Anyway, this is the rug and wainscoting.

I was wanting to use a pink for the wall, but the wainscoting has an orange tint. Of all of the dozens of paint chips in the pink/mauve/rose/peach family, the colors that actually look the best with the wood are really sort of that Bandaid pink. Is this going to look hideous? The faintest tints just don't look right, so I'm looking at the second or so chips on a strip.

I could certainly use another color from the rug, but the fleshy pinks just keep calling me.

This is the rest of the space:

As for the 'band aid color' I can't help thinking you would find it too pale. Is there any blue in the rug? Blue would be an opposite color to the warm color of the wainscoting, and tone it down a bit.

If you decide you want to paint the trim, use at least a semi-gloss paint if not a gloss.

Recently a friend of mine who had wood trim throughout her home pained the walls in Benjamin Moore's Harmony. It turned out very well with the wood. It's a very light neutral color and looks great on the walls.

I have a stack of green and blue paint chips, so I'll look at those tomorrow.

I know, because we were in a rental house for a year and the kitchen cabinets and counters were that fleshy salmon pink color of Formica. The floor was a white 8" tile with streaks of fleshy pink color. The sliding glass doors had vinyl vertical blinds (let's add insult to injury here) in that same color. AND the lighting was all those big fluorescent things. I felt like I had been swallowed by a giant and was living in a stomach. When it finally occurred to me what the color actually was I could not cook in the kitchen. We barely lasted a year there until our own house was ready. That color is awful anywhere, but especially vile in a kitchen!

What kind of lighting fixture are you planning? That might also provide guidance.

Do you remember that your rug is very similar to rugs I have? The colors and pattern are very close cousins. Do you remember that you liked the paint color on the walls next to my rugs? The paint is pink, but a very neutral pink that has a peachy-beige undertone. Don't *think* it looks like a band-aid, but that's in the eye of the beholder I guess. Anyhoo, I used Ben Moore's Queen Anne Pink. You may want to check it out! The color is very warm and I do think it would work with your rug. Good luck!

I remember that room and your rug! So I'm not crazy...the right pink *could* work on that wall?

I don't have a swatch of that color, but the Ben Moore color strips that I have start with Spring Blossom, Pink Swirl, Gentle Butterfly, Soft White, and Cream Puff. Is the Queen Anne similar to any of those?

I had considered painting the wall the same white that's used in the rest of the house, but wanted to try a bit of color just in this area.

I have no plans to paint the wainscoting. It's throughout the living room, the entry, and wraps down the hall to that whole side of the house. It's grown on me, and I really like it. The rest of the house and the bedrooms has painted trim. I think the stained trim around the front door looks weird. Maybe if it were fabulous wide interesting trim it would look better, but it's not.

This is the fixture that's going up. It's getting new frosted glass and a dark glaze to tone down the golden finish.

Does anyone have thoughts about painting the closet and furnace doors?

Tell those pinks that are calling you to hush, unless you are willing to reconsider painting that wainscot and trim white. Paint those doors white in any case, and look for a pretty pale vanilla cream color for your walls and your ceiling. Never mind the colors in the rug. You won't notice the rug if the walls aren't pretty.

Bronwynsmom, you made me LOL! Thank you for your candor!

Pal, are you saying a beige-y tan of some sort?

Cyn, I don't know. I think I had it in my head that it would only be that one wall because that's the way it's designed now.

I think my main frustration about that space is that it seems dark and busy and claustrophobic. That's a lot going in in that little space, and it all seems too disconnected and too much. I'm having a hard time articulating that, but does anyone else see that?

I think my new plan will be to paint the front door trim and utility doors the current wall color, then install the new light. If I change the stained door color and lighting, it may drastically change how it all looks, so I can deal with that wallpapered wall last.

I don't love the color of the front door. It's sort of a muddy yellow beige, which isn't offensive, but I'm not sure it relates to or enhances anything else.

Sherwin Williams has many neutrals with a *hint* of peach. A hint is more livable than a scream.

Btw, I love the curved entrance from the foyer.

If you don't want to paint the wainscot, I would consider gel staining the back of the front door to match the wood.

Any blue toned paint is going to intensify the orange in the wood. That's okay if that's what you want, but anything blue or with a blue undertone will do that. I have an area of bookmatched maple panels in my living room which is a blue-green gray color overall, and particularly in pictures, it comes out pale blue and bright orange. I think anything with too yellow of an undertone will skew the paneling to bright orange also.

