I would consider a light gray for your kitchen given the variety of colors that you have there. As for the other rooms, a lot depends on what else you will have in the rooms. Often it's advisable to pick the paint color last depending on your furnishings, art, rugs, drapes and any other decor, because given the wide variety of paint choices, it's easier to match paint to everything else.

I too would go with a gray for that young updated look.....browns can look good with gray....go on Houzz and pick out some of your favorite rooms and follow their lead as far as furniture , etc..........good luck

What colors are you drawn to and what would you say your styles are? I love the space.

Congratulations on your home purchase!!! Really a beautiful home. I will be honest, when you can, as you stated above as a possibility, maybe get a different backsplash that is more neutral. None the less though, it is a beautiful kitchen. I just wanted to show you an option, this wall paint is Devonshire (sp?) Green by Benjamin Moore. This would allow you to add color you desire while still going with everything in the room. Then choose accessories for the countertop that are simple and incorporate white to bring the light trim color over. Another thing to consider would be to paint the island all the same color as the back side of it, just to simplify and it looks great with the countertop!

Can't believe I'm saying this, because I am totally ambivilent to the whole grey/beige movement, but I agree w Sam.
Why not treat yourself and start in the bedroom? It has the least "activity" of all the rooms, and can safely handle almost any color you like, especially with the addition of an extra carpet on the floor. Then you will have your oasis at the end of every decorating/renovation day to help you recharge -and charge on. Congratulations on your new home; it's pretty darn great.

You seem to realize that the right red is a possibility for an accent color. My favorite would be teal or sage green. Any of these work with brown.

I have to agree with LK on the backsplash as a future project. The place in no way looks like an apartment - not with those funky fun floors! For the kitchen, I recommend crisp white walls (although the gray mock-up above is growing on me as well), and a contrast ceiling - maybe like kraft-paper brown or some other cool-toned brown to help balance the weight of the pattern on the floor. I don't recommend going dark or bold on the walls in this room, it'll just frame up your neighbor's vinyl siding.

Here's my best advice. Go to YoungHouseLove.com and search for "lovely napkin." They used a textile that had a lot of their favorite brights together to help them select good colors for their home's color story. You need to then do some research between the two of you to help develop a color story for your own home.

What are the colors of your main pieces of furniture now? Tell us some of your favorite accent colors - we can use them together to help you weave a stronger story. Do not paint the kitchen, it has a lot going on. Paint is the easiest thing to change, so picking out textiles first is usually a better rule. Do you have an area rug for your main living room? That is a good place to start without any preconcieved plan to learn what you love. Your living room things probably will help us suggest options there now. Look in home furnishing website galleries and houzz galleries to capture what rooms you are drawn towards. Then look around at your local Calico Corners and see if there is one inspiration print that you love. Then we can suggest and help you build your rooms to represent your style.

Congratulations - tell us more and we'll help you discover your own style. This is a good problem to have!

Right now you are looking at basically an empty space. Why don't you wait until you move your things in and live with the space for awhile. That way you will see how the rooms look at different times of the day and you will have a better idea of how light plays off the different spaces. You may just decide that the neutral backdrop is not so bad. Color can be introduced through accessories which is less costly to replace than a backsplash. I think your home is gorgeous and the floors are fantastic.

The different countertops and backsplash are way off! Set some money aside to change at least one of them (I'd say calmer backsplash). Offwhite walls will look nice and clean in the kitchen. In the bedroom paint the ceiling and sides white and a bold color on the 'head walls' (like the one with the window) or a fun wallpaper of course. I have no suggestions on the living room, because I don't know your furniture. Start white too and add color as you go.
I'm saying this because I like to start out with white walls myself, for a bit of a scandinavian look with the wooden floors, great for adding bright colored deco.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I am glad I posted here before going nuts with paint. As renters, we've acquired a large amount of random second-hand furniture that we don't love. It's going to be a treat to develop our own style in this space, for sure. I'm drawn to deep blues, blue/gray slate, brick reds/oranges, yellows, and various shades of gray, though I do like the gray/green suggestion for the kitchen above. White walls would probably be our blank slate of choice as opposed to the beige. Painting the "head wall" is definitely a cool idea for the upstairs rooms. I'll be spending lots more time on this site and Young House Love as we work on it. It's definitely a good problem to have! Appreciate your feedback.

