Yes! That's what happens when you move in -- furnishings and rugs and art and all the rest of decor. Draw your rooms on graph paper and start planning! :)

These are rooms with gray or white shells and colorful furnishings!

Living Room · More Info

Boys' Desk · More Info

Kips Bay Showhouse · More Info

Artsy Smithville, Kitchen banquette · More Info

Vibrant and Cheerful Silver Lake Kitchen · More Info

If it's the white kitchen that's bothering you, get a colorful runner and some upholstered stools to bring in some fun. Get a colored toaster or tea kettle. It will warm up in a hurry!

Cortesi Home Ava Counterstools In Faux Leather, Set of 2, Aqua · More Info

Orange Vinyl Adjustable Height Barstool, Horizontal Stitch Back, Chrome Base · More Info

Green Contemporary Barstool CH-92023-1-GRN-GG · More Info

Nuloom Vintage Corbett Traditional Bohemian Area Rug, Fuchsia 2'6"x6' · More Info

Nuloom Hand-Tufted Gabriela Area Rug, Deep Orange 2'6"x6'Runner · More Info

YBM Home Stainless Steel Stovetop Whistling Tea Kettle 3L, Induction compatible, Blue · More Info

Have fun!

Looks like you have some nice spaces ... but those two floors do not belong next to each other.

The floor in the kitchen is getting pulled up. Same underneath. Want to paint everything. The white is actually dirty. Been empty a while

Are you starting with a blank slate with furniture? If you have existing pieces you know you’ll be using, that will help you decide on wall colors. If you are truly starting from scratch and need a color direction, one way to start is by searching for images with colors that please you. Here’s a screen shot from using the Benjamin Moore color app using a fall photo for inspiration.

Another way to begin from scratch is to search ”color inspiration” in Pinterest. Scroll through the results until you hit on something that resonates with you.

We have dark brown leather sofas. Also probably going to be changing out cabinets and countertops. So truly can do just about anything. It’s almost too blank so I don’t know where to go with it.

Here’s some inspiring images with dark brown furniture. The first one is from a Lone Fox youtube vlog. Drew Scott is decorating his Spanish Colonial home room by room. The arches in your home might lend itself to this style. The second photo is a lighter, more colorful look.

"We have dark brown leather sofas. Also probably going to be changing out cabinets and countertops. So truly can do just about anything. It’s almost too blank so I don’t know where to go with it. "

Translation:

"We haven't even closed yet, and I am already ripping out cabinetry and changing counter tops. I haven't a clue what size ANYTHING is, I haven't moved a box in , I haven't set up the kitchen or made/ eaten a meal in the house. I didn't even notice the dated arches, that make no sense with the rectangle windows and doors.

I'll have to live with my dark brown leather couches for a bit, they may need a rug, but again, I don't know the size of the room, where I am putting them as all I have is eeny weeny real estate photos........."

You see where I am going with this? Move IN. Chill out. You have a bed? A TV?A card table? You wont die because you DO have two couches!

Get a measuring tape, big pad, pencil et. Draw and measure every single room......Start there.

Congrats on your new home. Here are a few questions to try to figure out a direction to go in: What color are the walls and items in your current living room with your brown sofas? Why would you use or not use that same color? Are there particular styles or moods you gravitate towards? Why are you changing the cabinets and counters? Is there a particular style of kitchen you want instead of what is there now?

Everything in my old house was beige. Looking to change things up. The cabinets in the new house are very cheap and peeling apart. Also they are two different sets put together. A white and an off white. I definitely gravitate toward fall type colors. Just not sure how to make it cohesive throughout the large open space

So....... you begin in the kitchen and you can not do that Y.E.T: )

It's the first and only worry for now. You can't "replace" with no plan, you have no idea as to whether you love the layout, and appliance locations, or the cutout window....

Don't put a buggy in front of the horse. Get a pro kitchen designer AND an interior designer. Best money you can spend. Take that advice to the bank.