Yes I was thinking of a paler color of something like the floor tile. I think you want to lessen contrast, not heighten it. I would paint all the walls inside the entry though, not just one.

This reminds me of my neighbor across the street. She has a lovely large home that is about 1/2 neutral brick and 1/2 wood siding. When she decided to paint the siding years ago, she took one of her kitchen valances to her painter and asked that they color match one of the small flowers for her exterior. The resulting fleshy bandaid color made me ill to look at and literally had cars slowing down to stare.

It took about 10 years for it to need repainting again...this time, a lovely shade of taupe.

Pal, I had thought of that, too. Whether they're stained or painted, the doors are chopped in half by the wainscot. If I went with the option of painting the wainscot/doors/trim on all three of those walls, I know it will unify *that* space, but will it look weird in the context of the rest of the area with the stained wainscot?

What would happen if I removed all of the wainscot just in that entry? I've been thinking that the whole paneling issue is all-or-nothing, but maybe not?

I know that people tend to want every room "light and airy" and I think this is way overrated and goes against what a lot of classically trained architects and designers are taught. The psychological experience of compression and release or transition through an area to actual "entry" or "arrival" is important, and it is almost completely quashed by the current trend of wanting EVERYTHING to seem as big and wide open as possible.

The entryway is a transition from outside but it is NOT the point at which you have arrived. You have Arrived into a house when you go into the actual rooms beyond the entry. A darker or small entry actually makes you Want to go into the actual living areas of the house, making you feel even more welcome by contrast. There has been a subversion of the commercial grand foyer, which is meant to impress people, but not necessarily invite them in, which has replaced the smaller entryway in residential houses. Frank Lloyd Wright went as far as lowering the ceilings in entryways, and making them intentionally dark to heighten the feeling of expansiveness in the actual adjacent living areas.

Franksmom, if you are not happy with your space, try looking for inspiration pictures. That could lead you to an answer you can live with and simple changes that would be pretty easy.

THEN the two darker doors AND all of the wood trim would "disappear" -- and only the white door would show up ....

THEN add a couple of artworks OR Imari-style plates to the focal wall.

Looking at the larger perspective (and agreeing, as I usually do, with Palimpsest that the construct of compression and release is a good idea), and also looking at your new light fixture, I suggest painting the three walls of your entry a rich golden color - good with the rug, good with the light, and good with the paneling.

Try Marblehead Gold or Stuart Gold. Somebody smarter than I can photoshop those in for you??

Also the simplest project. And I'd paint the front door the same gold, in a semi-gloss finish. Then you have something warm and cohesive, and the color of the paneling is enhanced.

Btw, whatever color you decide on, I hope you will share a pic of your freshly painted foyer which includes Frank sitting on that pretty rug, admiring the results!

His usual response to such things is something non-helpful like "if it bothers you, don't look at it" but this time he shrugs and says "When we take down the nasty wallpaper, why don't we just take off all of the wainscoting, since we'll be repairing the sheetrock and doorframes anyway. Paint the whole mess the same color and call it done."

I'll be sleeping on this one, but I think he may be right. What do you think?

A fresh start is always best! :)

Pal, funny. Of course, I wasn't intending to imply that your suggestion was hideous. Actually, I think the way FM's foyer is constructed gives her exactly the compression and release you like even without the wood.

Pal and Cyn, that entry opens into a very large, open, empty, light filled living room. I think the size of the space and the 8' ceiling adds to the contracted factor. The idea of making the whole wall surface wood is actually not a bad one, but this house has a lot of wood, and I'm afraid it wouldn't work for us. The master bath is almost entirely floor to ceiling wood! Oy!

I'm still shocked that DH said that. He's usually the one to leave ugly well enough alone. I think removing the paneling on those three walls will solve a number of difficult problems, and we'll be free to paint it whatever color we want.

None of this has to be decided right away, but we plan to have an exterior door replaced soon, and since we'll have the "door guy" out anyway, we may as well have them fix that furnace door.

THe answer to your question - IMO anything resembling fleshy bandaid is NEVER EVER the right color. It is common in 1970's public washrooms...

(or navy and gold stripe wallpaper).

Love the "new" light fixture!

I did this on the Sherwin Williams color visualizer, which is super easy to learn.

Fleshy bandaid

Is there any green in the rug?

Blue