Is the furniture in the pics yours?

@Sammie J No. We are going to get new furniture.

I love your living room and office setup. I’d do two couches facing eachother on either side of the fireplace, with two swivel chairs facing the fireplace at the bottom of the ”U”. In the office, I’d do pretty much what they have there, with counter space under the window - maybe some file drawer space under, too? Leave the kitchen alone for a few years, at least it’s fairly big and everything seems in good shape. I would personally not paint any of the wood - I think it makes nice frames for your woodsy views.

If you don’t want to use the space as an office, a small couch and comfy chair in there could be nice, as well.

What do you like about the house?

Are you willing to paint the walls? It is easier and faster to roll the walls and ceilings than paint all the trim. White will work so much better with the brick.

Consider having the dining room where the prior owner had the large rug and sofa. The space is so handy to the kitchen. I don't think I see a photo of what is behind the fireplace, but it might be a good spot for a t v.

Congratulations on your new beautiful house. Dont get overwhelmed. Thats when mistakes happen. The house looks very clean, and to be in great condition. Your woodwork is beautiful. Move in, get your furniture, and just live with it for a while. Once you have gotten used to the house, you will know, exactly what you need to do, or not do. Anything you do now, when you are overwhelmed and busy, and trying to get moved in, and are also excited to make it your own, may be something you will hate in a couple of months. Its better to move in and once you are completely settled and used to the house, then decide on paint colors, and other things, you may want to do.

@theotherjaye would you paint the walls? When you mean at the "U" is it the "U" in the great room near the windows? Would you dress the windows? We have lots of privacy and acreage. Thank you for all your input I appreciate it!

@Angel 18432 I love the great room and the windows. We love the enchanting forest it is in and all the land. We do like the hard wood floors but the trim I am not a huge fan of. Not a huge fan of the cabinets in the kitchen but I like the back splash.

@elcieg I love that. Should we do a crisp white? We were hoping to paint the walls. Looks like we have to paint all of them. Or section it off by painting great room/library/kitchen first then the front of the house (study/entrance and dining room).

Live here for a year, figure out how you actually use and want to use the house, and then decide what to do (paint, remodel, $$$ furniture, whatever).

@Melissa L this is our second home so we have a better idea how we are going to use the house. We have three little children which we are starting to home school the oldest (5). The two front rooms will be home school use/dining room and the back will be lounge. Hence why we want to keep a library. Not pictured is a extra 4 car garage with a loft on top (husbands office) so we don't need to have an office in the house. The front room which is not the dining room we are also converting to a guest bed and adding french doors asap. I'm not sure what color to have the french doors be?

@cat_ky Thank you for all the compliments. I am a little concerned with trying to paint the house with 3 potentially 4 little children 6 and under running around. That is one of the main reasons I don't want to wait.

Because of the woodwork, you shouldn't paint the walls a white-white. If you haven't had to paint a house before you have a lot of learning to do. If you go to a paint store you will find they have dozens of "whites." There are warm whites and cool whites. You should be looking at warm whites. But if you have no experience with any of this you should engage a designer, or at least a color consultant. The major paint brands frequently have color consultants who work in their stores. However, if you're not near at least a small city you may have difficulty finding this expertise. Even if you hire a professional to paint they are going to expect you to have chosen a color, and they are not the best people to advise you on a color. There is no right or wrong color to paint your walls as long as it is a color that fits with the other elements in the house and your furnishings.

This forum is good if you are about halfway there and need help deciding between a couple options of paint colors, furniture, floors or cabinets. It's also a good place to go to get assistance with furniture arrangements, accessorizing, critiquing of kitchen or bathroom designs or floorplans for remodels or new builds. There are hundreds of articles on this site if you want to educate yourself, or use Find a Professional on this site to find someone who will help you with the whole house.

The only thing you really need to do before you move in is floor refinishing. If the floors are in good shape you don't need to do anything. As @cat_ky says, just move in and think about things for a while before starting to change things. Since very few people have unlimited funds you should plan what you want to do, the order in which to do it and know the cost of what you want to do before you get started.

I agree with @kandrewspa and @cat_ky. Warm white, and enjoy your beautiful woodwork.

I've been recently reading Maria Killam's blog, which to my mind has a lot of common sense. She has blog posts about homes with a lot of oak, like you have. It will be beautiful! Work with it!

Wow thank you so much everyone for all the info and tips. There is a Sherwin Williams store close by, I've heard that is good paint? Is that true? I was thinking about going to them and talking with a consultant as pp mentioned.