The first picture is very telling because you can see so many rooms from one vantage point. It does reinforce the need for a cohesive look throughout. Starting with kitchen styles and materials you like will help as a launching pad for the rest of the space. Do you have any inspiration pics for kitchens you like? Do you like wood cabinets or painted cabinets? Do you like modern or traditional style? Do you want a clean and open feel or more of a cozy enveloping feel?

I like what kendrah and acm have suggested. Congratulations on your new place! Oh, and ignore Jan. She’s very tiresome.

What is "tiresome", is the urge to start throwing money at a house without a second IN it! a

A "kitchen with peeling cabinets? in two different whites?"

All houses on move in, are a new beginning. It's not a race to a finish line of house beautiful on day of unpacking. That usually ends with regrets from haste. We don't even know what the brown leather sofas look like, IF that's a starting point? Does she want gray walls? Maybe not........

So yes....feel free to ignore the decades of experience and hundreds of these moves: ) for other people.

I suspect that because Jan is an experienced designer she is used to working with clients who have signed a contract with her and are ready to start detailed planning followed up by construction. However, I think it is perfectly fine to come on houzz for your first brainstorms and daydreams. Folks here can help you clarify your likes and dislikes.

True life is more like this:

" Hi! I'm moving ! Or...." We just bought this house -needs a ton of work'!

What happens? We make an appointment and meet there.

In this house, for instance.....we'd look first at the glaring problems:

Here:

Uh oh......... !! What on earth were they THINKING

with those floors? Which leads to walls, and where things are located, what may stay and what may go and if going...when, and how and change to what?

We walk around the empty rooms, sit on the floor. We talk.

The client leaves to go have fun somewhere else. I am in there for another couple hours with a big fat 35' tape measure ! I take a zillion pictures.

If the house is large, complicated, I may tell that client to connect with the town and get a PDF of the floor plan and email it. Then I get it blown up to correct scale at my print shop. This saves a ton of measuring time.

If the client is a repeater and I know the furnishings? I work through on paper, with that scaled plan, what is still great, needs a recover, can't go , cant fit, etc. or a better kitchen if that is necessary or desired.

On move in day, I am often there. Shouting to the movers the put it here , no, leave that outside for now, we're not sure just yet.

The point is...there can be no plan without realistic paper, or the on site "here we are" . NOW WHAT? For all, you still need that tape measure. .....and a prioritized list of what is most important, which room/s a budget, etc.

"I want to really change it up"? These days, that can render a lot of any home owners furnishings un suitable, or not desirable. .....or just tired. It is quite rare, to toss all the babies out with the bath water . All of it is planning, and process - even if that seems tiresome, and not the instant , definitive answer : ) on move in day. Simply because you don't waste a clients money.

So arches are "dated" - who knew! FYI - one person's "dated" is another's cool retro. The typical advice is to live in a house for a year to get a feel for it, before making any major changes and reconfiguration of spaces is indeed major. The fact that it is so white and blank is actually good, allowing you to move in right away and giving you time and space to work out what it is that you want to do. For example if you are going to redo kitchen then take time to get a feel for current layout vs. new. Oftentimes what you originally think is a problem turns out to be not so much.. Gather pics and inspirations, take time to consider color combinations - what makes your heart sing. A whole house pallette will have 3-5 colors with the unchangeable items (eg floors, brown sofa etc.)f figuring in. You will prob be choosing exact shades of paint colors last, but you should have an idea where you are going with color combinations from the beginning.

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I generally agree with Jan that it is better to move in, live in the home and figure out what you want to do. It works out better when you truly know what works and what doesn't work for the way you live and you are not making decisions based on your imagining how you are going to live in the space.

On the other hand I recently helped someone who has a lot going on in their life, works nights and felt like she needed to stay in her current home until upstairs kind of disgusting carpet was replaced and the dirty walls were painted in the new home. She will slowly get around to renovating her kitchen and baths.

It looks like the previous owners may opened the wall from the kitchen to the living room and put in the arched opening between the two rooms (not shaped the same as the other arches and kind of weirdly placed.)

