Can you please post some pictures? It's pretty impossible to imagine everything you said and have any idea if we're right or miles off.

You might also try browsing the color threads in the Gallery, such as Greens, for instance. It won't select your color for you, but it might help you narrow your choices down. Color choosing is tough, no doubt about it. If you get the right color, it will make your woodwork look good.

So, you have discovered that you like the tone-on-tone, low contrast effect of deep colors with your trim. I am not sure why you feel you need to use pale colors elsewhere. That is not what the Victorians did! :-) I think your trim is calling the shots and you should just listen. The house is dramatic! Run with it...

What really matters is what kind of experience you want to have in the rooms. Low contrast will be more calm. Pale walls with dark trim will be higher contrast, and therefore more jarring or energetic...whichever way you see it.

Anjou Pear is a great color and would add some modernity (IMO) to a traditional environment. It is strong enough to stand up to the trim, but still bright and not "dark". Oceanna is right....pics would help.

Have you looked at the SW Victorian color palette? There are some gorgeous dark shades in it, like Sheraton Sage, Teal Stencil, Cajun Red, and Eastlake Gold. You might get some ideas looking at that palette.

Okay, here are the photos. Please excuse the disaster zone appearance; we are under construction.

This is the "front room" as we call it; the front door opens directly into here. There is a brick fireplace to the right. There is a big arched window directly to your left as you walk in and are facing the staircase. This is a closeup of the stained glass window on the stairway:

Now to your right of this room is the "parlor"; we intend it to be a reading/music room. It is not large. It is the only room on the first floor (besides the new construction kitchen) that has white trim:

Behind this room is our living room, which we treat as a family room. It has this funky stained glass window:

Here is a poor shot of our dining room looking out into the living/family room...the room is currently a very dark garnet color:

Amy, you are correct; I discovered I really like the low contrast tone-on-tone. I kept wanting to like the pale pastels, thinking they would be more soothing and serene, but they just didn't work well with the woodwork. I completely agree that I need to let the trim dictate the color scheme. My concern is having a variety of saturated colors throughout the first floor; I'm afraid it will look...chaotic. I do know that I want the parlor (white trim room) to be ivory or cream. That still leaves me with the dining room and the living room (with that crazy stained glass.) Any thoughts?

Re: the Anjou Pear color, adding modernity to a traditional setting is exactly the feeling we are striving for in our victorian home renovation. "Vintage with a twist" is how I can best describe it. In other words, most elements in the room would be traditional, and then there would be a surprise: a funky or modern paint color, or piece of artwork, or furniture, or light fixture to spice things up and make it more interesting and fun. Hope I can pull it off!

It's better with pictures. :o)

Are you really going to paint all these rooms at once? Wow, that's a lot to tackle. I'm hard pressed to just do one room at a time.

If I recall correctly, weren't you talking about doing blue to match your windows on that staircase/entry area?

I'm not good at wall color I don't think, but I'll pop this up to the top for you where it will get the color smarties' attention.

Wow that is some gorgeous woodwork. I LOVE your house! Do those back rooms get much sun? I have dark wood trim to (but butt ugly compared to yours!)and it took me a long time to pick out paint colors. Part of the issue was lack of sun/light and the more open floor plan.

I think if you find a depth or I am trying to think of the right word or level of saturation of color and stick to it room to room even with different colors that will all work together well. My last house had white trim, but I did the same with darker colors and the rooms still seemed to flow together.

Okay, here's a few questions...

Are the colors from a previous owner or yours? I ask because I kind of like the gold (or at least I don't hate it!) and I am wondering how you feel about it. Same for the garnet. I like the way it connects to the sofas in the LR. I think they were headed in the right direction (except for some of those ceilings!) but maybe could have refined the color choices a bit.

I am not saying to keep the colors...I am just wondering how you feel about them, why you want to change them and if maybe you just need a "new, improved" version of that garnet or a greener gold like the Anjou Pear. Knowing what you don't like about what is there now informs the decision about where you want to go next.

So, is the upholstered furniture staying? If so, I think I'd find another red to work with that for the DR walls. One way to bring a cohesive feeling to rooms is to pull color from room to room. That is, if you even want a red DR again.

