The living room appears to not get a lot of natural light. Is that the case? If so, I'd go with something a bit saturated and a warm color to give it more life and a comfortable feel. Personal preference is for neutrals in Living rooms. Check out BM Brandon Beige and BM Meditation.

DRs also tend to do well with more saturated and warm colors because they tend to be used at night with artificial light. Also, being a gathering place, the saturated warmth is a good idea. Very conducive to dining and conversation.

Thank you, I will try the floor plan idea, though I'm not sure I can delay choosing the colors any longer. My painters have been in my house for weeks prepping and I am down to these last three rooms downstairs. At this point I may just consider just priming all the walls and wait for a miracle or do I just paint everything a natural cream and just decorate in lively colors?

I've always found it difficult to just pick paint colors. I need to start with an inspiration...either a fabric for the windows or furnishings, a piece of art, a picture from houzz or a magazine, but some starting point. Once I have that, then I can select colors I know will work.

For example, I started the library with the fabric and picked a wall color to go with it....went a shade lighter on the ceiling, then the ceiling color went onto the wall in the DR which is open to it. The ceiling color in the library also went on the walls in the foyer. That way, the rooms are "cross-linked" and you get a more cohesive feeling going through the space.

Or take a look at the Ben Moore Affinity line and select your paint colors from there. All those colors are designed to play nicely together, so you can go with say blue in one room, green in another, gold in another, but the shades you select will all work well together from that line. It makes selecting colors much easier and the shades in that line are really lovely.

What color are your carpets and furniture? The wall color should come from that.

Alternately, have them use an off white paint and do the ceilings bright white so they go with anything. Wall color is easy to put over white -- it's like double primer.

I realize I am working backwards and I just can't figure things out. I had a color palette in mind but getting each color right is proving to be a difficult task. The only furniture I have to work with are my dining room pieces and a blue and cream Karastan rug in my living room. I love simple classic elegant style but like to mix it up with slight industrial and eclectic pieces. However, my now extended house (family room, kitchen, large hallway) is very open and boxy. Not to mention an 8.5 dark gray island in my kitchen that I can't figure out hanging pendants for. I think I'm relying too much on paint to pull it all together, I just really want to try and get it right. (I'm not even going for perfect). With that said, I tried a full wall of edgecomb gray and revere pewter and both failed terribly (looked peachy and brown). I'm sure the only advice is to stop everything and take time to figure it out ...but my husband is ready to just send me away and finish it himself at this point.

As I tried to explain up thread, whole house color schemes are always a challenge, even for professional decorators. It isn't about picking paint colors you like. Often it's about picking colors you don't expect but ones that will work. My living room was cream and then blush white before I got the pale blue I needed right.

Take a photo of the rug with your phone and keep it there for reference. Blue and gray can be very tricky to work with and that should help. Just be sure the photo looks the same as the rug when you look at it in the phone -- not darker or lighter. Best to shoot near a window.

Again, let them paint white and give yourself time to work it all out. As long as the ceilings are painted it's very easy to put color on the walls yourself.

Of course everything will look peachy and brown. You have red rosin paper on the floor.

Tell your husband one of the forum ladies said to back off the decorating and do something useful like going to a football game.

Thank you I needed a morning chuckle after another sleepless night.

We have a center colonial too and I agree with rococogurl that the light can be very different on 2 floors and that deciding on a whole house color scheme can make you lose your mind... :) I know grey is really in style right now but I think it takes a special house to pull this off well. We painted our entire downstairs (except our DR) SW Honied White with SW Dover White trim, it's safe but not stark. I think starting light and neutral then adding more dramatic paint colors once everything is moved in is a good way to go. Good luck!

For your style of house and with your living room rug I would choose a pale blue paint for the living room. I don't see how you can possibly go wrong with that. Don't put any gray with it, just pale blue. You can then warm up the room with warm-colored drapes, paintings, pillows, etc. For the adjoining family room I would choose a beautiful but somewhat darker green than the pale blue. For the dining room a pale but warm pink is flattering to complexions and will relax your guests. I would get away from the grayish colors altogether. It's not right for a colonial. I think you need light and soft colors. If this is too scary, choose a light blue for the living room and go with creamy whites in the other areas, but I think my color scheme is more fun and won't be difficult to paint over should you change your mind. Just have a little bit of courage right now and put some color at least in your living room. Or go all the way, but most of all relax and don't let this get to you. Pale, soft colors are what you need, I believe, and then you'll be able to sleep again.

