Oh yummm! Congrats on your new house!

Love the pics you posted. There is a thread in the Gallery to which I have added a few hundred pix like that, and some are specifically of beach house decor too. I think you'll get great inspiration there. But tomorrow? C'mon. That's too soon. You need some time to think about this and make the right decision. While you are in the Gallery (link at the bottom of every page here), also look at the color threads. You can do a search on them by name, such as "reds" "blues" etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: Show me your Cottage Decor

Oceanna,Thanks.. just glancing at them they look like great ideas in there so will look over those tonight
Just didn't know if something would jump out to anyone immediately.

He knows I take forever making a decision so he said he can always start with the trim work!

Forgot to mention all the carpet is gone and will be hardwood.

What a fun decision to think about~ good for you!
My first inclination is white...but you must see SueB's 2nd home. She used such a lovely array of paint colors! Hopefully she'll see this and either include the link to her home or post pix for you.

I think I would decide what kind of cabinetry you want in the kitchen and go from there.

I too have a lake house with lots of paneling. We started with the kitchen which was kind of dark and small so I chose white cabinets to opened it up. From there it was a natural extension to paint all the paneling white to match the cabinets. I left the trim, doors and ceiling beams the original dark stained wood. I feel it has sort of a boat feel of teak and white. I took it one step at a time before making decisions about what to paint out and what to leave as is. I'm happy with my pure white walls. Maybe you could leave your railing stained and add a stained board across where the paneling breaks between the first and second floor. Your patio doors are dark. Maybe you could trim them out in stained wood to match the board above the doors and the railing. Congrats to you in your new abode!

Loribee..I think I did come across SueB's pics.. will search again.Thanks for the reminder on who they belonged to. I really love white, but then I also love fun, funky bright beach colors...that maybe we can use in the bathroom and bedrooms. But I also like the warm sunny yellow colors as well....stressful!

theresa- we are also leaning towards white kitchen cabinets..That is one of the reasons my DH thinks it is too much white. But i have seen gorgeous pics with all white walls/cabs/etc. I like your idea of the stained railing and a stained board. Yes the patio door trim and window trim is like a dark grey. I was hoping we could paint those white but seems that is a difficult thing to do. But adding molding may help. Thank you .. we are excited.. just not good at all these decisions so quickly!
You wouldn't have any pics posted of your lake house?

Here are my photos. PLEASE! ignore the couches in the living room, they are more than 20 years old and I'm looking forward to getting some new furniture. Today there is much snow outside so everything in the photos looks especially white.

The last three pictures are of our lower level walkout. We replaced the doors down there with white paneled ones and painted the trim white while leaving the patio doors and windows unpainted. Upstairs, we still have the original flush luan doors which we may replace to match the lower level doors.

The drywall in the kitchen above the chair rail is painted BM Linen and the basement accent wall is BM Van Deusen Blue. The white paint is BM White-01 - it was a spot on match to my kitchen cabinets. Bedrooms and baths are all painted lighter colors of blue and yellow.

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I like white, but also LOVE a light khaki with white trim and white cabinets with blue and green upholstered furniture and painted tables and chairs . . . That is the color scheme we used in our guest house at our Florida home and we never tired of it. If you have a lot of light, sometimes a color on the wall is better than white.

The first resource I thought of was The Lettered Cottage blog. THe blogger there also does some work for magazines, etc. and she has a very coastal type style. I think she uses Moonlight white a good bit. She has a lot of painted paneling, etc. that might be helpful.
http://theletteredcottage.net/

Well I wasn't kidding re. how quickly I had to decide. I have spent the afternoon reading your posts, pics, links etc (love the letteredcottage one)... and I find myself keep going back to that nice crisp look of white. So I just texted him and he is off to SW to get Westhighland White (has a touch of cream). Good thing I am not there to see the first coat or I would change my mind another dozen times. Hope he gets to some of it tonight.. he is busy tearing out cabinets, carpet etc.
Thanks so much for all your ideas and giving me the guts to just go with it.
Theresab-your white paneled walls turned out so nice. Hope we have luck with ours. And can't wait to incorporate some fun beachy color in the other rooms...

kswl.. I do love Khaki with those colors as well. I think I am leaning away from that combo simply because I have quite a bit of it in our 1st home. Khaki with white trim work. So... when I escape to the beach to get away I think i want a different look altogether. And I think that is why my DH was leaning towards khaki is he likes it in our current home so it's the safe choice for him.!

Just wanted to give you all an update. He has 2 coats of the white up on a couple of the walls. Will take another coat and all the trim still has to be done. Still will be a while as this is an occasional weekend project with other remodeling being done at the same time.

Pics are not the best as they were on a cell phone and not the same angle of the 'before pic" . Thx for your ideas and of the ideas on what we can consider for the carpet/treads of the steps on the other post!

Looking good! If you like the khaki with white look you can always incorporate that with furniture and accent pieces.

I love white when there is great architecture, which your house has. It is such a crisp and clean look. However, it definitely does not work for everywhere. Our house was whitewashed by the POs in order to sell and it has been boring and blah since we moved in. We are in the process of picking our paint and the colors will start going on as soon as the spackle cures and the primer is up. Yay!

Perfect...don't forget to update us from time to time. :)