1) Green is nice.

2) I could be wrong, but I don't think you've actually tried any window treatments in there -- those are still the same curtains that came with the house that I said were ugly 3 years ago. There are options.

3) If you do the shades thing, get the shades in green as well. If your paint is a very light forest green, that "cedar grove" color would work well. Or, get the shades in white.

4) I still maintain that you don't have to carry the paint all the way through the hallway, you could stop at the edge of the living room.

5) If you insist on painting the hallway, I would suggest yellow paint for everything instead of green. Then get white or tan shades. French doors won't prevent people from seeing 3 colors when they walk in your house.

I haven't tried other curtains because curtains for windows that big are $$$ and I have never seen anything that even remotely appears attractive to me so the idea of spending all that money on something I don't think I'll like is pretty, well, not interesting. Plus those windows need new shades anyway, the blinds got all snapped by the dogs.

I agree, painting the hall *might* be a bad idea. I think I may paint the living room first and decide on the hall later. I'm open to yellow if someone can help me find a yellow I like.

1) green - try an apple green like my kitchen color. aunt shannon can pick you out a shade that does not contrast with lavendar and blue rooms, it's about the shade of the colors your use in the different rooms, not the actual color. you may need to call aunt shannon, not sure if she's a blog reader.
2) on the shades - use the same color as your trim around the windows - white?
3)you cannot break the color in the middle of a wall, colors go from edge to edge, so yes, definately carry the green color through the front hallway.

there's all my wisdom

I like the provincal collection, you can so use the green in that throughout the whole living room/hallway.

I think you should go with a bold color as opposed to a timid one. With all the white trim, things would look great.

As for the curtains/shades/plywood I'd wait to see how the room looks once you've painted.

Also, white door frames. We have a LOT of colors in our house, and a semi-modern decor... lots of clean lines, but the rooms float between traditional-inspired modern to our deco-modern dining room. It all works because the doorways are all Pure White. It's let's the yellow (4 shades in our giant family room), peach (kitchen), teal (dining room), green (living room), redish-tan (den) all flow together. Wherever you are in the house, your line of vision sees 2-3 colors, and they are all complementary with while doorways separating them... The color wheel is your friend.

I dunno if my previous entry was deleted, didn't enter the favorite planet, please check the submissions and add it.

Your styles are a mess. You have a traditional house, with ornate molding, and a disaster of white. White works nicely for modern homes, but not with molding.

Grab Decorating 1-2-3, learn about traditional styles and colors.

I love the blue room, it's called the Newport Style, with the light blues. You also have a chair rail with the double colors, a lovely feature. You can carry that elsewhere.

You want a green dining room, no problem. Put in a chair rail, and do a light green and a darker shade of the same green in there, it'll make the room warm and inviting.

Paint should extend to the edge of the wall, ideally, but you can break it elsewhere if you manage the transition... we have a billiard green and teal running into each other, but the wall is only 12" at the point (above the door) so we just have a line there, but we're planning to get a custom mirror cut and placed there.

Yellows are good, if you go to Home Depot and look at yellows, find the Straw Hat or whatever yellow (it's on the Chickadee card, the darker yellows are powerful accents, but on all the walls and it looked like we shot big bird), and look at options cards around there.

Regarding curtains/shades... Stop picking elements that you like, you look like a bored housewife with a massive budget. You're a trained engineer, pick a style and color that you like, and find accents/elements that match the colors/style.

Good luck.

Thanks for the compliment on the blue room. That is actually what is meant to be the formal dining room. Its the only room in the house where I actually picked out the colors and painted it.

You're right, too much white everywhere, which is why I'm trying to decide what color to paint the great room (sticking with the white molding and built-ins, because I don't intend on painting those). Actually, my pictures probably don't do the style of the house justice, but it is actually more modern than it looks in the photos - I think you have to see how the ceilings are raised and lit to get the full picture. The people who lived there before me selected a lot of very traditional window treatments and wallpaper which, unfortunately, does not fit with either the house or my style.

Nothing in the pictures shows modern... A famous modern architect said "molding is obsolete," your house is full of molding. While the lines are somewhat clean, the molding/built-ins all follow a traditional style.

Either a Newport-style light color scheme or a more traditional color scheme with rich, dark colors will make the white molding pop. Depending on the style you choose to go with, the window fixtures are straight forward. They are the most expensive part of design with no functional purpose, so keeping them cheap and simple will give you a more modern look.

Go with plan white cloth draperies if you are going more Newport, or dark reds/maroons if going darker and more traditional. I think that overly traditional in Texas will feel strange, but without removing the molding, it's hard to get a southwestern feel down.

However, if you go more Newport-style, you can have fun with the room with the big windows. If you have more southwestern landscaping outside, then an orange color on that wall would frame the landscape nicely, and you could go with a complementary yellow on the other walls... The yellow would complement the light green on surrounding walls, and the light green will complement the blue when you get towards the dining room.

Buy Decorating 1-2-3, Buy Decorating 1-2-3, Buy Decorating 1-2-3, Buy Decorating 1-2-3, Buy Decorating 1-2-3

The rules of decorating are really easy, but if you don't know them, you can spend a fortune making your house look bad. I've seen people with Victorian window treatments that cost a fortune, in rooms without molding and a modern feel (complete with Plasma televisions and black leather sofas) that look HORRIBLE... They spent $20k "sprucing up the room", while a $1k budget on simple, modern blinds would have looked great.

Don't fight the molding, paint it with a fresh coat of white paint, and embrace it. It gives you an elegant touch.

You're not as modern as you think, judging by the furniture selection. My wife is coming to terms with the fact that she has a more traditional style than she thinks (though contemporary traditional), which will likely make the house need some expensive changes at some point, but we've found a way to incorporate modern features with careful transitions...

Good luck.

I think either a light green or yellow would work, although I think the green fits you a bit more. I think you could get away with painting the big room in the green and the hallway in a neutral. That would help with the color overload when you walk in the door.

Here's what I do when I'm thinking about changing a room. I take a picture of the room, put it in powerpoint, and then replace the walls with rectangles in the colors I'm thinking of. It doesn't give you an exact color representation, but it gives you the general idea.

I was thinking about it more and I do agree with Jen -- green is more "you." And I've decided that it could be carried through the hallway if you want since I think blue, green, and purple are complementary enough.