In the parlour, I would find a cream if you want, but don't go too pale. You can certainly get away with a lighter color and it will be a pleasant change. But it will need to have a certain heft, IYKWIM.

Another way to connect all the rooms is to find one color and use it on all the ceilings and upper walls. In fact, if you could use the parlour wall color on the ceilings in the adjoining rooms, it would lend some cohesiveness.

I want to start to think about calling the glass in the LR purple instead of pink! :-) Can you see that? Is it actually purple IRL? Pink just feels more limiting to me than purple. Actually one of my favorite color combinations is purple and green. I think Anjou Pear could be really stunning in that room. Edgy!

In general, I think that the opportunity to paint the upper walls the same as the ceilings gives you more leeway to use deep, rich colors on the walls. The way those rooms are trimmed and painted lends an airier feeling, and I think allows you to use darker colors successfully. So, be fearless!

Thanks everyone, especially Amy, for your feedback. Yes, all those colors were chosen and painted by dh and me. When we bought the house it was all beige. The people we bought the house from definitely didn't get around to fixing it up, but at least they didn't get around to damaging its integrity either - it's hard to find a house with this much of its original stained woodwork intact. With those colors, we were going for jewel tones. I think I was sort of on the right track, but I didn't "refine" my choices as you aptly put it. I picked the colors off paint chips without putting up any sample paint on the walls, and I was always surprised by the results. I meant for the gold to be a much deeper, richer gold, but it came out much too bright yellow. Sometimes it looks okay (like in afternoon sun it can be a pleasant golden) but I hate it at night under artificial light. The red is okay -I do like the depth in this one - but I think I could have done better with the shade. The blue was supposed to be jet or at least cobalt and it turned out periwinkle, but I've always sort of liked the effect in that room. The biggest problem, I think, is that I painted piecemeal; with no thought as to how the colors "flowed" room to room. I agree that I need "new improved" versions of the colors, and as boopadaboo suggested, going with a unifying level of saturation among the colors. I had intended on BM's Rich Cream for the parlor; is that too bright/yellow? Not enough heft? I do like the idea of continuing the parlor wall color onto the upper walls/ceilings in the other rooms. Regarding the furniture, no, the red sofas are pretty beat up and are destined for the new basement rec room (kid space.) I am envisioning a chocolate brown leather sofa and loveseat in that room. I feel that will give me even more leeway to do bold, deep colors as the brown leather will absorb a lot of the color in much the way the woodwork does. Right now I have BM's Dried Mustard up in the entry room and I love it. Oh, and yes, we can call the window "purple". In real life it has a lot of variation - amethyst maybe? Usually I call it "mauve" but boy does that conjur up images of the '80's.

Hi again VJ.

Well, it looks like I put my foot in my mouth a bit and you're still speaking to me! Sorry 'bout dissing the pink ceiling... My bad.

As for the Rich Cream being too yellow or too light...only you will know that once you swatch it. That room seems to get a lot of light, at least from your pics. Lots of light can wash colors out. You have to test the color, see how it acts, day and night, and go from there.

Yellows tend to build in energy. A little goes a long way, I like to say. If you need something darker and less yellow, take a look at Philadelphia Cream or Standish White for starters.

Keep in mind, if you want to tie in the other rooms by using the wall color on ceilings elsewhere, they should all work together. This is not a linear decision-making process. You have to start with what you know....which is the Meadowlark. Find a couple of creams that works with that and then start to play with them on the parlour walls as well.

A brown sofa will work with anything, you're right. That is a good, flexible choice.

So, is the Dried Mustard in the entry room (first pic) going to stay? Or is that where you're planning to use the Meadowlark? (I am a bit confused...but also rushing...sorry) I agree with you that the gold looks good. The ceiling color reads a bit pink to me...but otherwise, that is what I was referring to earlier as pretty darn good choices you guys made.

One more thing...if you don't like a color at night, change your light bulbs. Reveals are the best for color IME. Lots of folks swear by Halogena too, though I haven't used them yet. I try to use CFLs where I can because I am trying to be green. But I just detest the way they make almost every color look.

Okay, I really have to run. I'll check in later. We'll chat some more if you like.

