You know, I see so much beige, and light cautious colours, I actually find this is a great colour and, on the photo, it seems to work with the floors and the kitchen cabinets. I don't know where you live, but in a country with cold climates, this is a lovely warm colour at night and a not too loud colour by day. I would suggest you live with it before you do anything rash and study how light affects it day and night.

Hello, I would suggest focussing on how the paint swatches look next to the cabinetry in the kitchen, as well as the wood floors. . Do they make the wood color sing? The current owner made some bold choices, but they clearly understand how color works and the paint job looks professional. I like the super white trim next to the vibrant cherry or pink (reads differently in each photograph). It looks as though other parts of the home are neutralish-pale yellow. If you decide to go with a serene color that is not beige, I recommend a blue called Colonel's Lady which is a sunny provencal-inspired blue that looks great with that color of wood floors, white trim and is nice in all kinds of light. It would have the same effect of pulling everything together, rather than neutralizing it. The blue is almost a Matisse blue, but both warm and serene.

I'm not saying that I can't see how anyone would like the color. I'm saying that it's not my taste. I don't like 'bold, in your face colors' in my home. If my friends have it, that's fine. I just want to highlight the natural scenery outside and relax in my home. The rest of the home is not yellow. That's just the dining room. The hallway is green. The office is cream. Another room is pink and white. Another room is black and red. Another room is green and blue. It's fine for them. I just want it to feel like MY home and not someone else's home. The color as it is now makes me feel like I'm in a cave.

I see! My own home is all cream and white on the walls, except for one big room of 'Colonel's Lady' which I do love. I remember reading an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, who stated that every time she moved, she painted her whole house 'Arizona White.' It has some pale beige that looks great with white trim and with some contrast in furniture would perhaps fit the bill? It sounded wonderful that she had this personal sense of what color she wanted to make her home her own and was used to living with it. Seems almost symbolic in a way.

What is the natural scenery outside? Do you view the ocean or lake? Are you looking at a greenery? Does that scenery change dramatically depending on the season?

The scenery is grass, woods, and a pond. The home is in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area, so there will be snow in the winter. I'm attaching a picture of the front of the home and the backyard. From inside the house, you don't really see much of the other homes because of the way the house is facing. The picture is taken in winter on a non-snowy day, of course.

ProSource Memphis, I'm loving Sawdust! I don't see much in the way of natural woods in your pictures. Do you think it will complement the woods of the floors and cabinets?

I have it in my office with two different tones of wood cabinets. I'll try to snap a pic so you can see, but you'll have to ignore the mess.

I live in a mess of boxes. I can ignore anything at this point.

Cute house! Consider subtle greens, like BM #521 Nantucket Breeze, BM # 477 Stolen Moments, or BM #1515 Natural Elements. They'll compliment your scenery, work with your cabinets, and provide a calm "neutral."
Enjoy your new home!

Thank you Pamela!

Here's my office with Sawdust. You can see it works well with a couple of wood tones. Excuse the mess.

Lovely house. Just a suggestion because you are repainting: sometimes sellers really love their curtains but feel they have to include them in the sale. You can gently offer to let them take the curtains with them. The dining room curtains look like a custom silk plaid I saw a couple of years ago. If the other colorful rooms have equally personal curtains, make the offer to let the owners take them all to their next place.

apple_pie_order, I have already made the offer!

Use a warm, neutral color

Stay on the warm side of neutral. As soon as you start going toward the blues, the orange in the cabinets will pop. Three neutrals below, green, brown, blue:

Wow thank you groveraxle!

I like the red room with the FP, but not wild about the pink. I would stay away from beige, but a more saturated "greige" could look nice, as would something in the sage green range. So much depends on what you are putting in the room that it's hard to guess.
If it were my kitchen, I'd paint the cabinets, or at least the upper wall cabinets. They look too heavy for the walls, and make the space oppressive. Too much wood.

Lots of good ideas thrown your way. Lovely bones to work with. Only one comment, whatever color you choose, paint the duct grate the same color so it doesn't stand out as a focal point! Can't believe they had red walls and white vents!

It's amazing what painting cabinets can do to a space. Suddenly you aren't limited by your kitchen cabinet colors! You could repaint them in a cream or gray and find a wall color that compliments them for the rest of the space. The color should relate to the beautiful view outside so perhaps green would work.

All of the above ideas are sound advice. I do wonder if you already own a rug you plan to put in this area? If so, your color selection will be narrowed to an easier choice. You have a beautiful new home. Best to you.

