@decoenthusiaste I really like the look of a traditional brick home but I have yet to see traditional interior done well unless it’s an estate, it usually ends up looking cluttered, like a hotel room or like a grandma lives there. I really dislike the grandmillennial style and I really dislike very modern style as well. Bright, vibrant colors are not for me. I think neutrals are pretty timeless. If I had millions of dollars and real gorgeous antiques and an estate, I‘d consider something more “traditional” (think ancestor paintings on the walls or an English country house style). But alas, that is not the case. Besides, even Pottery Barn, a relatively traditional brand is skewing towards a rustic look. Even if I do decide to skew more traditional, that living room still needs to be redone, it’s not traditional, it’s just outdated 1980s style. There will definitely be no trouble with resale in the neighborhood no matter interior. Funny but the house up the street went wayyy over listing and had basically the same exterior and had so much shiplap inside (a shiplap ceiling in the dining room!) you would think Joanna Gaines lived in it. But we plan to stay for 15 years to put our kids through school and then drastically downsize. 4000 is way too bright, we just staged the home we are selling and used 3000 k throughout the house per the advice of the interior decorator (we also have the house painted in Revere Pewter/White Dove) and it was just the right amount of light. But I completely agree with you, the light situation is terrible, I plan to get an electrician out as soon as we move in. The bedrooms have no light at all except for lamps!

Whew! Just read through your thread and looked at your Ideabooks. Looks like a lovely traditional home that needs some TLC. The landscaping needs a redo since it has suffered from improper trimming etc. in answer to your basic questions both “Re built-ins” this is space that has value so to just close it up seems wasteful to me. I would take out built-ins and fix walls then add a interesting Secretary desk on left side and console table with art above both areas that coordinates with some great Anthropologie style fabric on accent chairs or pillows. You could build color palette around that pillow.

Any colors you like best for this room?

Chantilly Lace is very nice white/white. Good for trim. It pairs very well with off whites with some color. It might be good idea to find art or rug that you love and we can build color palette around.

@Flo Mangan thanks, do you mean to add that table on the left where that giant dark wood cabinet is or where the wet bar area is on the right in the first photo?

I think you can update the interior to your liking but I would not stray too far from the lovely exterior. I would also not close up the wet bar.

One think I will say is this; Anthropology stuff looks nice in pictures but it is so cheaply made and way over priced. I am looking for a coffee table or ottoman and a chandelier. I went to an Anthropology Home store and was a bit shocked at how shoddy their stuff is. It looks like throw-away furniture to me.

@Rory (Zone 6b) what would you do with that wet bar area? We don’t need another wet bar when we have a lovely large one already off of the kitchen, we also don’t drink.

I am taking out both side built-ins. Then depending on your needs/ desires and the vision for the whole room, find cool pieces for both niches. Lots of ways to go. But I don’t like piece-mealing spaces because they tend to end up un-unified. There are no photos in your ideabooks. Please search for some photos here on Houzz and “save” to an ideabook. This will help define and clarify what you like. That would help focus us out here!

Can you turn the wet bar into a closet or built in storage? I can understand how multiple bars wouldn't be necessary. I turned a wet bar in my old 1970s house into a storage closet and re-routed water lines to make a utility sink in the adjacent garage. Admittedly mine was a hideous walk-in wet bar setup that made no sense at all, but the extra storage way far more useful for us.

@Flo Mangan thank you so much for the advice. Do you like Chantilly trim and white dove walls or does the white dove skew yellow with it? My favorite colors are organic soft neutrals that skew warm like in these photos:

@pricklypearcactus I would but that’s more expensive and I really really don’t need another closet over there, down the hall there’s 4 closets already. I don’t own that much stuff, this house is double the size of my current one and I have leftover closet space in my current house. I was contemplating turning it into a reading nook for my kids, but otherwise having the wall space might be good to hang up some photos or something.

This chart might be helpful. The further down the wheel on right, the whiter the color. We analyze the “chroma” we want .20 difference between colors to be effective. As you move up right side of wheel the hues get more yellow and warmer.

So you can see Chantilly Lace has one of the whitest positions and a chroma (colorfulness) of .27. So a light color to pair with it should have a chroma level about .47 or higher. So BM White Dove would work. It is dead center in the yellow hue family so with low light, it can go creamy/yellow. If you want to be safe, use one color but satin finish on trim and flat finish on walls and ceiling. The different finishes and planes of view will provide visual differences, especially with low lighting. But any color has to be tested on samples (not painted in walls) to see what the color does in on site light at different times of the day and evening.

