choosing paint colors with wood trim, cabinets, and paneling

[rfeibelm]

We just bought a house (finally, after 5 months of looking!) and the entire interior needs to be repaainted. The previous owners had a very southwestern color scheme going on which just doesn't do it for me. My problem is that the entire house has hardwood floors in a reddish honey color and wood trim to match. The kitchen, breakfast area, and family are one big room too and the kitchen has wood cabinets and the family room has wood paneling on the lower half. The wood is so pretty that I would hate to paint it all white. But, I don't know what colors would look good on the walls other than an eggshell color. I can post pics on Friday after we go in for the inspection. The other problem is that there is very little light coming in and no overhead fixtures, so I need to lighten the house too. Any help is appreciated! I would hate to have to hire an interior decorator, but will if I need to.

[bostonsmama]

The first color that came to my mind was yellow--a soft, buttery, not too lemony yellow in a warm tone. I feel your pain. Our summer home has wood paneling everywhere (and not even the kind you'd really be ABLE to paint over), and in my efforts to redecorate it, I've found a similar dilemma. I find the paneling really dates the place...almost like a 70s orange & brown walls and moulding thing. I think for that reason you should paint the paneling white. It will bring the whole room up to date. Then you can re-add some mocha brown tan tones to the upper walls where there's paneling and a rich white on all the other mouldings.

But that's just my 2 cents.
Larissa

We're doing it! IVF orientation & consult scheduled for May 2nd!
Saline Sonogram--May 5th

Proud Aunt to Jack Dorian, born to my brother and SIL on 3/06
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/32719.jpg

[Corie]

Okay, wait a minute!! Not only are you a fabulous cook
but you are an interior decorator too?!

How fair is it that you got all this talent?? :)

And, why can't you live in Dallas?? :)

[american_mama]

We are remodeling our basement and really like a light, creamy yellow color in one of the rooms called Coconut Scent from Lowe's American Tradition series. In our family room in the basment, we have Spun Honey from the same series and while it's ok, it's brighter and harsher, and we wish the whole place was in Coconut Scent. As warning, Spun Honey is also painted over some paneling in the stairwell and looks pretty bad on it.

So, check out Coconut Scent.

[bostonsmama]

Corie, can I keep you in my pocket and pull you out whenever I need a pickmeup?

You are just a ball of sweetness. :) I'd be in Dallas in heartbeat if my DH could serve his country there!

But seriously, there's a whole lot I don't know how to do, so the fact that one or two aspects of my life might be useful to someone just thrill me to death.

Besides, isn't that what this community is all about? One person may only know one thing, but when thousands of people come together to share that one thing, then we ALL know something about EVERYTHING.

Larissa

We're doing it! IVF orientation & consult scheduled for May 2nd!
Saline Sonogram--May 5th

Proud Aunt to Jack Dorian, born to my brother and SIL on 3/06
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/32719.jpg

[Dcclerk]

I agree with Larissa that a warm, butter yellow might be good. That being said, there are a ton of really horrible yellows, so I suspect that it will be a bit of a chore to find. I also think that a sage green would be great. We had mahogony floors in our old house, and the sage looked fantastic with it. Red and green are great complementary colors and don't look Christmasy, if they aren't too vibrant. Restoration Hardware has a really nice sage, and there used to be a fantastic yellowy-green that I don't see there now. We also had good luck with a latte color.

Without seeing the paneling, it's hard to know if it dates the house so that painting it is appropriate/necessary. At our old house, it dated the house terribly because it went the full wall, Brady-style, and looked really good painted. However, since the paneling is on just 1/2 of your wall, I think you could do a ton to update it and make it look great by just adding a really nice chair rail. I think good casings (including chair rails) and good mouldings make all the difference. If the house we are in wasn't a future tear-down, that would have been one of the first things we did.