Amy, no apologies necessary! I didn't think about it twice. I know some of those colors are all wrong. As I said, we were headed in the right direction, but we chose paint colors from strips with no sample jars first (did they even have sample jars in those days?) I remember knowing, somehow, that the area above the picture molding and the ceiling should be in the same family as the wall color but lighter, so we just went one up on the color strip for each. That pink is definitely a nightmare! Anyway, back to our current scheme...I've decided (with the help of BM color consultant) to use Ivory Tusk (one above Rich Cream) on the upper walls (above picture molding) and ceilings in each of the four rooms. That should add some cohesiveness to the floor plan. It also allows for some pretty deep, saturated colors below. Sorry for the confusion about the color in the entry room - the Meadowlark was really just an experiment to see if I liked the tone on tone - I happened to have it in the house. I have BM Dried Mustard up right now and really like it so I'm planning for it to stay. In the dining room (behind the entry room) I really wanted a gray-blue (BM Feather Gray) but not with my new color scheme - color consultant suggested Fiji (an aura color with very deep, almost teal undertones) and I absolutely love it, so it's staying. I like the way the Fiji blue looks in conjunction with the orange/brown of the Dried Mustard. Then in the living/family room (adjacent to the dining room) I put up BM's Tyler Taupe - it reads as a sort of brown and provides a nice neutral backdrop to the pink (purple?!) stained glass window in that room. I had to let the Anjou Pear go - as much as I like it on its own, I didn't love it in conjunction with my other colors or the trim. My big problem now is the front parlor with the white trim. I am torn between wanting a light color, to have that tone - on -tone thing that I love going in there, and thinking a deeper tone would flow better with the colors in the other rooms. I tried Concord Ivory - way too yellow/bright. On my wall right now are 3 samples: Rich Cream (which I love but it the lightest and yellowest of the three), Handmade (aura paint - reads peachy compared to the other two but on its own, it might look good adjacent to the Dried Mustard in the next room) and Blond Wood (reads like a dark beige or light tan - darker than I wanted to go, but definitely has more of an "earthiness" and I have to admit, it seems to relate the best to the surrounding Mustard and Taupe.) Thoughts? I feel that I should be veering toward gold undertones but every time I try something with gold in it I end up with way too much yellow. I am inclined to go with the Rich Cream simply because I love how it looks in that room, irrespective of the surrounding rooms. If anyone has any other suggestions, I am willing to give them a try - as long as they come in BM sample jars, lol - I am done buying quarts! I have heard good things about Carrington Beige and Malton. Also Ladyfinger - I didn't like the way it looked with my dark wood, but might be a nice neutral against the white trim?

I am really glad the Dried Mustard is staying. In the first post of yours I remember seeing, you were looking for a pale blue or green. I thought to myself....that gold is really good for that window. But, it's a love it/hate it kind of color. Glad you love it. I do too.

I think Ivory Tusk will be a perfect ceiling color and is another way to connect all the rooms. A good suggestion from your Consultant. Also love the Fiji. You had better post pics of that when it's up! :-)

Now, as for the parlour. If I understand correctly, this room sits between the DM and the TT, is that correct? I suspect you may have a tough time finding a deeper neutral that works with both the DM and the TT. I think that finding a deeper color that works with the DM and the TT may be a challenge. All those "warm neutrals" are anything but. They have undertones galore and IMO are the hardest colors to work with. The Handmade does read peach to me. It's too close-but-not-quite to the TT. I don't love it.

There is no reason not to have a room that feels different from the others. I think it adds some visual variety and you are obviously drawn to a light, refreshing experience in the parlour. Cohesiveness gone bad = monotony.

What I'd suggest is going with the Rich Cream since you seem to like that color. You have so many decisions you're making at once, it would be good to just settle and move forward. The Rich Cream will not be a mistake and if you think it needs to be tweaked later, you can do that. It's just one room and you could even paint it yourself if you really need to.

In my last house, I was so tired of making decisions about paint (open plan....LOTS of color) that I just shut down when it came to the kitchen. DH suggested I "paint it white" just so we could get on with life! I did decide to paint it white....Ellen Kennon's Classic Cream.

It was a great "color" and I ended up using it in my foyer and adjoining hallway as well. It abutted a pale blue, paperbag brown, deep gray green and mustard yellow. It was the perfect resting place for the eye between all those otherwise strong colors.