Just put some ideas together. A little bench for right side niche.

Find a different home. Your plans are not suited to this home. It's beautiful. I don't see a plan for the SPACE in the wet bar???? Dry walling it on this side...makes no sense unless you open it up on another and use that space for a closet or something.

@arcy_gw we chose the home because of location, proximity to excellent schools and work, and eventual resale value (it already has equity as the appraisal is higher than we paid). The aesthetics of any home can be changed completely, I mentioned earlier that the same exact exterior style on a home up the street had an interior that was entirely farmhouse with shiplap on the dining room ceiling (not my style but whatever) and there was a bidding war on it. People my age want a move-in ready modern space, very few want old school traditional style, our realtor said she can barely even get families in to see old school traditionally decorated homes right now (not to knock the style but it’s just not as trendy right now, thanks to Joanna Gaines and Studio McGee on Netflix and HGTV). We redid some minor things in our current home (lots of the mid century West Elm look) and are walking away with a 200k profit in 6 years on it. We plan to do the same with the new home, put in 150k and eventually walk away with a significant return on investment (although we will be in it for longer than we were in our current home). As for the wet bar, there’s already a large closet right behind it that you can access from the hallway to the side of it. I am contemplating making it into a reading nook though.

Just some photos of that home I mentioned that has the same traditional exterior (wish I could find the photo of it that has the giant farmhouse clock in it haha):

@Flo Mangan thank you for your ideas and explanation of color! You have given me some awesome direction to go into, really appreciate it! I plan to get some white poster board and paint some swatches and check out color as soon as we are moved in.

I use samplize.com samples. It is overall less expensive and no leftover sample paint to safely dispose of. They have a peel backing so you can peel back and cut corners to stick up on walls. Also, if the walls have texture, peel backing off and stick while sample up to see how the texture affects the look. Good luck!

Yes, your contractor makes sense to just cover the walls with 1/4" drywall to avoid the labor involved in removing all that stuff. Good Luck!

@Flo Mangan omg I never knew these existed!! thank you!!

@BeverlyFLADeziner thanks, seems like the consensus is just to drywall over it. I asked my kids if they even want a reading nook and they want a treehouse in the backyard instead 😀. I‘ve got a good idea now to add some traditional touches but keep the decor more updated with the muted organic and rustic colors I like. I guess that’s transitional style?

Before you block off these spaces tape up white sheets over these areas and see if you are ok with the look. It will impact the dimensions and feel of space. I was not advocating blocking off but rather removing the built-ins and finishing sides and back with sheetrock to create 2 niches. Art can be hung on the back walls or mirrors. Bbl with some photos.

@jhoff86 - The chart above is ordered by hue, not by whiteness. I am a statistical data analyst and love numbers, but you have to really understand LCH (Light, Chroma, Hue) to master the whites. There is very little color so there is a battle between Hue and Chroma and although the measurements are accurate, they don't accurately depict the human perception of color light waves. The other obstacle is that white reflects light, so the color of the light and quality of the light can really change the appearance.

I used very different colors in my home when I lived in San Diego than I am using in my home in central Pennsylvania. In CA I had my home painted white and then I went to neutrals and used a core neutral with an LRV of 47. I had such bright light streaming through the windows every day that it didn't feel dark, but I tested it in my new home and it is absolutely oppressive. I need higher LRVs to combat the cloudy, overcast sky, and I needed to go with more color, less grayed colors (blues, greens) than I had in my last home. The colors I used there were much grayer here under normal weather conditions.

Every white has some underlying color, but it can be more or less noticeable depending on the colors that are surrounding the white. Chantilly Lace is very white and one of the most neutral whites, but it can be stark and it can make other whites look dirty. (Kind of like having a brand new white shirt and sitting it next to a white shirt that has been through the laundry 50 times - suddenly the older white shirt doesn't look white white - it looks dingy.)

When you say you love neutrals, which neutrals do you really love? Does your closet hold more steel gray, beige, taupe or green gray? What non-neutral colors are you drawn to?

