Hi, I like your choices and I think it will look great.

Yes, definitely paint the panelling white.

And the ceiling between the beams, white as well. The beams could be painted or left dark - I don't think I'd paint them white. But I think you need to address those track lights and find something nicer that throws more even light onto your built ins.

The built ins can definitely be blue.

As for paint colour choices here are some of my favourites:

BM - Hale Navy - love this colour and it looks fabulous with white.

Hale Navy HC-154 | Benjamin Moore · More Info

This is BM Van Deusen - another favourite for many. Still has lots of character and may be just that bit lighter for your room since you live in northern climes and may not get a lot of light much of the year. I think it looks spectacular on cupboards and built-ins.

Van Deusen Blue HC-156 | Benjamin Moore · More Info

Here is my favourite BM white - Chantilly Lace. In my opinion, the perfect white - not too stark and not yellow or grey. Looks great with either of the blues above.

Chantilly Lace OC-65 | Benjamin Moore · More Info

And yes, switching out the rug for hardwood is going to make a massive difference to this room. I'm fond of mid to dark toned floors - I wouldn't go as dark as the beams in the ceiling but I'd look for a brown stain and stay away from anything that has red tones. There doesn't appear to be any red colour in the stain on the ceiling beams if they are staying as is.

Once you have the hardwood down and decide on your furniture, you may decide you want an area rug. They can make the room feel a bit cozy and help deaden sound as well. I think you'll need to choose your paint and flooring colours, then your furniture - then you can move on to accessories and possible artwork etc for the wall and on the fireplace mantle. The fireplace looks pretty good and I think white paint on the walls surrounding it will help. I see it is dark wood on the current mantle. You'll have to see once you paint the walls if the mantle should be painted to match or left darker. Hard to know until it starts to come together.

Are those patio doors leading to another room? Are they staying? You might consider french doors if you need doors there. I'm not clear which wall is coming down to open up to your kitchen.

I like the first two mockups - white with blue built-ins.

Keep in mind that painting paneling will create shadows from the grooves. You will never have the smooth, pure white wall as in your mockups. The grooves may also render awkwardly placed wall hangings because the grooves are not spaced evenly. My suggestion is to remove the paneling and add sheetrock.

Good point tdemonti. Is the panelling solid, or is it 1970's 4 X 8 sheets of panelling. It looked pretty solid to me from the pictures. If so, I still think it will look good painted even with the grooves although it does add to your painting labour to paint all the grooves.

If it is the sheets of plywood with grooves in it, then I'd for sure get rid of it and put drywall up instead.

Okay great! So we'll go with the blue and white. The paneling is actually quite nice, it's not that old thin 70's stuff. After debating painting or sheetrocking, we decided on painting because we actually like the texture of the wood. We will, however, sheetrock the ceiling between the beams as the ceiling is currently several gigantic pieces of some sort of styrofoam material. We also plan to take down the can lighting and put in recessed lighting in the ceiling. @mvcanada, I like the idea of holding off on painting the beams and the mantle until the rest of the room is painted. The person who is helping us take down the wall said he has a chunky old beam that might work well to replace the mantle. I'd be curious to get thoughts on that as well.

I was not clear in my post about which wall will be taken down. I mistakenly posted two of the same pictures of the actual room when I meant to post two different pictures. Here are a couple of pictures of the wall that will be taken down between this room and the kitchen.

Here are a couple pictures of the kitchen to reference the colors we've already used to paint the cabinets which are SW Extra White and SW Whirlpool Blue. (FYI- I wish we would have used a darker blue color and possibly a different white. I perhaps should have trusted my heart rather than the color specialists we hired.)

Now for colors.

Blue:

Thank you so much for the color ideas @mvcanada! I have always loved BM's Hale Navy. We got a sample of that one and it seemed a little too dark for the kitchen cupboards. The Van Dussen Blue looks great! We'll have to see how that one compliments the current blue of the cupboards. What do you think we should do with the sheen for the built-ins? I sort of like that high gloss look from some of the inspirational images. If we did a high gloss would that be too distracting? What makes sense?

White:

This is the one I am having the most trouble figuring out. We used SW Extra White on our cupboards. Does that mean we have to use the same color in the den? If so, I'm a little concerned it could turn out feeling really cold and stark especially since the room has very little natural light and the light that comes in is coming from the north.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Kitchen pic?

I also think Hale Navy and VD Blue are beautiful. I have a tiny kitchen but the small amount of wall space is Hale Navy.

Hi again,

I don't know how I would feel about high gloss on the built ins. I think the highest sheen I'd consider would be semi-gloss which is what I usually use on trim. I think I'd look for paint that is meant for cabinets. I read on Houzz that people recommend Benjamin Moore Advance paint - it is recommended for doors, trim and cabinetry. I favour Benjamin Moore paints - I've always had good luck with their paint and find their store professionals to be very helpful and knowledgeable.

I don't think you need to use the same colour in the den as the white in the kitchen. Even once you take down the walls, the kitchen cupboards won't really be anywhere near the white panelled wall. I'm not familiar with the SW Extra White colour - if you think it is too stark, then it is. You need to live with it, so follow your heart. But, if in doubt paint a spare piece of drywall or board of some sort and get samples of both colours and move them around in the room to see how they both work.

