Today we are finishing up the options for the room from our Design Dilemma last week.  The homeowner wrote me a lovely email to say thank you for the post and how helpful it was to see the options…she’s still deciding :).

In the last post, we posed two contrasting options for painting the walls and/or trim.  One for a light and airy mood, and one for a cozy feel.

Historic Colonial style often has some shade of white walls and darker painted trim….soft mustard gold, taupe, federal blue, sage green or brick red are common trim colors.

In this room, for the light and airy option, I went with a warm white on the walls and a taupe shade for the trim.

For the cozy option the room is saturated in red tones.

But deciding on a paint color should always factor in whatever else might be going into the room.  Paint comes in thousands of colors and ANY color can be custom mixed so the possibilities are literally endless!

Furniture, fabrics, and rugs come in more finite choices, so whenever we are decorating a room from scratch, I always like to choose the paint color last, once I know the majority of the rest of the ingredients.

Of course the paint must also go well with the fixed finishes - in this case, the fireplace brick and the pine flooring.

Here I’ve pulled together some furnishings, fabrics, and accessories to go with each of the options.  I put them together on storyboards with the colors and then superimposed some of the items on the pictures so you can get an idea of how they might look in the room.

Light and Airy Option

The light and airy option has a summery, garden feel and relies on neutrals and greens (natures neutral!) with some accents in salmon and brick tones that reference the fireplace.

A natural grass area rug maintains a light color underfoot, but adds nice texture.  Window are framed in panels of printed linen in cream and sage.

Botanical art for the wall, green ceramic garden stools for side or cocktail tables, and touches of wrought iron are included here.

Cozy Library Option

For the cozy, library feel, the room in swathed on red and warm wood (or all red!), and accented with warm greens and golds.

A patterned wool rug underfoot adds more warmth.

Windows are framed in a red floral fabric adding pattern and color but, a low contrast with the walls.  Woven wood blinds under the window panels would  be a lovely addition in this color scheme and play off the tones of the wood floors.

A mustard gold ottoman stand in for a coffee table for ‘put-your-feet-up’ comfort by the fire.

Artwork looks stunning on red walls. We’ve shown botanical prints here, but a gallery wall of photos, or paintings would also be terrific.

Which is your favorite?