I took a peek at your idea book pics. Many of them have a buttery / cream wall paint. I did see one with a soft green. Do you have a preference between the two?

keenplanner, all of the pictures are of the same space. It's the lighting that makes it look red in one place and pink in another. n247080, no kidding about the grate!

moggie73, I do like the buttery/cream wall paint. However, in my mind, I was thinking that the cabinets were more cherry than they are. Then I received the pictures and remembered that they are not that red. That's when I went back to the drawing board and felt lost. I do like the buttery cream colors and may use them in the dining room or office.

I just don't know if I can bring myself to paint the cabinets. I truly love wood grains. My father and grandfather did a lot of woodworking. It's in my bones not to paint over it.

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Try these, they are great colors that would work well with your woodwork all BM paint

Bleeker Beige
http://houzz.com/photos/6233708

Revere Pewter
Shown in a room
http://houzz.com/photos/3877316

Manchester Tan
Shown in a room
http://houzz.com/photos/1706472

I see in your original pics a room off of the kitchen already in a butter tone. If you keep it, and have a paint sample, something in the soft green /greige tones would be lovely. (As in groveraxles first example.) How would you describe the color of you countertops?

Hurry to the paint store! I can't believe someone didn't tell them to paint before they put it on the market. I like pink but whoa. It also looks terrible with the floors and cabinets which have orange undertones.

Moggie, the countertops are corian off-white with yellowish/gold flecks in it. I am going to paint the whole interior just because we will have the house empty so why not give it a fresh coat. The buttery yellow in the dining room can stay or go.

It almost sounds as though a soft neutral, in a color tone that would help blend your countertop color and your fireplace surround is the way to go. Your furniture purchases will make the difference. Have you started there? Your goal of a restful rustic can be accomplished with your choices of window treatments, accessories, etc. Hope you have a great weekend.

I'm liking bleeker beige too! Thank you, laurakdesigns!

Bleeker beige looks amazing with the bright white trim!

It's a shame the sellers agent didn't insist on painting over that color prior to putting it on the market. Paint it all a neutral color immediately, almost any color will work better and the raspberry color is influencing everything!

If you want advice on tone and hue, I would suggest bringing chips home and match to the corian off white background.

Once the raspberry is gone, your world opens up.

Since you stated you are buying new furniture, I would start with those selections first. Paint colors should usually be the last selection as they are almost unlimited.

This does suggest you're painting twice, and I apololgize for that, however paint colors should enhance your other choices not force them. As a designer, I never select paint colors in a vaccumn, i.e. without the fabrics, flooring and wood all selected and put together in a cohesive scheme.

You'll find your paint colors will be much easier to determine once those selections are made.

I suggest a pale green paint for the walls. It calms your eyes, not too bright and not too dull. For the furniture, I rather choose smooth modern armchairs but if you have a big family, you should have big long sofas but not too big. For other accessories, choose neutral colours, brown-green drapes, mahogany cabinets, dark-brown dining table and other neutral kinda dull (but not too dull) pieces. I can just picture your new neutral living room! Calm and neutral.

redteamstrategies, the house is in KY, and we are in TN. I'm trying to line up a painter to pain the house before we have furniture in it, etc. You are so right that the color is influencing everything. It very nearly influenced me not to buy the house. My husband loved the house, but he doesn't care about color. I had to compare dimensions of rooms in this house with another house that we liked in order to be convinced to buy this house. The dimensions of the rooms were identical, but I nearly spent $40.000 more because I felt claustrophobic in this one even though this one has more windows! Now that I know warm tones are best, I have some direction. I have thought about mounting the TV over the fireplace. I'm leaning towards a brown leather couch. Is a sectional a bad idea? I go back and forth. The living room area is 20 x 15

Suzi Than. We do have a big family, and I have a tall husband who prefers to have tall furniture.

Sectionals can be great. I think they streamline the space and make it all feel larger. Tip for you, my husband is 6'4" so I purchased "deep" sofas, more comfortable for him. Everyone else who's short, can put a pillow behind or I can curl up easily.

Thanks laurakdesigns. Yep, my husband is 6'5". You know what I'm talking about.

Good for you doing your homework! Paint is so easy to change; space, location and windows- not so much. That red will reflect and change any color you look at in the space so wait until it's gone before making any color decisions.

Before buying a sectional or sofa in any fabric, I would suggest you make at least preliminary selections on everything with the understanding that when you go to buy them, they may no longer be available ( happens to us pros all the time!).

Are you keeping the carpet? Adding a rug? Replicating the cherry of your cabinets in your other wood furniture?

