We are about to hire someone to paint our finished basement. The top half of the wall is drywall and the bottom half is currently paneled which is very dated and we are going to paint. Our painter suggested a lighter color on top and slightly darker color on the bottom including the baseboards. I had been thinking the opposite and having the paneling white - like the trim and the slightly darker color on top.

I can his point that putting the darker toward the bottom will "ground" the room and make the ceiling feel a little taller ( we have low 8' basement ceilings). However, I'm a little stuck since I was thinking I wanted all the wood surfaces to be whitish.

For some context: Our style is pretty transitional and our basement is almost never used but just want to do what will look best. And there is another room connected to the large open space of the basement that is all drywall. That room, I'm planning on doing the slightly darker color on the walls and white for the trim/doors since we have white built-ins in that room and I would like the walls to have a little color.

Thoughts?