You are likely going to need to prime that panelling before putting the white paint on it. Now that I see the ceiling in the additional photo you sent I see that the ceiling beams are not actually beams. They are clad in wood. However they still look nice, it is just that I assumed they were actually beams. It looks like it might be stained oak cladding and it might be really nice to leave them with a new white ceiling in between. I think you'll know once you start putting the proper ceiling in and painting it if they are going to make you happy or not. Once you take down the rest of your crazy styrofoam ceiling you may find the cladding is covering up some other type of beam underneath it.

One of the reasons I suggested keeping the beams dark is that the two inspiration photos you showed had the wood beams unpainted.

Yes to pot lights in the new ceiling and make sure they are dimmable - not all of them are depending on the bulb type.

Your kitchen floors look very nice. if you could match those floors I think it would look nice in the den instead of carpet.

One more thing....if it suits, you might consider replicating the hardware from the kitchen on the built ins once they are painted. Since you are opening up the wall it might flow together nicely. Many people favour bronze colour hardware and light fixtures with the navy blues. I can't tell in the pictures for sure but it looks to me like you might have bronze colour handles in the kitchen. If so, I think it would look really good to continue that theme.

You'll need to "style" those open shelves when you get it all painted. I find that type of thing challenging so I'd drop by again and let some of the pros help you with that. Shop your own house first for furnishings. Stay away from multiple little pieces that tend to look cluttery. Maybe you have some pretty dishes or platters etc that would look great in your new navy built ins.

The "styrofoam" ceiling is probably acoustical tile to absorb sound.

@Tdemonti, yes, I'm sure your right about the acoustical. This room was made to absorb sound.

@mvcanada, I believe you're right about the beams being clad in wood. We'll have to see how it looks once panted. If they are actually beams under it, would you ever recommend taking off the wood surrounding it or just keeping the wood?

We'll definitely be updating the hardware on the built-ins with something bronze. I'm not particularly fond of the current hardware in the kitchen though if you think it would look nice to keep it consistent we could certainly do that. Styling the bookshelf is definitely going to be a challenge. Its often hard for me to decide how many books to put in. We could easily fill the whole shelf and more with our own books but I know that doesn't always look the best.

Good to know that you believe the whites don't necessarily need to match. Should we paint the ceiling the same white color as the walls? We'll also be painting the trim white in that room. From what I've read, people usually use the same white from the walls and then use a different sheen on the trim. Does anyone have thoughts on sheen for both? Also, if we paint the trim in the den, should we also paint the trim in the kitchen?

Lastly, what do we do about the cabinets in the kitchen that we left the original color? Leave them or paint them the same blue from the den or something else?

Hi again,

For the ceiling, flat paint - I don't think it has to match any other white you are choosing but it will look good if matched. It is so easy to get it tinted to match the walls - I don't think you can go wrong on that.

For the trim, I'd go with semi-gloss, and yes the same paint colour as the walls. The sheen change makes quite a difference - more than you'd expect sometimes. I like a matte finish paint for the walls- my favourite is the ulti-matte from Benjamin Moore.

I noticed the cupboards in the kitchen still in the dark brown. Did you plan to leave them as a contrast or was there another reason not to have painted them when you painted the rest?

If you aren't completely happy with the blue you've chosen for you cupboards I wouldn't do more blue in there. Would you consider repainting the blue lowers to match the built ins, or is that too much commitment? The pantry cupboards that are original dark brown could be painted white like your uppers and look good. I wouldn't bring a 3rd colour into the kitchen.

Also, now is the time to change out your kitchen hardware if it isn't pleasing to you. That's a relatively small outlay of cash for something that can make a big difference. I'm not saying you need to match your kitchen hardware to the hardware on the builtins in the den, but if it were the same finish it might look more "planned" if you can find something that you like for both rooms.

Have a look at Richelieu Hardware for a huge assortment of hardware, including hinges, pulls, knobs etc.

I would paint the trim in the kitchen the same white as the upper cabinets. I don't think the dark stained trim is doing you any favours in there right now.

When you are pulling the ceiling you can check to see what is under your clad beams. It might be nice wood or they may just be faux beams that were built there. Hard to know until you get a look at what is going on currently with your ceiling and start dismantling.

@mvcanada, thank you for the resource for hardware. I'm thinking about getting these for the built-ins. If we end up liking how they look we might get them for the kitchen as well.

As for the wall of cupboards in the kitchen that are not painted, we were going for the three-tined kitchen look as mentioned in this article on Houzz but I'm not sure that the execution worked out. https://www.houzz.com/magazine/34-trends-that-will-define-home-design-in-2020-stsetivw-vs~118926345?fbclid=IwAR2zhcDKKGywZ60i_IlhuNXFJ2fgaa5Mzqw97VZK3ttX5N4Hja_6Ai2wGOA

I'm not sure what to do about it now. I like the idea of painting them white but my only concern is fingerprints with twin 4 year olds. I would definitely be open to the idea of painting the bottom cupboards the same blue as the built-ins. If we do that, perhaps we could paint the wall of cabinets the same blue?

It makes sense to do the trim in the kitchen the same white as the cabinets. Again, I hope that the Extra White will look fine in comparison to whatever white we end up choosing for the den. I've ordered the following colors on samplize : BM Chantilly Lace, BM White Dove, SW Pure White, and BM Van Deusen.

Along with extending the hardwood flooring into the den, we're having the rest of the floor in the kitchen and dining room refinished. I don't even know where to begin with colors for the floors.

Thanks again for all your help!