The tan looks great! Such a nice room with the ceilings, windows, and fireplace!

I really like the curtains too. What type of curtain rods are they--it doesn't look like there is a center support--so I am thinking the rods must be very strong--I need some rods for a long space for semi heavy panels.

Just gorgeous! Love the wall color and that fireplace is stunning! Beautiful room! : )

Love it!

Looks great -- your windows are amazing!!!

Looks terrific! That brick fireplace is the bomb!

Love the color. I am still waiting to paint my basement that color.

Fantastic! On my screen, the paint color looks more gray. Is it, or just on my computer? I love the changes you made, painting the trim really made a nice difference, and the walls make it look warm and comfortable. I'm saving your pic in my inspiration folder. Great job.

Thank you everyone. Yes, painting the trim made such a big difference. My husband said it looked like a solarium after the trim was painted. That made me very happy!

kristinekr - the rods are one of the Martha Stewart rods. Got them at Home Depot. Quite inexpensive. There are support brackets on the long bank of windows. We put the 2 extra supports just outside the fan window so they are actually hidden by the panels. I didn't want to put a support in the middle of the fan window because it would be very obvious, plus I didn't want to screw into the molding. We actually had to construct the long rod, which is about 16 feet long. All the non-custom rods I found were a maximum of 144 inches. Custom rods were just too much money (there are more windows on the other side of the room not in the pictures). So, I bought a 144 inch rod plus whatever the next size down is. My DH constructed the rod out of the multiple rods that came with both sets. He did *something* in his machine shop in the basement. If you need to know details, let me know and I can get them for you.

marti8a - the color does sometimes look gray. It goes between tan and gray depending on the light. I would say during the day with the natural light it looks more gray.

I LOVE this color! Beautiful!

You've transformed this room in the most amazing way. Everything is cohesive and harmonious, and the gorgeous fireplace really stands out, without competition from the dark trim. The drapes look beautiful and really finish off the room. Congratulations!

It looks fantastic!

So very pretty! More pics, please! :~)

The family room is now just perfect with that gorgeous wall color that really enhances the room and painting the ceiling the same color looks great! I love the fireplace and those ivory drapes are stunning. The room now looks beautiful and cozy. Thanks for the update and sharing with us your amazing family room.

WOW, what a beautiful room! Funcolors hit the nail on the head with this color choice. Looks fantastic.

Just beautiful!!

Stunning....everything looks just perfect. I love the way the drapes pool just a tiny bit. Nothing to add to above. You have lovely taste. c

Your whole room is so gorgeous, love the windows, fireplace, everything!

Can you please post a closer look at the windows with the newly painted trim? It looks so pretty.

I have ugly honey oak windows and trim and want to convince my DH we can paint the trim white while leaving the original window wood as is. Thank you if you can!

I keep looking at your before thread and the after thread and just love it!

A fantastic change. Great job to you and your husband for making it so absolutely gorgeous!

I have to admit that even I, the lover of stained wood, prefers your trim painted. It looks lovely.

Wow, wow, wow! What a great job! I LOVE your room. It was wonderful before, but it's fantastic now. The color is very peaceful, and the whole space looks so restful now. Your trim looks great painted the Vanilla Ice Cream color. Our trim is painted that color too, and we really like it a lot. We always had stained woodwork in the past, so we wanted a change, and the creamy color looks really nice with a wide range of paint colors. Your choice of draperies was spot on.

I'm sure it was a lot of work, but you must be so pleased now. Again, it's beautiful. Enjoy!

What an amazing room!!! I echo EVERYTHING previous posters have said. Wow, I'm in love.

Thanks everyone!

Jan - it was the pictures of your room with your curtains on the 4 windows that convinced my DH to put curtains up. He wasn't sure how it would look with panels between the windows, but I think the picture of your room convinced him. So you get credit too!

cathrugg - I will get pictures of the windows themselves. In the first room I did this (dining room), I was concerned it might look weird but did not want to paint the actual window. And our trim was so unattractive that I just had to paint it. But, once it was done, I was really pleased. I actually like the way it looks. And I don't think anyone notices it unless I point it out.

I will also try to get more pictures of the other side of the room. Hopefully tomorrow. DH and I are both under the weather right now, so we're moving slowly.

Thanks again everyone! Very rewarding to read your nice comments!

More pictures for those that requested --

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cathrugg - here are other pictures of the windows in other rooms where I've painted the trim and left the window not painted. If you would like more closeups let me know.

Living room:
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Dining room:

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I love your colors. I told dh about your Manchester Tan and today he brought home a color chip. Thanks!

VERY nice, thanks for sharing!

Very pretty!!

That fp is wonderful!

I know I'm coming a little late to this party -- but I found this thread doing a search on Shaker Beige vs. Manchester Tan. I am repainting my FR, as I have a number of competing colors in my Fam Rm which, for various reasons, I am unable to change. My only hope of calming things down is to repaint my walls - which are Mannequin Cream right now, and adds to the already "too yellow" cast of light in the room.

MY QUESTION:
Since the comment has come up here that sometimes Manchester Tan looks grey in certain light, it makes me wonder if MT leans to being more "taupe" than "tan"?