Congrats on your new home! It's lovely. I agree with most of the above comments. I am a fan of living in a space before making big changes. Experiment with your bedroom first, learn as you go. I think perhaps if your kitchen island was painted a solid colour all over it would make a nice focal point. Good luck!

Congratulations! Lovely home, gorgeous floors. I agree with most comments above to not go mad with the paintbrush yet. I understand that you feel like it's a sea of beige/brown now, but once you've added Ed's funky dining room set (white round table with orange chairs) to your kitchen (for example, just to let you realize how much furniture can do) it will look so much less beige.
Window treatments, fabrics, furniture colours will all break up the beige. And if you then still feel the need to paint...

Agree wholeheartedly with Sharon - having moved many, many times in my 30 years of marriage, I absolutely think you have to live in a space for months before you do anything big. with no furniture you notice things that disappear after a week of living with your stuff, your family and your activities.

great beige combination

Before you do anything major to the kitchen, paint the woodwork, doors and the bar, your wall color in a semigloss. Tint your ceiling a pale blue. Hang this in your window niche.

I agree. Too many people want to paint before moving in. Its better to live in the space first.

(judyG, she's accepting wedding gifts *L*)

Before you paint any room get sample jars or a small can of the color and paint large poster boards. You can move the poster boards around the room at different times of time and basically "live" with the color before you commit. You may have to try several shades and they will cost $4-$6 or a little more but it might save you a costly mistake. By using the poster board you can just thumb tack them to the wall and take them down if you have company - it will keep you from feeling you're living in a construction zone. All that said - our whole living area is painted Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray. It's really more of a gray/green/blue but actually very easy to live with. I've used red accents, deep turquoise and I'm working a little bright yellow in now. Another hint - if you keep a color "scheme" throughout your house you can move accessories from room to room. I change out my couch pillows and accessories with the seasons. This keeps you from getting tired of a room too quickly. You can keep the same colors if you like but change from velvet pillow in the winter to cotton in the summer. I must say I'm not a professional decorator - but we have had 5 homes over 47 years and our home is our hobby. I'm so happy for you to start with such a lovely home. You will get tons of advice here - take it all, take your time and make it your own.

Congratulations on your new home. It's lovely. Start with your Master Bedroom it's far from the beaten path and it's a sanctuary for you and your spouse. The other rooms can be left to your leisure and your pocket books. Do you like light in your bedroom? My husband and I have a bungalow and chose to keep the room on the dark-side because the room gets really hot with all the southern exposure. Go with your heart on the colors and curtain choices. Just have fun. Make this place yours. Good luck.

I just have to repeat the advice of minemine, carolins and nononanna - live in the house for 12 months before you do a thing. That way you will experience all the seasons and understand the lighting in the house at all times of the day. I note, for example, sunlight in your kitchen - this could mean the room could become very hot in summer and you may find lots of aqua or soft blues will help cool the room. You may need some thermal coverings on the windows and doors too. Too much colour in the wrong room can turn it into a cave or you can make a cold room even colder with the wrong colour.

All your second hand furniture will be a boon too, to learn the best layouts in rooms to maximise space and for traffic flow, so when you buy new furniture, you will know exactly what you need. I know this is an exciting time and you are dying to put your stamp on the house, but do hasten slowly, it will pay dividends in the long run.

Go with the color it looks beautiful. The beige you chose has some rose tones in it so any rust, red, burgundy accent pillows etc. will make it "Pop". It's lovely. I'm remodeling my master bath right now...photos to come soon for all your help!

Did you not have a say in the color choices? Beige is so passé! Remove all of the beige that you can is my advice and replace with greys, blacks and other cool colors. When we built our home 4 years ago, we painted our living room and dining area black with cream accents. It is very dramatic and beautiful and it looks great because we have many huge windows which pulls off the look. You have to visualize dramatic looks and colors for your home so that it will be different from everybody else's. You don't want to keep the builder's beige that everybody else has.