Rachel, it's just paint. It's the cheapest and easiest way to change almost anything. There are things to lose sleep over. I'll give you tile, floors, windows or heaven forbid plumbing. But paint is so not serious. You will work it out. My living room walls went from cream,to blush, to blue. The guestbroom went from lavendar to green. I told DH the walls were losing color cause the paint was no good.

I think there are some great suggestions here. I have just had to figure out a whole house palette too and our painter "allows" four colors before upcharging to change. I love color. My current house started with yellow, green, white, tan, aqua and wallpapered walls. I had kind of a theme of carrying yellow and blue through to most rooms. And some green and red too. All those colors aren't as in anymore, though.

My new house has four colors: SW Repose Gray for main color, BM Newburyport Blue (navy), BM Breath of Fresh Air and SW Potentially Purple (for DD's bathroom). All of that being said, I haven't seen it all done yet! I do like Repose a lot though. I am doing one wallpaper in the powder room that has a variety of blues. I may end up adding more color through accessories and eventually could repaint a room or two and/or wallpaper one.

When I started to answer this, I was going to suggest that you get an interior designer in there to just help you create the color scheme. You could probably hire one for one hour and save yourself stress and money (buying so many samples). Just an idea.

I'd be overwhelmed if I were you.

I'd choose a nice, neutral white for the whole floor. Get it painted, move in with my rugs, furniture, accessories and live in the home for a while. Then I'd be able to determine which rooms I wanted further accentuated with paint.

Paint is one of the least expensive decorating choices you'll make. Move in all of your items first, and then decide on paint.

Have you thought of an eggplant tone(not purple)as a co-ordinating color? Maybe the DR, powder room, foyer? DD has a gorgeous grayed eggplant in the LR/DR areas, and has had many compliments. My last house had a warm ivory in the majority of rooms, but in the DR(top portion),powder room, accent fireplace wall,I used a deep red(Balmoral Red/Ralph Lauren). The dramatic color was consistently mentioned in a positive way, and actually helped when I decided to sell. Don't be afraid to be a little bold.

Living room: Exhale

Dining Room BM Oat Straw

Foyer area Marscapone

I'm going to link you to several color white palettes that might works with grays and light blues though blues are the most difficult color to get right. Below the sample it will show you coordinating colors, similar colors and most important "more shades" which indicate the undertone. You would need to take it from there. On the ground floor I would suggest going with a white that show various undertones as the mid-range colors don't seem to be working for you.

On the links, if you see greens in "more shades" the white chosen will likely look like a gray-green. And will coordinate with greens.

Etc. I don't know the light in your house, the various exposures, or even the latitude -- where you live makes a huge difference. That's why it's difficult to suggest specific colors I find. F.ex., that Oat Straw color in my house would look like mustard exploded all over the walls and a blue like Exhale gets psychedelic around 4 in the afternoon with west facing windows. In Arizona, the Exhale will look pale.

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/snowwhite

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/icemist

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/tundra

I agree with rococogurl's suggestion to just paint everything white right now, and live in your new space for a while before making any colors decisions. That's what I do when I have done major remodeling.

I like Annie's suggestions. That is a gorgeous blue and the two other colors would blend perfectly. I think once you jump in there with a pale blue living room everything else will fall into place. I think looking from a pale blue living room into a family room that has a beautiful compatible green would be (for me anyway) very exciting.

Agree with pale blue. I used Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue is my foyer, upstairs hall, and carried into downstairs dining room and kitchen. It started out as a very daring paint choice for me, but I just love it now. It makes the rooms cheerful and is almost like a neutral in that it looks good with so many other colors and in every light.

As someone who has also struggled with picking paint colors, I have to agree with rococogurl. I would use a warm white with white ceilings and get settled in until you have the time to test colors that you are interested in. And using the foam boards for testing paint samples is great advice. She told me that a couple of years back and I have done that ever since.

Your home sounds so much like mine with the lighting and colors going green. I have also found that the color really intensifies on the walls, particularly downstairs, than what it looks like on the paint strip.