SW has all grades of paint. There are many commenters on here that use and like SW, so hopefully they will weigh in with what the better/best lines are. (i.e., Duration, Emerald, etc.)

I much prefer Benjamin Moore, but totally understand if there's not a dealer near you.

Will you hire out the painting or DIY?

Make SURE your contract specifies the details as to prep, damage repairs, # of coats, any upcharges, etc.

The pics of your home are beautiful. Find a light neutral or warm white that works with your current wood tones. On my monitor, it appears there is still a lot of "pinky beige" in the house.

With little ones, the wood finish will be MUCH easier to take care of than if you painted all the trim white!

As others have said, live in the house, and know how it works for you BEFORE making major changes! Especially know if you're changing anything that affects both the interior and exterior before moving forward.

You can usually get design help from a good furniture store and assistance with color choices from a paint store color consultant, but if you are completely clueless you run the risk that they will lead you astray. An interior designer that has examples of their work posted on their website that you like and is someone who listens to you and doesn't bully you may be your best option. Interview several and see who makes you comfortable.

I like wood trim and creamy white walls, but I may go with a bit more color if I had 3 kids under the age of 5. You may want to paint every thing the same color or make some rooms darker if it where you want the kids to relax and pick a color that intensifies concentration and learning in the rooms where you will be home schooling. A craft room may be painted in a color that encourages creativity.

Blues, greens and creams all go beautifully with wood. You want to pick furniture first since there are fewer colors to choose from and then pick your wall color.

If you can possibly have the walls painted (warm white is good) before moving in, do it :-) You need to see the trim against a white wall before jumping in to change it.

Your woodwork is nice but not from old growth trees, I presume -- so if someday you paint it it's not a disaster (but shellac it first, to make future removal of the paint easier).

Your windows and the trees outside are gorgeous!!!

The setting is the reason I'd keep the wood trim. It frames those beautiful trees and greenery absolutely perfectly.

@Jennifer Hogan thank you so much I had no idea I could put the pictures into a website like that! I appreciate all the advice.

OMG home, woodwork, floors spectacular! Paint walls warm white, embrace the rest please!

There is a B.M. white, which I always refer to as its "universal white"...and the name is just plain old White...B.M. OC-151. It is beautiful. I would do the walls and the ceilings in eggshell finish...easy to do.

OC-151 has a LRV of 83...which means it is not a bright white. It looks beautiful with grays, greens and purples.

IMO you begin by choosing the new furniture and the style you are going for. I hate oak so painting the trim would be my next step.

I have SW Antique White, but used Behr paint. I like Behr better, since I paint myself and it works better for me than SW. I just told Home Depot paint department the color I wanted and their computer copied it. I bought one quart of the color I wanted, in the sheen I wanted (matte), to try to be sure. (I was renewing paint from long ago and wanted the same color.)

I painted the walls and ceilings the same color.

It is a soft off white with no gray undertones. It would work well for you with oak. I wish I had stained wood windows, please paint the walls first and leave the windows alone.

@Sherry8aNorthAL should I use matte as well? I do have little kids so I am concerned about things sticking to the white walls haha.

be careful using online color apps. The colors often appear differently than they look on your walls, but they get you in the right ballpark and give you a visual of what you want to see. You may have to go a shade lighter, darker, cooler or warmer to achieve the look.

@Jennifer Hogan Yes that makes sense. I was going to try a bunch and then go to the store to get swatches. Someone mentioned putting them against the walls and observing them at different times of the day.

It's actually pretty easy to DIY paint with young kids in the house. You use a paint like BM Aura that doesn't require wet-edge painting. And then you do one or two walls a night after the kids' bedtime. If you're hiring pros to paint, it would be a real headache keeping kids out of the work zone. So if hiring out, do everything in a warm white before you move in, and know that you can go back and change colors in some rooms later, when you have a better sense of the home.

Make sure your swatches are large, and tape them to a white posterboard to move around the room. Putting a swatch right up against the existing wall color can distort the swatch's appearance.

I like the look of flat/matte on the walls and it has always scrubbed well for me. I do two coats. My boys were 4 and 6 when we moved here in 1980. I never had any problem cleaning the walls, but of course nothing will stand up to markers, lol.

This is the paint I used this time, except I had them match it to SW Antique White.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-PREMIUM-PLUS-1-gal-Ultra-Pure-White-Flat-Low-Odor-Interior-Paint-Primer-105001/202761505

I painted with Sear's Easy Living Antique White all those years ago and loved the color. Of course Sears went out of business and had stopped carrying the paint. I googled and found out that SW had made Sears paint for them. That is why I tested the color and if not exactly the same, it was very close. I am happy with it, but I also do not like pure white.