I wouldn't count on the flooring below the current flooring to be the same as the other flooring and salvageable. They covered it for a reason.

I would want to get a good kitchen designer in before just replacing the cabinets. They didn't have the best taste and doesn't look like a well thought out layout. Not sure why they left the soffit over the arch. Refrigerator is kind of floating by itself and the island blocks the working triangle. . .

As for painting and picking colors - that can be done now since you know you are keeping the wood flooring as is and you like fall colors.

The blue gray and the gray white walls are not great with the flooring, but greige, green gray or green will look lovely with the flooring.

Look at some of the greige and green paint colors and think how you could bring in orange, copper and gold. I love Evergreen Fog, but it can be dark in some homes, but SW has 3 lighter shades.

Look at the colors next to your flooring to get the perfect greige or green for the walls.

Look at art and décor that you own next to the color samples.

Once you decide on a neutral for the main are of the house you can pick a white for the trim that works really well with the color.

So to address the kitchen issues I’ll give more description of what’s going on. These people must have wanted to redo there kitchen but had like no money because the cabinets are the cheapest thing I’ve ever seen. Vinyl is peeling off of mdf core. There are two different styles and colors. The countertops is Formica which is ok but I also don’t like them. They are a solid black. The floor is peel n stick tiles that I did peek under the corner and it looks as if it will come up ok I think they just put it there to try to match the black n white kitchen. I did measure the layout and all the cabinets already and have been looking for ideas just not sure what I want
The change it up comment was just based on my former house being painted beige everywhere. I do lean towards fall like colors. Hate blue. I keep hearing that I have to do a neutral throughout the main space to keep it cohesive so I’m trying to figure out how to do that but give me color. Not just accent with decor. I’ve never had an open concept space before. I have done lots of diy renovating and decorated through many houses over the years. I am home 95 percent of the time so I just don’t want boring I guess.

Nobody wants to be boring or bored! I suggest, that dollars invested in some serious pro advice ON SITE and sharing the "colorful" goal will be money very well spent.

From what to do with the kitchen to a whole lot else.

Crowd sourcing for something like this? Will give you a ten mile three thousand comment result, but will in no way be as helpful as someone in your space with you.

You may be surprised to learn you own things that are a great jump off point to a color palette.

But very open houses ? They are different. You see everything from every where. You may not want those gray walls at all: ) You may want a wood cabinet in a stain.

At this point? Start gathering images of living rooms, dining rooms, kitchen etc, even bedrooms.....that really sing. To YOU.

A truth? People who detest blue, tend to love certain shades of green. Maybe begin there, for inspiration. Then ask if you are a bit modern...more traditional, a bit in between.

This......has green...

This too.....

Traditions refined · More Info

And......just about nobody makes color more fabulous, than Melanie Turner: )

Miller paint blog is one of the few sites where they show a lot of examples of using color and not just neutrals.

https://www.millerpaint.com/blog/

You can change colors wherever there is an architectural break. I am not sure when the definition of harmony changed and became synonymous with monotony. One flooring, one wall color, one trim color everything neutral. . .

I tend to use one neutral as a basis, but I like to add color in different quantities in each room, sometimes with art and accessories, sometimes with flooring, sometimes with wall color.

This home has multiple colors and represents my idea of harmony. It isn't a single note song...

Whole Home Color Palette and Accent Color · More Info

This is truly nothing against Jan but I think every single one of the Melanie Turner rooms she posted is awful. Seriously.

I don't have an open concept house, so you have a different life and if Turner's style inspires you, there you go! I'd be running as fast as I can miles away into a different world or color.

All the elements of this room would work in different colors, including a brown sofa.

And Nothing against my TWO CENTS, but the pics were an example of color and in NO WAY,....meant to imply any brown sofa. The pic above with a brown fabric and modern sofa? Happens to be fabulous.

The OP stated ..."I hate blue"' and read my post again, btw.

We might ask........is she beginning with this? Or that ?

One is a good beginning in this house, the other? Less so. jmho