A good plan. How about a lumbar pillow in chair?

Need to see all 4 walls of both the living & dining room.

Dining room

Corner leading to foyer

View from dining to foyer. Want to paint foyer also

Revere Pewter is everyone's favorite gray here at Houzz. This article will help you pick the right one. I think you should paint all these rooms the same. The rug under the dining table is too small. See how chairs fall off the edges. It needs to be 4' wider and longer than the table top yet not run into walls or furniture on the walls. Not sure I'd advise painting more furniture since your architecture, cornices, rugs and furniture are so classic. The painted table looks quite out of place.

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/choosing-paint-how-to-pick-the-right-gray-stsetivw-vs~454963

If you want to update it a bit then put a larger piece of art over the sofa and remove the sconces.Maybe get a coffee table with a glass top, something in a campaign style to break up all the dark wood. I don't think that painting you furniture is the way to go. Lastly get some new toss cushions .

Are you saying that you want to paint the cherry furniture .. that will not change the style of it.

Perhaps if you added some photos to your idea book that would gives use an idea of the style that you are looking for.

The red valances really put their mark on your rooms. For a more updated look you could remove them.
Pulling your seating furniture together a bit more, placing front legs of sofa and chairs on the rug, have the chairs facing the sofa maybe, adding a patterned pillow to the sofa... The white round table looks really nice. For wall paint colours... hmm... I'm thinking a very light, very creamy gold, something like SW 6127 Ivoire

Ignore the very formal furniture in the rooms I included, they were just to show you how ivoire works with the tone of your floor and the red of your chairs :-)

Beautiful rooms. You might try putting the living room rug in the dining room to see how it looks when you have a larger rug under the table. Try blue-taping the measurements before hauling the heavy rug around.

I suggest you pick out a new rug first, then the paint. Take cushions from sofa and striped chair with you when shopping. Many rug shops will let you take two or three rugs home on approval.

Yes, consider removing the red valences for a week or two to see how you like the updated look.

A little confused ... is the hutch in the living room?

Paint the living room wall below chair rail the same way as the foyer will help to update.

The layout of the room looks odd with the furniture placed where it is. The placement of the area rug makes the room look long, and sitting in the coach where it is has a focal point of? Try rearranging furniture. Float the coach away from the wall between the 2 windows and put the striped chairs on either end facing each other. Make sure the couch sits on the area rug. Leave hutch where it is.

Fyi.....I want to get new rugs, new pictures, etc. they are from old house. Just don't have money to buy new furniture right now. Need to paint also.

Any photos of new rugs you like?

Anne Berry .. Is there any furniture on the 3rd wall of the dining room/

Yes...a server

There is a server. I was thinking of using colors from the Sherwin Williams Neutral Nuance collection.

How about something like this?
http://www.homedecorators.com/P/Tara-Area-Rug-I/40/460/

Since there is no TV in the living room (love that by the way) there could be a a conversation pit. Gather the furniture more to one end of the room. Need to find a solution where the furniture can be arranged with chairs across from the sofa so that the room will appear more cozy.

Carry the all white chair rail theme from foie into living room, paint upper half a warm gray, pull sconces further apart add more art between them to enlarge space, place a warm gray patterned large rug that is about 1' or 2' larger around, replace coffee table with glass top table, use larger pillows with pattern, add pillow on chair. Pazzam!

Carolins it already feels more modern! The larger pillow and rug helped rescale the sofa to a more modern feel. Replacing the coffee table will kick it up a notch.

C has nice mix. Before she had changed the art I had thought of softer pillow color and coffee table tone.

If the red/white stripe chairs and the red pillows and valances are outdated I could sell them and get something else. Does that help?

Really like the blue color in the carpet Carolins

Take all the red out of the room and see how you feel about it. Are there colors in your carpet that you'd like to work with, or is it too dark for the direction you want to take? Red is a strong color. Maybe you'd prefer something softer, more feminine.

The carpets need to go. Too small for the rooms.