sorry Julia, we aren't clairvoyants here. if you want color suggestions, you're going to have to post pictures. describing your furniture as brown with a stone fireplace, can mean 1000 different color combos. plus, you never mentioned your flooring. that plays a huge role in choosing wall colors.

I tried posting pics...I will try again, sorry :)

ok good. some people describe everything and don't post pictures.

you can try putting the pics here in the comments using the photo icon

2 out of 8 got on, i'll try again

I actually like your peacock blue wall. Looks nice w/your wood. However, I would declutter just a tad. let the fireplace be the star without all of the foo-foo around it and on top.

did you want to change that? what if you went darker

and maybe lightened up on the rug w/something diff?

or, if you like the rug colors, maybe a rich raisin or cranberry shade?

or, paint the wall black, the other walls a soft white, bring in a new rug, new lighting.

love the raspberry rug, also like the deeper blue accent wall. From the photo I see the foo foo extra elements should be gone. The Picture has a special meaning...the original when the farm was bought and original house built from the 70's.

I'm not seeing how cool gray colors will go with the room you show, and would suggest perhaps a soft white instead. Lots of gray paint has been trendy for quite some time, but that's over with now, and in rooms that have little light it can be really deadly. The room you show is a tad cluttered but it does show individual style. It would be necessary to see your other rooms in order to get an idea of what color would work best overall. I hope you can manage to post them.

I didn't straighten up prior to pics, altho I do have some extra clutter when everything is put up:)

Hope these stay...wow!

Hi cat_ky, please comment if you have anything else to say now that the rest of my pics are finally up. thanks

all I meant w/the declutter comment was in the bedroom around the fireplace. not the entire room. it's a beautiful fireplace and I like the wall color around. all the little stuff on top and next to it detract. that's all I meant. cat ky, no one said anything about making it cold and sterile. for the bedroom I still like the idea of the accent wall with one of the suggestions I mentioned, and the other walls a soft white.

Julia, are you just looking for new wall colors for all of the rooms? I agree about forgoing the grays. unless, you can get a sample of this one. Pale Oak by BM. it's lighter than your beige, has a little gray to it, but not that battleship color gray.

looks nice w/the other colors in this palette.

here it is with white wainscot, dark wood, and a bright entryway. it's a beautiful neutral. maybe try a sample for your kitchen/fam room area. The aloe colors would also work well w/you rug and warm toned furniture.

or, see if you like any of these w/the rug

JuliA, from what I can see, now that all your pictures are here, your basic palette seems to be warm rather than cool. If you do choose a gray I hope it will be a light and warm hue, like the one Beth mentions. Paint should be a backdrop that is a canvas for the colors of your furnishings, art and accessories. Your wooden furniture is very dark, and the large, hulking presence of your TV cabinet further drains light from that room, in addition to being "dated". Classical furnishings don't "date", but that TV cabinet does not fall in that category. I would give it away and find a low console on which to place the TV and fill the space around it with meaningful art, assuming that has any interest for you. I'm seeing more organic things, such as the baskets and the trophy heads in the bedroom, rather than paintings. Whatever is important to you is what you should surround yourself with. You say your rooms are dark, but then all the windows are covered tightly with blinds and shutters, and the lights are on. Are you very close to other houses? Even so, very sheer curtains will give you privacy in the daytime without cutting off too much light.

Fortunately your flooring is lighter than your furniture, but again it's a warm color against which a cool gray would look just wrong, and as mentioned it will further drain light and warmth from your rooms. I like the raspberry colored rug seen above, and warm vibrant colors at floor level would look great with your floors and light colored walls. The rug in your TV room is nice, but it along with the furnishings and pillows makes the room look a drab monotone. The pillows at least could be changed to some with more vibrant tones.

Rugs like this one could also be a consideration. esalerugs and rugsUSA have a lot of selections, including synthetic ones which are kinder to the budget.

ingrid brought up some good points. (I love that last rug!). I didn't know how much you were up for change, which is why I just stuck w/paint. But yes, with your furniture and floors, you need something in the warmer category, or sage greens and soft blues. Not gray-blues.

I also agree about the huge media cabinet. taking that out of the room and doing a smaller console would lighten up that room considerably. that piece is far too big for that spot. Imagine if you had something like this (just the part between the windows) in place of what you have now

the tv is on the wall, you have some simple storage beneath, and a few open shelves for your knick-knacks. for you I'd do a darker wood shelf and maybe a softer white.

same premise. notice the furniture w/the rug and coffee table. you only need a few pillows on your sofa, ditch 3-4 of them. A hanging light over the middle, like shown here^, would also give you some extra lighting.

Here's the rug, above, with some possible colors. since you want more light, try the Creamy or the pale oak or the beige shade. maybe in the kitchen you can do one of the blues

BM SeaFoam

the other thing I would change are the mini blinds. they really add nothing to your room. you have 3 beautiful windows there in the kitchen, and those blah blinds covering almost half the wall. do some sort of roman blind, shade, woven wood, cellular or my fave are these louvered type of blinds. Silhouette or Pirouette in a nice soft white or blue would look great

the last thing I'd do to brighten things up a bit, is spray paint or chalk paint those dining chairs in the same white as your cabinets.