Any thoughts on this from those of you who have used MT?

Miss Mary

Beautiful room!!
Love the paint color, the fireplace, those big gorgeous windows, the beams on the ceiling...would love to have this!

Wonderful, wonderful room...enjoy!
(And if I recall correctly, have fun watching those sporting events...I terrific space to hang out in!)

Thanks lisa_mocha! Yes, you do remember correctly. We got our new even bigger big screen last Friday. Just in time for the super bowl. The new console hasn't arrived yet that it will go on so we had to make do with an old coffee table from the basement, but it was awesome! Console should arrive today.

missmary - I guess you could say Manchester Tan leans taupe, as it does lean gray in some lights. But, taupe is a pretty generic term, so not sure what you think of when you think taupe. In my room, it mostly stays just a really warm tan. I really love this color. I find it to be a very nice neutral. Definitely no yellow at all, so it might work for you. Good luck.

Thanks jillinni -
The concern that prompted my question is that in trying to move from yellow to a more neutral tan, that I end up moving to a grey/tan - which is how I identify "taupe": a color that you're not sure if it's tan or grey, and changes between the two. I am looking to neutralize the dull yellow cast of light all thru the room, but am a bit afraid of bringing in gray. (Altho, maybe that's what I should be doing.... sigh).

Tomorrow I'm going to my local BM store and getting samples of Manchester Tan and Carrington Beige. Maybe Monroe Bisque, also.

Miss Mary

Jillinnj, Love how your room turned out!

Did you paint the ceiling with ceiling paint in Manchester Tan and then the walls with regular wall paint in Manchester Tan? We're about to do our vaulted room also. The color consultant says do Aura Matte on walls and ceiling. The paint store says super flat ceiling paint and Aura Matte walls. Not sure what to do now! :)

Also a question about your curtain hardware. Did you get that at Pottery Barn as well? If so, are you happy with it? Do you have any problems with the curtains getting hung up on the rod where the 2 parts of the rod are joined?

Thanks!

Julie

missmary - Definitely sample the colors in your room. However, when I sampled the MT in my room, I painted pretty large areas and the MT looked green! I didn't want it to look green since I have green in the adjoining kitchen. But, after much looking at colors and the contractor bugging me because the painter was showing up very soon, I just went with it. Once on all the walls it did not look green at all. Go figure...

julies_kitchen - we painted the ceiling with the same BM paint as the walls. We didn't use the BM ceiling paint.

The curtain hardware is from Home Depot! From the Martha Stewart line. Much cheaper than the Pottery Barn rods, I think. I do not close the curtains (there are cellular blinds that I close) so I can't say if the rings would get hung up where the rods meet. HTH

So Jill, did you use the same sheen on the ceiling as you did on the walls?

Ooooh, Home Depot. I will check that out! :) Are your rings the clip ones then, or the ones with the 2nd little circle?

Thanks!

Yes, same paint, same sheen, same everything. Easy, peasy :-) As long as you don't mind the height (which I do which is why I did NOT paint this room!).

They are the clip on ones. Got those at Target. Home Depot did not have enough of the ones that matched the rods in stock. And, Target was cheaper anyway.

Thanks so much for posting those close up pictures, they came out beautiful!!!

(Sorry I just saw this, I get easily distracted with threads on the first page and forget to follow-up on older ones!)

So, so nice!!

What a transformation! Gorgeous!

What a transformation! Gorgeous!

That looks really, really good!

Looks great, but I think it would look even better if you added another panel to each of the drapes that hang inside the window. It almost looks like those aren't full enough to me.

Hi jillinnj, thanks for posting the great pictures!

I am thinking about painting my combined family/living room with high ceilings in Manchester Tan. However, I am concerned that MT might have a yellow undertone. Your pictures don't show it but I have seen other pictures/comments on the internet that do. Our kitchen is a light yellow and that's why I am trying to avoid a yellow undertone.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

It looks beautiful. That is a fantastic room. I dream of painting my basement MT someday.

I really like it when posters ask for advice then come back and show what they did. Thanks for sharing.

evanmf - there is definitely NO yellow at all in MT in my family room. I'm surprised you see yellow in some pictures you've seen. In my search for pictures of this color when I was picking a color, I never saw any with yellow undertones. Good thing too because that might have scared me away as I did not want yellow in this room. We are just so happy with this color. I still love it more and more every day.

Thanks denali!

That room is quite lovely. I like the color, the rods, the drapes and your furniture. Very very nice!

Red

Hi,
Please tell me the colors you used for your LR and your DR. I love them and would like to use them myself.
Thanks,
Randi

Lovely home!

Hi Randi! Wow, what a surprise to see this post pop back up. In fact, I have been away from here for a long time but I just noticed email this morning from your post. Thank goodness that email thing worked!

The living room is Benjamin Moore Moroccan Red (1309).
The dining room is Benjamin Moore York Harbor Yellow (2154-40).

Hope that helps. Good luck with your rooms.

Thanks, chardie. I still love the Manchester Tan in the family room. Thinking of painting my foyer that color...

beautiful!!!