following

Just depends on the look you want for your home.

JudyG Designs: what do you think about the wood trim around shelving etc? It is throughout house. Leave it wood? Is that too dated?

Thanks for all the photos BeverlyFLADeziner. They are lovely.

My rule of thumb is cheap wood gets painted. Beautiful rich woods are just refinished/stained when needed. Your livingroom ceiling is beautiful and somthing to be treasured, not painted over.

Not a pro but I think the ceiling and wood cabinets in your the living room are keepers. I would remove the slanted wood wall and the wood on the ceiling in the kitchen. Replace with drywall and paint.

As I look at your living room, you might want to paint the back of the bookcases. What is bugging me is that the wood on the ceiling looks so much better than the wood on the floor. I don’t know if it is the lighting or if you have plastic floors (laminate). Part of the problem is the current decor is granny style. The shelf on the fireplace seems off to me and I’d probably sheet rock the triangle shelves at the top of the bookshelves as that just seems weird. I would post photos of the room when none of the prior owners stuff s in it. The room speaks to me to have great bones to do a Ralph Lauren type of room that can give nods to modern with also being comfy. The worst thing you can do is to make the room into something it is not with paint.

We have been living with that oak paneling darkness for years because hubby doesn't want to paint good oak. Some things that help are mirrors to bounce light, light colored furnishing and decor and sadly lots of lighting (with brighter bulbs) due to lack of windows. I did talk him into bright white paint over the kitchen wainscot. It brightened the windowless kitchen alot. Also it was easier than ceiling beams to paint.
Experiment with a light white wash of the kitchen ceiling first. You can fully paint it white if the whitewash is not bright enough. It would show you another possility for a thin white washing of the other ceilings. Use lots of bright white in other decor, dishes, drapes etc. live with it a while to see what you need to lighten the most. The light changes through seasons and the candles and Christmas lights make winter the brightest season in my house.

Is white washing fireplace an option.

We might recommend painting the walls a white, as it will help the spaces look and feel lighter. Otherwise you don't have to get rid of all of the wood. Here is a nice design we did that might help you. Note the chandelier in the living room.

Alpine Ski Home · More Info

Alpine Ski Home · More Info

Y’all thanks for all the input. We took down chair rail in living room as well as wallpaper and are going to start painting soon. Will post a picture. We decided to leave the ceiling wood and just paint walls (probably Benjamin Moore classic gray which is really light, with trim simply white). Leaving crown molding for now and will paint wall between bookshelf and lower cabinets wall color as well. Thinking about a solar tube for more natural light and haven’t gotten a new chandelier. Yet.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Love the wood ceilings i the living room. If possible and not costly I would try to tone down the shine. I would also take off the crown molding and just have a simpler finish detail - simple flat. Its hard to answer about the bookcases without knowing if you are going to change the face of the fireplace... Figure that out first.

In the kitchen - this is where I would invest before anything else. There are too many angles - the layout is well functioning - I feel like this could be way better.

Congrats on the new house! Now the fun begins!!

And of course - you really should live there for a while before doing any big renovations so you can see what you really need...let the house speak to you...