The first picture that you showed above has warm neutrals that skew slightly toward orange vs yellow warmth. The second is featuring gray greens. Looking at any fall color palette you know that these work together. I like 3000 k lighting with fall colors - it seems to bring out the warmth of the colors. My home has more teals, purples, reds and taupe (Taupe is between violet gray and pink beige vs greige which is between green gray and green beige) and 3000 k lighting makes my colors go muddy. I use 5000 k. I have not figured out where people are buying all this 4000 k lighting. It just is not readily available. The industry standards are Daylight bulbs = 5000k and bright white = 3000k and soft white are 2700k. 4000k falls somewhere between daylight and bright white and may be the perfect lighting for many homes, but if you can't buy it it isn't worth mentioning. You also want to consider brand - The numbers on the packages are rounded pretty heavily, so a 3000k from GE and and 3000k from Cree may not be the same color. It may not be different enough to notice if the lights are not next to each other, but you don't want to mix brands in a single light fixture. I like Cree brand bulbs because they have a high quality lightbulb that is consistent in color and has a high color rendering index (It shows all the colors in the color spectrum well).

Do you plan on pulling the white into the kitchen? Do you have white appliances? Do you have white cabinets? What color is your countertop? The white you choose will need to work with these colors as well.

In general I like White Dove with White with most color palettes except blue/cool gray or stark whites.

I am not crazy about Chantilly Lace with White Dove - I personally feel that it makes White Dove look dingy. That is just my opinion and I know people do use the two together.

I absolutely love White Dove walls with an eggshell sheen, White Dove trim with a satin sheen and White Dove ceilings in flat. I think it is the best solution when using White Dove on the walls.

Based on the information that you have shared I feel that White Dove would be a good choice, but the only way to know with complete confidence that it will work is to test the color in different rooms at different times of the day with and without your lights turned on. In the room with little natural daylight you will need to see if the shadows overwhelm White Dove and make it fall flat. Sometimes we have to pull more color into a room with low light, but the White Dove could still be the contrasting white for ceiling and trim.

Following. didn't read this whole thread, but I do think a house like this could absolutely work with a West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Anthropologie vibe. (you can even make really modern furnishings work with an old home, it just takes the right styling.) Since the brands you mentioned are more "fresh", put me in the pro group for painting the wainscoting and trim. I wonder if the grasscloth wallpaper can be painted w/o repercussions? it could add some really lovely texture.

Here are some photos with different treatments of niches in rooms. Ignore styling just notice the various depths and treatments and how they lend depth and interest to spaces. With the bar side, you could even do a bookcase that acts like a door and have secret space behind it to build in a wall safe or other use.

Swing bookcases.

@Flo Mangan I was going to have a cabinet maker put in some built-ins on the sides of the fireplace with open shelving on top and cabinets below to hide the TV accessories from the TV that will be mounted over the fireplace (which we will retile in a herringbone tile pattern) and replace the mantel. I’d love to do something visually different with that area near the fireplace like putting in furniture but my husband asked for the TV in the living room and he’s not asking for much ( we will not have a TV over the fireplace in the master bedroom so that’ll be my chance to hang pretty artwork). I know it’s not the most aesthetically pleasing choice but the wall will look like this (tile color for fireplace will be different though):

That can work, just looks a bit “builder” instead of custom look. It also is not cheap. I have huge TV over fireplace in our current home and it’s fine. Not ideal but it is the only place for it in this house so I get that. Just trying to give you some more creative ideas for your new home. It has lovely bones.

@User sadly the grasscloth is not salvageable per the advice of two painters. Thats what led to the discussion about removing the wainscoting.

@Jennifer Hogan thank you for that detailed write up about white colors. I’m in Georgia so we get some lovely Southern light here but I agree that some rooms can definitely skew too gray and I’m worried about White looking yellow and dated. I’m leaning more and more towards just doing White Dove throughout the house like you recommended in different finishes just because it’s so versatile. The living room gets light from the East and the front part of the house gets light from the West so I think White Dove might be a good option to warm up the west part of the house and not look too gray and be just warm enough for the east part of the house without looking too yellow. I plan on using Hale Navy on my bottom cabinets and White Dove for the top cabinets in my kitchen as well (refacing our cabinets) with butcher block countertops to match the white oak floors that we are restaining. I want the overall look to be very open and soothing and calm.

Aside from warm neutrals and greige, I like colors like sage, hunter green, navy, charcoals, etc. If I had to pick a color palatte it would be this:

@Flo Mangan yeah, it’s not ideal but I don’t know any other way to hide the wires and accessories from the TV otherwise. 😬 Thank you for all the inspiration though!

you were absolutely right to choose location over looks. this house has great potential anyway. it's already pretty as-is, and will get better and better as you work on it. (for a truly bad case of "good location / ugly design dilemma, see this thread!)