YES, I am painting all the rooms in the house. Love the pillow and rug colors shown aboveas well as the paint suggestions. I can break up the entertainment center and use the columns of cabinetry perhaps in one of the back bedrooms or give to one of my multiple children if they can use it. My husband will like the opportunity to get a larger TV! So thanks for the info. I will mark cool grays off my list . All comments are appreciated. Thanks for taking your time to respond.

We do live out in the country. It was last night when i took the pictures. That is why the plantation shutters and blinds were closed and the overhead lights were on.

In the country for sure.

what a beautiful space!

My son is repainting his house room-by-room, and so far has used BM Edgecomb Gray for a windowless basement bathroom, a windowless upstairs hallway, a north facing hallway/entrance and a north facing stairwell. It's a gray-beige, not a cool color, and looks good with his terra-cotta colored tile and his brown carpet.

What is nice is that it seems to look a bit different, but coordinated, on each wall, depending how the light hits it. You may not need 3 different colors, if you have a color that shifts with the light hitting it. https://www.google.com/search?q=edgecomb+gray&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVieyCo6XeAhXyqIMKHZAkBjwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1186&bih=603

https://deavita.net/edgecomb-gray-neutral-color-schemes.html

love the idea of painting the dining room chairs to match the cabinets , also the different window treatments for the kitchen. The different colors (not necessarily 3 but 2 for sure) is for the architectural part of the ceiling from wall to darker color (slanted area) above the wall then to the white ceiling. (I don't know the correct terminology) in the open concept living, dining and kitchen space.

I'm not quite sure why, but this hallway made me think of your house.

I just looked at your pictures. You have a very nice home, and I would love to live back in the country. We moved into town, when my husbands health got bad and he could no longer do any maintenance. I really dislike it here, our road is busy and noisy, and privacy is lacking. Now, I am on my own, though, and all maintenance falls to me, so I guess, that, it is a good thing, I am where I am. I love your use of colors. I do think your media center takes over your living room, and I think you could use a much brighter rug in there. I like the red rug that Ingrid posted. Of course, I have to admit to be prejudiced, because, I have a lot of turquoise in my own house, and also have red rugs. Your floors are beautiful, and your home has a lot of personality.

Julia, your home is beautiful and I love the idea of using a beautiful light, neutral gray with warm undertones. Beth had some beautiful samples. Best of luck pulling it together, what a fun process. :)

Take a look at BM Collingwood. It’s a light greige, but is actually part of BMs off- white collection. Nice neutral...not too light and not too dark.

https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/colour-review-edgecomb-gray-benjamin-moore/

https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/colour-review-benjamin-moore-collingwood-oc-28/

https://kellybernierdesigns.com/color-crush-benjamin-moore-collingwood/

Changes I have made to my entertainment center so far. More pieces to go if I can figure it out.

I have moved parts of the entertainment center, moved 3 of pillows off the big leather couch, continue decluttering and looking at paint sample and new rugs. thanks

When you decide on a color, you can still pull it through your home if it is a good neutral. Use the darkest shade on the color strip for your rooms that are open and have good natural light. Use the lightest color for spaces like closets, hallways, bathrooms, laundry, where there is not such good light. The mid-range tones from the color strip will do well in your average lit rooms. I think your rich wood tones would look great with greens that work with your peacock dining room. You can cut the lightest shade with 50% white for ceilings if you like that idea.

You've made improvements for sure. One thing I noticed is that your decor items only seem to fill the bottom half of their spaces. Think about looking for taller/larger items that fit their spaces better. Or put some large books or boxes sideways and place smaller items on them. I did a bit of a photoshop here, and placed one of your large red books sideways, with the 3 silvery items (vases?) on the book, grouped a little closer together.

Also, I'd remove the bowls/baskets from the tops of all shelving. It makes it more imposing and draws the eye up, where you want to keep the eye lower down.

For your books, group them by size with the tallest books on each shelf on the middle or on one end. Then pull all the books forward so they sit evenly at the front of the shelf. They will look better.

If you plan to style it, rather than remove the top, then 1/3 books, 1/3 large decor items and 1/3 open space. I think it could stand some LED lighting.

I don't mind the look of true bookshelves, i.e. just books.

ecoenthusiaste: how to potentially use LED lighting for entertainment center? The books are photo abums and larger books mixed. The lower cabinets also have books, etc in them and bottom of the TV (console) has vinyl records.

also a pano pic of our 3rd bedroom we use for an exercise room. Put some the LR couch pillow back there, moved the the dining room table rug to back and the bilateral ends of the original entertainment center to the exercise room.. The open door is a bathroom. Also took some pano pics of the other parts of the house and used editing tools to lighten everything so you can really see the colors. Someone had mentioned the kitchen windows. Obviously this pic was taken during daytime with blinds open.

pano hall, kitchen, etc. You can see the different shades of a beige, deeper tones, etc.

pano LR etc. I am done now, thanks. All comments have been super. and thanks to Houzz for having this forum. I even put a red "book" (actually photo album is all I had) underneath the silver vases on the top left of the entertainment center so I could see the look.

pictures are having major problems posting.... taking forever and redoing multiple times

a better lit pic of 3rd bdrm