with the blue carpet and then repainting in a year or two may not be a huge deal, with other big projects on our plate, it wouldn't be fun :P

When we built our house we were under a time crunch to get into the house, so we primed all the rooms but didn't paint until later; would that work for you? Could you live with white for a while? I'm thinking that with 3 small kids the walls will probably get "boo-boos" any way.

I would do one whole room at a time. Changing out flooring will surely scuff the walls and trim, and rather than trying to touch up everything later, I'd just live with the wallpaper until the whole room could be done at once. How bad is it?

I'd do the green because that works with blue and is what you want for the future. Do 2 coats and if you need to change the shade a little to tweak, 1 more coat of quality paint would be all you'd need as long as the colors are fairly close.

Or, use a tinted primer if you don't want white and wait for the real color when you have your new color scheme lined up. We lived with white walls for 4+ years while waiting for the reno because it did not pay to paint walls that were coming down or would be torn up for wiring and such. The POs had "whitewashed" every room but one bathroom and did not correct the bad sheetrock in the process as well as making new drips and blunders. I suspect they paid someone cheap to do it. The white was quite boring in our house because it did not have any cool architectural details. In some places, white would be very pretty.

If it were my house..... I'd find a light neutral that I could live with in any and all of the spaces that are to be painted right away. Choosing color is not something I personally can do without being in the space with my furnishings for some time.

The answers you are getting all reflect how WE would choose to live with things but may not reflect your needs. I think you have to go with your gut on this one.

Living with white might pain me LOL. There isn't any fabulous architecture, but there are very large windows (close to floor to ceiling). Lots of nice light in that room, thankfully. I'm wondering if maybe I should look at grays...not sure if I could pull that off w/ the blue. Maybe enough color to feel intentional and there's a chance I'd want to keep it. THe foyer is just off the dining room and has that bluey/gray/green slate so it might work with whatever goes in there. And that's another story altogether as we may replace the slate with wood eventually too. I have never lived w/ slate so I'm going to give it a go and then decide. The colors of the slate are somewhat limiting too although I can work with it. It fits in more with the colors I like than the blue carpet.

I was hoping to get the wallpaper down sooner rather than later because I'd prefer to get it down before the furniture arrives. We have from Thursday to Monday to get some projects done before our movers deliver our furniture. I thought that window of time would be good for getting the paper down while there's nothing else in the way. THat's my dilemma and why I don't want to leave the paper until we do the floors. Leaving the paper until we do the floors would have some advantages though I suppose. Hmmmm...what to do :)

I would definitely take down the wallpaper now. My DS and DIL purchased a home similar to that you describe full of wallpaper and it was a big mess. The paper had been adhered to the bare drywall.

But, I would paint to make the room attractive for today. Life has a way of happening, particularly when you have 3 little ones, and what looks today like 1 or 2 years down the road can easily morph into 3 or 4 or 10. Make the room pretty today with what you have to work with today.

Congratulations on your new home.

Dee

We bought a similar home. We made some basic changes right away, and left big stuff for later.

We took down wallpaper and painted neutrals (tans, ivories), hung white blinds/drapes, and ripped out wall-to-wall carpeting (I always think it's dirty). We put down some area rugs. You can refinish floors or change the wood later. I put a couple inexpensive fake orientals I had in the den and DR. They were ok for kids/dogs.

After living there awhile I figured out where I wanted to go in one room, and it just sort of led room to room, one at a time. But I'm the type that needs to stare at something for a time before an idea slowly percolates in! :)

Biochem101 (NOT a 20-day renovator)

I am one that likes to get the 'dirt' of a prior homeowner out -i.e., I would take down the wallpaper & the carpet now, even if it meant living with bare floors for awhile. I don't remember our walls getting dinged by the hardwood being installed, but it could be selective memory at work.

Well I happen to love blues and greens together so I'd leave the carpet and find a green for the walls you like that will also go with the carpet. In other words, work with what you have. I've seen lots of blues and greens in textiles and ceramics for the home that could make your dining room quite lovely until you have the time to deal with the carpet.

And of course there's the fact you have three children under seven. Just think of all the splinters you'll save from their precious little feet by leaving the carpet. Sub floors can be nasty on any ones feet, but I'd not take that chance with your babies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue and Green Rooms

Here's one I had on my computer that I've always loved showing blue and green. Not knowing the shade of your carpet I can't help more than this, but if you could share a picture of the room that would really help. Oh and congrats on the new home. I hope you get to stay in it for a very long time. I've been there with many moves in a short amount of time with small children in tow so I know it's not fun at all.

LOL at the comments about not being a 20 day renovator after the Cote de Texas blog entry. I'm definitely a percolator, but also like capitalizing on my energy level when I'm still feeling enthused and excited about a new space. I've been poring over the pics I have, although they aren't great...trying to figure out what exactly we're going to do. Paint the stained trim? Leave the tongue in groove ceiling or paint it? You name it.