I feel like some people on Houzz don't really get what it's like to buy in a hot market. holding out for the perfect home can feel impossible. unless you're like my friend who took -- no joking -- FIVE YEARS to house hunt!

Your craftsman can provide space behind unit to manage wires. There are also wireless solutions for some wires. Just takes some additional thought to get proper infrastructure designed and implemented.

I just want you to check samples on site in whatever light you have and be mindful of a good lighting plan as you go forward.

I would suggest that you not put the TV over the fireplace. It's too high to be viewed from a couch or the floor in comfort. Your neck will appreciate it being placed lower in the room. And, when it's over the fireplace, it tends to dominate the room.

I live in Georgia, too. I suggest that you pick out a decent white that you like and paint the entire room including the trim, bookcases, and mantel. Live in it a year while you work on your ideas. A coat of paint will make things clean and brighter. Give yourself some time to organize your direction.

@homechef59 that was my husbands only request, we have a tv over a fireplace right now and he likes it, so Ive got to make it work. Haven’t noticed any neck issues, the way the wall mount is you can tilt the TV in all different directions nowadays. The mantel will be smaller too, we aren’t using the fireplace so we can make it as pretty as we want. I plan to have art over the fireplace in the master bedroom instead.

@User totally agreed. People here have bidding wars and homes go over listing frequently (if they hit the market at all in the desirable neighborhoods). You’d never buy a house if you got caught up with aesthetics. Our house went under contract quickly, we were either going to throw away money renting or get a lovely home with good bones that we could make our own. Way most people figure it around here, you don’t like the house, just gut it and start fresh. I’ll have to check out that link!

@Flo Mangan yes, I completely agree, I have got to figure out my lighting situation. I know I need some recessed lighting but was also contemplating some lovely lights over the built ins by the fireplace.

I would concentrate lighting where you need it not in ceiling. Recessed lighting is harshest. Lamps and specialty lights such as art lighting can create great mood and entertainment lighting. Floor lamps can help too. Is their junction box in ceiling for chandelier? I didn’t see one in the photos and with low ceilings a flush or semi flush might be enough.

@User oh my god, just saw that link, the bathrooms! What are people even thinking, I shudder to think someone paid money to destroy their bathrooms like that. We are going to be redoing our bathrooms as well but thankfully itll just be cosmetic (need to retile due to old cracked tile and update vanities), the layouts are totally fine.

@Flo Mangan you think 4 cans in there with some 3000k soft light would be too much? There’s no lighting at all on ceiling right now except for a weirdly placed can near the fireplace. Its got that 3 air vents, 1 light aesthetic going on. I love the idea of a lovely chandelier but I think the ceiling might be too low.

Those were some crazy combos for bathrooms. You have to be a real visionary to see the potential there. They did look fairly spacious though. 😂

Just a few.

If you don't want the wet bar, take it out. But don't just block the space off. Put closet doors on it. Then, when you inevitably need more storage, you'll have it in a convenient spot. And if you eventually decide that you want the space for a desk, you can easily take the doors off.

@Jennifer K Theres actually a large closet on the other side of that wet bar in the hallway to the left of the wet bar, I thought about closing off the wall and expanding the closet. I dont need space for a desk area at this point as the home has two butlers pantries, one of which I was going to turn into a little desk nook and a large room for a home office. My kids will have a desk setup in their bonus room as well. I thought about a reading nook but the kids want a treehouse in the backyard instead. My reasoning for the drywall was it’s the least expensive option and I think I need the wall space for hanging photos. I want to take my photo and photoshop out the wet bar and see how it’ll look!

Expand the closet on the other side. Never give up space.

RE: TV's over the mantel. This mantel may be much higher than the one in your previous house. You and your husband sit in the room at the proper seating level and test out the angel. The mantel seems high enough that it could prove to a problem Better to test for it before you drop money on something that doesn't work for you.

@homechef59 we are actually going to get rid of that large mantel and retile the fireplace and do a very simple mantel around to so my husband can better fit the TV. We will add built in bookcases with drawers to hide all the wiring and such.

Too bad. It's a lovely mantle. You will need to repair the flooring where you remove the raised hearth and refinish all the wood flooring to make it match up. Add it to the budget.

@homechef59 yes, we are refinishing all the wood floors throughout the home. The mantel is nice but it’s way too big for that wall. Wanted something more proportional.