I don't spend a lot of time on decorating - just don't have the time to spend. So I rarely post anything on the discussion side here. However I finally decided I HAVE to do something about some areas of my house that are showing an unacceptable amount of wear and tear. And as long as I'm doing that I'm going to do a few other things to upgrade the decor.

Anyway, my first question is what do I need to know these days about what's popular for paint/wall treatment. I'm stripping wallpaper off in a vaulted split entry foyer, a guest bedroom and bath and the adjacent hallway. The bedroom I will probably just paint and the bathroom might get a shaker style wainscot. I generally like stained wood vs. painted wood so likely that's what that will be.

What I'm not at all sure about are the foyer and the hallway. I hate how paint gets scuffed up in high traffic areas like this. My DH is not at all careful and I know from experience within about a week of painting there will be scrapes and scuffs. So I kind of like wallpaper in places like that whether wallpaper is out or not. I've looked at wallpaper though and the selection is so limited that I've not seen anything I like or it looks almost exactly like the 20 year old wallpaper I'm taking down.

Is decorative/faux type painting out of style these days? I was thinking about that for the foyer. For the other hallway I also thought about carrying on with the wainscot that would be in the bathroom since that would certainly hold up better than plain paint. However this is in kind of a "back hallway" so I'm a little concerned about ending up with something that seems like a dark tunnel. There are windows nearby though.

So what to do with the walls after I get rid of the wallpaper is my first dilemma and after I figure that out I will probably have some questions on other stuff. Thanks in advance for your advice!