I do like the bright grassy green with the blues in the photo above. Nice and fresh. If I could find the right curtains that would be a possibility. If I remember correctly the blue in the carpet is somewhat close to the color of that sofa.

I would share pics if I had some good ones. I'm hoping to photograph things again once we close. I'll be back begging for advice. I am so torn about what to do with the big wood clad vaulted ceiling. Cozy but kind of oppressive. I'm going to live with it for a bit, take the curtains down (hung so they somewhat cover the windows right now by current owner) and see how much light really gets in there sans window treatments. We'll try working with it first, but the siren call to paint it is definitely there for me. I think it would transform the space. I'll be back begging for help on what to do in there before long! You all are such a helpful bunch. I've been here many times through the years with each move trying to glean ideas!

My advice to you would be to decorate for what you have now - make it enjoyable to live in today. It is not unheard of to have to put off plans for decorating and 2 years can easily grow to 3 or more. I also find it immensely satisfying to have a room done, even if means it is not exactly what you would like it to be. Living between the present and the wish for the future is a hard place to be. Your tastes may also change in 2 years and painting may not be something you look forward to,but it is a relatively easy change. I would think with small children you may have to refresh the paint at the very least. As for your decorating choices, you could concentrate on buying neutral items that would work now and easily blend with what you want for the future, or perhaps be used in other parts of the house. Good Luck

If the blue carpet is in decent shape, I would do a thorough shampooing and keep it. You probably need it with 3 young children. I googled Aganthus green - really like it - but if it doesn't look right with the blue carpet, I would paint a nice neutral that you can work with now - sometimes a year or two can run into longer than that. Yout mentioned gray - that should work with blue or perhaps a nice light neutral in the golden family that could look OK with the blue carpet. Someone mentioned Ivoire - I will throw in Believable Buff...just depends on the shade of blue.

Tuesday

I'm another one who LOVES the combination of blue and green, so you may well be able to take justgotabme's advice and find a color that would work now and later.

That said, though, would it really be that overwhelming to repaint just the walls when you eventually tear up the carpet? If you did a neutral for ceiling and trim, something that would go with both now and future wall colors, just painting the walls wouldn't be that much work. I find it's the trim that takes forever.

LOL that's funny you're "new" home has a deep blue carpet. Our last home did, our choice being we had it built. I loved that carpet the whole fifteen years we lived there, but knew it might not be something potential buyers would like so instead of replacing it with a neutral they again might not like we added a carpet allowance in the deal. I recently ran into the new owner and she said she and her hubby had so much fun being able to pick out new carpet for their "new" home. That and our huge detached garage out back are what sold them our home. Too bad the POs didn't think of that for you.

PO and her DH had the house custom built and picked out everything themselves. He passed away a few months ago and that is why she's selling (moving to a 55 and over community). So every choice in her home is very, very personal I think. We found out about the house going up for sale from DH's former coworker/friend who lives 2 doors down. We put an offer in before it really ever went up for sale officially. As a result, I don't think we got the *best* deal in terms of what we paid and the updates that need to be completed, but then again, she hadn't really gotten to test the market at that point. We tried to make the deal as attractive as possible (let her choose any closing date she wanted, which was months out, but we were able to lock our rate and make it work), etc. She had realtors telling her she could get a certain price (which was quite inflated for the market based off of our observations), and had that number in her head. We could have let her put it on the market officially and see how rocky things are, but we really, really wanted to be in her neighborhood for a number of reasons.

That is my very long winded explanation as to why we didn't get any financial allowance for updates and why we are presently stuck with blue carpet LOL.

If you got into a neighborhood you really wanted then I'd say it was worth it. Not many would have offered a carpet allowance anyway by what the lady that purchased our home told me. I know many at the time were replacing older carpet with beige which to me isn't practical for those with small children. Been there done that with the first home we had built so I felt the best thing to do was offer an allowance. I think our Realtor was bit concerned about showing the house with such a deep blue carpet, but it sold within the amount of time we needed it to sell, less than three months, so we were happy.

I'd pick a neutral for the walls. While there are a myriad of choices for paint, it can be a challenge coordinating that with fabrics for WTs and upholstery, not to mention, once you replace the carpet with hardwood, most likely you'll need some type of area rugs as well. There is nothing worse than seeing a lovely sofa or area rug and realizing to your dismay it doesn't go with your walls. Walls really are the easiest and cheapest thing to change; a good neutral wall color will give you so many more options for the other items.

The first and last time I picked a wall paint first was a bedroom in a simple creamy tan...easy, right? Trying to decorate around the wall paint and do a nice job was a complete failure. I could not for the life of me pick appropriate bedding that looked good, window treatments, etc. After months of trial & error...and lots of returns to many stores, the final solution was bedding & etc first...paint color after the major room choices have been made to match up correctly.

If you're dead serious about painting once and not do it again, I suggest you wait until it's time to work on that room.

My 2 cents.
Gayle