Beige carpet and brown leather are difficult to balance and bring together into that serene feeling. Brown leather is awesome with other rich textures and deep tones. Needs them actually.

I look to nature for guidance: having the floor act as a ground, with color and tone moving lighter towards the ceiling (sky) will help you find the quiet place. And it sounds like you have a lovely view so a connection to the outdoors in your color palette may help you both expand your space and achieve that serenity.

A dark brown sofa on a light floor opposes this rule. It's dark on light and jarring to the eye when it breaks up our view as our eye moves around the room.

Basically I'm not a fan of beige or light colored carpets. I find them limiting and usually difficult to keep clean and decorate around. Kind of a joke since they're used so often and considered neutral.

Cherry ( I think that's your cabinet wood)has orange undertones. So how do you feel about brown and orange? Maybe not so serene?

The choice of sectional vs. sofa and chairs is a matter of available space, layout, lifestyle and comfort. Layout your room before purchasing.
If you have a lot of guests, sectionals are limiting as the corner becomes wasted seating. But sectionals are great for snuggling! And remember their position is more often fixed while chairs and a sofa can be moved around and the room rearranged.

I'm not a fan at all of TV's over the the fireplace. Ergonomically, the wrong place and unless your fireplace is low and modern they just look bad. Not to mention the cost of running power and cable to it, plus what about the storage of other equipment (DVD players, cable modems, speakers, etc)? More cables, more disconnect. I just can't go there and I hope that trend goes away.

redteamdesigns, you are giving me so much information that I need. We will be adding rugs to the wood floors. The dining room has some dark wood inlays similar to what is around the fireplace. I'm loving your rule of thumb to go dark to light from low to high. I have noticed quite a bit of lighter furniture on houzz. I guess that explains it. I think the cabinets are cherry, but not as red as I first thought. In my mind, everything in that room has a red tint to it. :)

To be honest, I don't like the TV above the fireplace, but it has been recommended to me by so many people that it seemed like it was the 'right' thing to do. I'm kind of traditional in that I don't necessarily think the TV needs to be the focal point of the room. I could be wrong about that. I'm a scientist and not a designer. Do you prefer unmounted TVs?

There is carpet in the bedrooms and office. How do you compensate for a light flooring?

....and brown and orange....not serene

I do have this area rug that I wasn't thinking I was going to use, but now after looking around, I think I like it better than most anything else I find.

Funny, on my iPad I didn't see the photo of the fireplace so I didn't realize you have hardwood in the family room so I understand the need for an area rug there- brown sofa/sectional is much easier.
You clearly have room to put your entertainment equipment on the wall opposite the windows. Although there might be glare, most monitors made in the last couple of years have less of an issue. Your mantle is very high for a proper placement. I'm a traditionalist as well when it comes to TV placement - I don't even like the angle or the height of the previous owners cabinet. If you want to keep the fireplace as your focal point, a colorful or eye catching painting will help to draw your eye and keep it there.
Yes, everything will have a red tint as long as the walls are such an intense color red. Your eye remembers.
Working with light flooring (carpet) can take several approaches, 1. using all light or lighter materials that match the floor with darker or more intense/darker accents 2. using a majority of materials that are close too or similar in value 3. doing what you want and adding accents which match the floor and pull the eye upwards - that's why you see lots of light pillows on dark furniture!
Remember to evaluate the color of your wood floors as well as the kitchen cabinets.

My monitor reads the rug colors leaning towards olive green brown/camel with a touch of burgundy in the vines. Yes?

redteamstrategies, we must have been writing at the same time. I attached a photo of the area rug we have now. I find it somewhat ironic that your username is redteamstrategies when red is current 'problem area' right now. :)

Yes, on the rug.

redteam is a military term for an outside consultant who evaluates the strength, issues, risks, opportunities and unforeseen consequences of the commander's strategies. As I've been a designer for over 30 years, I'm often hired to do just that for clients. When a defense agency said that I was 'redteaming' their project, I thought the name was perfect!.

My husband is a Navy veteran and works for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs now. Shame on me for missing that!

The rug is green/brown camel with a touch of burgundy.

I suggest a trip to a fabric store and buy a reasonable amount of fabrics that match the rug - then off to the paint store for the sample chips of the same. You can make a little palette bag to carry with you when you shop.
Olive is a yellow based green with red added to make brown. Stay away from blue based (cool) green. Burgundy can also go either blue base or lean more brown. Tricky color.

Would love a pic of the rug. Great place to start. All of the Houzz peeps are terrific about these things. Thanks to your hubby for his service!

Moggie73, the picture of the rug is about 7 or 8 messages above this one.