We didn't choose any of the colors. The renovators did.

You have a great house with wonderful spaces for living, and the kitchen will be the center of activity much of the time. Its bones are great, but that backsplash has to go. It clashes in form, color, and feeling with the granite counter top, the cabinetry and the appliances. I would replace it with mirror glass, which will reflect whatever decor you choose in the future and not fight with anything.
I like the idea that everyone has said to wait to paint walls until you have selected art and decor, but if the kitchen is going to have the mirror glass backsplash, I would paint the kitchen walls a light, comfortable, gray. Scrap the beige since it bothers you in th kitchen, but I would leave the other beige walls alone until you have selected your furniture and art.
Have you registered for wedding presents yet? If you still can, I would add a couch that you love and some art to your lists. Here are some examples of small works of art with a lot of punch....

studio1001, I would like to have a shower. After 44 years of marriage, I think I should do the Carrie Bradshaw thing and throw myself a shower. Instead of Manolo's, I want new towels. :>)

it's new, it's neutral, it's clean, it's livable... live in it for a year before doing much of anything. I'd spend my money on furniture instead. I do like the idea of upgrading light fixtures and fans to something better than builder grade. The only thing that bugs me is the island counter is grey and the rest of the counter looks beige. I like the beige better. The difference isn't enough of a contrast to me to look intentional - looks like the wrong piece of granite was delivered and they just installed it anyway. I'd price changing it to something very different or same as rest of counters. I'd consider very dark, solid grey like stone? Maybe painting the island black? And maybe I'm incredibly boring, but I'd look into changing the back splash to white subway tile.

You could look at it s boring, or you could look at it as classic.

Take a look at Restoration Hardware's paint collection, I'm thinking that a color from one of their two green collections may work well in the kitchen, especially something from the silver sage collection. Any of those colors would be a great safe choice as they would compliment the neutrals nicely, however in different lights throughout the day you'll enjoy blues and greens that are energizing and bright, perfect for a kitchen! Also, I recommend any of the bright patterned accents from Anthropologie to add pops of color in a way that won't take away from the classic aesthetic of the house, yet will still allow you to show your colorful personality :) good luck and congratulations!!!

In the kitchen, first; I agree your first project should be the back splash. My feeling is that kitchens are by their nature chopped up and need design that blends the items that are fixed. I hate when counter tops are done in two kinds of stone! I discourage my clients from doing hard back splashes at all. While I know stone or tile back splashes and stainless steel appliances are the rage, I hate them as well. They will make your kitchen look dated faster than anything else you can do. As the kitchen stands the most unifying factors you have are the brownish kitchen cabinets and the brownish wooden floors. Working with what is already there, I would replace the back splash with drywall and look for a wallpaper that has a background that is close to the browns of the cabinets or at least a color that harmonizes with it. The background of the paper being close to the cabinet color will actually blend and make the kitchen seem bigger by eliminating harsh contrast. The paper I would use would have beautiful brighter colors. I would get enough extra paper to be able to replace the backsplash area when it sets soiled. If possible I would get a Matching fabric to treat the window(no contrast) The floors are awfully brown and shiny. In most of the rooms including the kitchen I would use area rugs that pick up the accent colors found in the wallpaper. In the kitchen I wouldn't hesitate to paint the woodwork the background color of the wallpaper.

In the other rooms, I would look for colorful fabrics that include the browns of the floor. After finding the fabrics I'm going to work with, I would select the wall color and rug color. Even if you love the wooden floors you need to soften them with a rug or carpet of some kind. The least expensive way is to buy a rem-net piece of broad loom the right size and have it bound. I start almost all of my jobs with a great fabric. The right fabric not only sets a theme, it is crucial to guiding you to other color choices.