Whatever color you pick, don't use gray as it won't look well at all the oak (as mentioned above).

Totally agree, paint everything a warm white. Look for something with some depth to it, and no yellow undertones.

Try to get the little samples and paint poster board pieces to move around.

I would leave the trim alone.

Beautiful house. : )

Hi everyone. I don't know if I should update here. I am wondering what type of finish I should go with for the paint? We are going to choose a white. Eggshell? Matte? Wondering what looks best. We have 3 little children age 5 and under so it does get crazy.

The advice I got from a pro years ago was flat. Her reasoning was that eggshell washes better, but touches up horribly. Flat can be touched up almost seamlessly. And little kids do a lot of wall damage that's not scrubbable. She said keep your leftover paint sealed, and plan to do spot touchups once a year.

I'd tell you how that worked, except we've skipped the "annual touchup" part of the plan entirely. But we did paint with Aura matte, and it scrubs up really well.

I like the wood trim. My first thought was the wall color needs to be updated. I think clean white/off white walls would make a world of difference.

We used a washable flat in our office, (SW Pure White) and surprisingly it is washable. The Keurig coffee maker splatters on the wall in our little office kitchen and you can wipe it right off.

Each manufacturer and line has slightly different sheens and names for the sheens.

I prefer an eggshell on the walls, flat on ceilings, satin on trim. I am using BM Regal select.

Matte and Flat are not the same. Matte is slightly shinier than flat but not as shiny as eggshell.

I don't find eggshell overly shiny and the glossier the paint the easier it cleans.

Regal select Technical specifications (found on the Technical Data Sheet)

Gloss / Sheen Flat (1 – 3.5 @ 85°)

Gloss / Sheen Matte (2 – 5.5 @ 85°)

Gloss / Sheen Eggshell (15 – 22 @ 85°)

Gloss / Sheen Pearl (15 – 25 @ 60°)

Gloss / Sheen Semi Gloss (50 – 60 @ 60°)

Aura does not come in flat and Matte is slightly shinier than the Regal Select Matte

Sheen / Gloss Matte (3 – 6 @ 85°)

Aura Eggshell can be less shiny or ass shiny in the eggshell formula when compared with regal select.

Sheen / Gloss 10 – 22 @ 85°

Benjamin Moore Scuff X (seems to be a hot new favorite, especially for households with kids)

has a matte that is somewhere right between Regal select Matte and Eggshell. Might be the best compromise between cleanability and not too much shine.

Gloss / Sheen Matte (8 – 13 @ 85°) (9.5 @ 60°)

Gloss / Sheen Eggshell (15 – 25 @ 85º)

I have not used Scuff X, but have read quite a few posts where people absolutely love the durability. It was designed for commercial applications, but is being used by homeowners. "Ideal for high-traffic areas in commercial spaces such as school hallways, hospital waiting areas, hotels lobbies, gym locker rooms and bathrooms, retail fitting rooms, cafeterias, bathrooms and stairwells."

I think you can really take your time here. It's a lovely house. I think there are some shades of green that could be beautiful with the wood. The kitchen looks to be very functional and I like all your wood. It's just the current color of the walls that doesn't work. The best money I spent when I prepared my last home for sale - and moved into my new one - was someone to pick the paint colors. While all white could be very nice, I was glad to have some variations from room to room.

I only put egg shell in the kitchen. It is harder to touch up nicks. I have always used and washed flat. It is very easy to touch up if needed. I used Behr this time and their flat is called matte. Looks the same to me.

With your woods and floors be careful. Most “whites” will reflect the gold/yellows from the woods making whites go more yellow. Ewe. So, a pale sage green in a flat finish, SW Duration is very durable and Mr. Clean sponge cleaners work well on it. Take a look at SW Livable Green.

If you determine you want light, you can’t go wrong with SW Alabaster. Great near white but just a bit softer than a bright white. I have it in our whole house. Very easy to decorate and live with. Here is picture of our great room with SW Alabaster on walls. TIP: get paint chips from Sherwin Williams store. Take home. Look at them in various rooms. Pick 3-4 you like best. Order large samples from www.samplize.com. Easiest way to get best feel for color without the burden of paint samples, disposal of leftovers etc. These samples you can place on walls at various times of the day and get a feel. Do NOT paint samples on your existing walls.

I would live in the house for awhile if you have not already, looking for how the light changes throughout the day. Your home is beautiful.