This will be a great house for you! We have a 70's house much like the one you will be purchasing. With the dark wood, we tend to go with different neutrals such as BM Manchester Tan, the color one step darker is nice also. Some more choices might include BM Willingham Tan, Powell Buff or Decatur Buff. For a bedroom you might consider BM Woodlawn Blue (love the color). I thought the green & white room just didn't work (doesn't flow with the house). Someone recently posted a link about high gloss paints that a beautiful shade of Aqua among other colors. You might have bolder colors in mind, but neutral or muted colors work well with the dark wood. (certainly doesn't have to be all beige or tans). One other thing, with the dark wood, be careful with yellows, some look wonderful with white trim, but will tend to look muddy with the dark wood. Good Luck!

What a wonderful house and the yard is terrific! Now, I am one who is not a big fan of dark trim unless it is a period Victorian, Arts and Crafts home, or a contemporary with lots of glass, so feel free to quit reading now if you want! I would paint all the narrow trim work a creamy white or whatever white you like. I would also paint the closet doors, paneling (except maybe above the fireplace), and probably the kitchen cabinets(yes, I would be groaning at the prospect myself, but I would do it). That will take it out of the 70s and brighten it up a lot. It also expands you wall color options.

If you're looking for curtains, I'd like to suggest Country Curtains, which has far more than just country, with excellent prices and quality. I've bought from them many times and have always been completely satisfied. If you find something you love, it might be a starting point for what paint colors you'd want to use. Your house has great potential, but I must admit that I would be painting those wooden walls a cream color before I did anything else.

Another good starting point

Okay, I actually like the wood trim and the brick fireplace...love the reading nook!...so I would use fall/autumn colors.

Think soft golds, greens, oranges and reds. If it sounds better, think pumpkin instead of orange and russet instead of red (LOL) but you get the idea. Yes, they are 70's colors, but not quite as bright. Soften up the gold, a warm green (but no muddy avacado) soft pumpkin and your russet/brick tones. Very warm, cozy and inviting.

I would paint the living room the soft gold (beautiful with all that wood work) and it would look good with the brick fireplace. If you like neutral tones for your furniture, use the other colors for pillows, area rugs, cushions, etc. If you feel bolder, maybe try a chair or two in green or pumpkin.

Hope that helps...you have a beautiful home! :)

I think I'd be painting a lot of the dark brown woodwork.
I'd also stain the kitchen floor to being a darker color. As it is, it is too close a match to the cabs.

I love nice woodwork on walls, but more so when it has a small grain. Yours is quite rustic, which can be nice, but at such a dark shade, it comes across as heavy.

Once you have those basics done, you will find it easier to be inspired with colors. You may want to prime everything now in anticipation of picking colors, but don't pick anything until you feel truly inspired.

Just wanted to say that I love your home, inside and out. It is really beautiful and charming. I can only suggest decorating and using simple furnishings and colors, to have nice flow and let the natural beauty and character of the home stand out. Have fun with it

If you are looking for pillows and curtains to inspire you, try Etsy. There are a lot of beautiful and unique accessories on there!

Congrats on your new home! It's beautiful!

Here is a link that might be useful: Etsy throw pillows

Congrats, how exciting! I am in a similar situation...we close on our house on the 22nd of this month.

::ducking::...but I'd be painting all of the wood trim white. I just have to have white trim with few exceptions. The colors pop off of white and it feels so fresh.

Wow, I guess I don't have the site set up to email when I get responses to my posts, LOL. I thought no one had answered me and was having hurt feelings :-) Thanks for all the great comments on the house. The appraisal just came in for WAY over what we are paying for it, so we are extra excited!

Anyway, We are not into painting the wood... I quite like the dark wood, though there is alot of it in that one room. We'll have to see about that, start out with it and then later we can always paint it if we don't like it.

Yes on the kitchen floor, we are probably going to have the whole main level done in hardwood and will have the kitchen floor re-done to match. We definitely want to change the color of it so that it's not so close to the cabinets.

We are going to have the counter done in granite and some kind of tile backsplash put in, I think. I want to put new pulls on the cabinets to give it a little bit of a more modern punch. There's not much else we can do to the kitchen, there's very little wall space because there's so much cabinetry, so we'll just paint what little wall space there is some light complimenting color. We do need to fix the ug-ly light fixture in the kitchen, though.

I definately agree with the color scheme that lavendar has suggested. I think it will be fabulous and you may well find some accessories at ultra discount w/ the fall season being over now.

Good luck!
PS yes, that kitchen light definately needs to be changed out =)

Thanks Lavender... I will think about those colors. I am not a fan of the fall colors, but if I think of them more "soft", it could be an interesting change, and maybe add one other non-fall color just to make an unusual color scheme.

Check out houzz.com for many, many, photos of various rooms!

You can get expert advice online from professional interior designers for a reasonable price. Have a look at the services below, they offer specific color consultation and are able to suggest the right color palette to get the desired look and feel for your new house:
www.interiordesignserviceonline.com
www.roomdesignonline.com
www.designerathome.com
Another great resource with useful tips to choose paint color is the website of high quality paint producer Benjamin Moore. Have a look in particular at the Personal Color Viewer Tool. Hope this can help you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Facebook page

Some of my favorite yellows and greens w/ dark trim are:

From BM: Anything off of the BM color strip that has Straw & Bar Harbor Yellow.

Vellum (crustier yellow)
Baby Turtle (brown green)

From SW: Tupelo Tree (70's acid green)

I have dark woodwork and went with BM Tusk. It's kind of a gold-toned ivory, in my living room. It picks up the warm color in the mahogany and looks pretty with the oak floors. The last people had painted it gray blue and it didn't look as nice. It'll look darker on the walls in the warm glow of evening lighting and I love that! Good Luck. And remember, wall color will be enhanced by your furniture, rugs and window treatments. The trim seems more obvious now because the rooms are bare. Your cabinets are too nice to paint, IMO.

Your new home is lovely. Congratulations! I love all that stained woodwork!

I have white trim but my library has a dark beam ceiling and dark wood bookcases all around. We painted the room BM Raspberry Truffle and it is so warm and welcoming. We get lots of compliments.

We just put down wood floors, not as dark as your trim, but we have some darker furniture. In the rest of the house we painted the walls BM Flowering Herb (one up from Baby Turtle) and we absolutely love it. It is fresh and clean and warm. We did all the ceilings in BM Greenmount Silk which I am calling my best ceiling color EVER. I have Greenmount Silk on the walls in the kitchen but it is on the ceiling that I think it really shines. On that horizontal plane it is a lush cream.

Can't wait to see more pictures as you make it yours.

Speaking of inspiration! Lookie what came in the mail for me today! We were planning on putting the tree one in the kitchen, but it ended up being way too big for the one tiny wall, so I think we might use it in the dining room instead. But now I don't know what to do with the poppy one because that was meant for the dining room, LOL.

Here is a link that might be useful: Overstock.com

I have a very similar era home with the brick and dark stained trim in some rooms. I agree with the warm, cozy fall colors, but those happen to be my favorite shades anyway. Here are a few shots of my house with some of the paint colors I used.

I love all the warm tones in your new house. I think the woodwork is beautiful!
Someone posted this site a few months ago (sorry, don't remember who!). It may help give you a jumping off point. Here are the palettes suggested for the tree artwork.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictaculous

Those colors look great in your house, I especially love that red color by the fireplace. And I will definitely check out that color scheme website, thanks!