The room with the unusual ceiling unfortunately looks by the picture to have some really ugly carpet. I would treat it as though is is a wood floor and cover most of it with something that is the same color as the walls. Believe it or not that room will look one hundred percent better and BIGGER if you paint the ceiling and walls and woodwork the same color. Even if you select a very bright or dark color. Good luck. Go slow. Don't be afraid to borrow samples and bring them home to see how they look with the things you cannot change. Also when you select colors and patterns, don't go so much with what is popular now. Look for things you know you won't get tired of. Its the difference of love verses infatuation.

Katricia6, Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage is beautiful - perhaps a little lighter than Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray but very much the same. I've actually had both so I must have liked it a lot. Very easy to live with.

Start by just arranging the furniture you have in the house...and think of painting some of your 'random second hand furniture' in some of the bolder colors you are drawn to and possibly utilizing them for a different purpose or room; i.e. I painted a small dresser green and changed to blue porcelin knobs and put it at the end of where my kitchen counters stop adjacent to my open dining area and keep dish towels, candles, etc. in it. .I remember when all I owned was 'early goodwill and garage sale' used furniture and yearned for a "set" or "new"...over time the old 'early goodwill' pieces became my favorites and lent just the right amount of character and history of "us" to our home. If nothing else, you will not have "wrecked " anything you liked in the process :>)

There are thousands of paint colors but only so many fabrics. Get your desired fabric schemes first for your sofas, rug, drapery, pillows and casegoods and then paint or wallpaper.

CMR gives good advice to see if you can build a fabric palette - look at Calicocorners.com or beautifulfabric.com and see if you can build 10 - 14 fabrics that emphasize different colors in different spaces but tell a unified color story. Then pick wall colors from those with some muting and wowsa, add a few pillows to what you have, and new paint and you will love it. I do like to paint before I move in / settle in, but I know what I want and that I would rather have that than beige. You may also develop a scheme quickly but paint is an inexpensive thing to do yourself and change.

As the Queen of Cream, I love your house! Congratulations! My walls are Buttercream because I have a lot of artwork and didn't want the art to compete with the wall color! Add pops of color with your accessories! Art, lamps, window dressings, a chair or two, pillows, lampshades. That red in your picture is beautiful!! Red, green, turquoise, teal, chocolate brown make great accent colors! I have red lampshades in my bedroom!

If you like the SS look of your fridge, I'd suggest a backsplash like this one (and if not, they have a variety of styles), they are easy to install and relatively cheap:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_434356-82801-B65-08_4294735482__?productId=4068803&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

One more thing = explore annie sloan chalk paints. Between spray paints and chalk paint and glossy pints, you can paint the odds and ends to bring a color scheme together. I know why you hate brown, you are a taupe / gray / blue person. Paint it all - don't live with it for 12 months - pick a putty gray like http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-family/SW7030-anew-gray/ and use the lighter shade in the main room, and try a navy in the dining room http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-family/SW7602-indigo-batik/ easier to paint before you move in. Get some chalk paint (just a sample pot will do a lot) in french linen, this same kind of putty gray. Paint one odd/ end with that. You'll be on the right track.

hi there :) i would change the backpart of the kitchen (underneath the cupboards)... there are some ready made plexi glass kind of wallcoverings in all kinds of colours. i would have them mounted on top of the already existing tiles.. and i would colour the walls in the same colour. this would round up the whole kitchen design i think. attached you see what i mean..

other than that.. i would just paint the bedroom in white and put some bookshelf wallpapers on the sides, so that it expands optically and looks much wider. you can have a look at our desings for bookshelf wallpapers at www.studioarterie.com
hope this helps .. enjoy your new home :)

My advice is to move in your new home with the furnishings that you have. Live in your house and you will be surprised how you will get a feeling for each room's needs.

Just wanted to say your new home is beautiful just like it is! Lots to be thankful for! I would just leave the beige walls, and add splashes of color everywhere. You'll be surprised how throw pillows in maybe red tones and others that you would like. If you like the cottage feel, you could use bright colors in your kitchen in a tablecloth, etc. Use colors you like in artwork. You will find that since beige goes with most colors, you can decorate all through your house in blending colors that will really pop out! I love the taupe and reds myself, and also add black to these to make them all stand out!