OMG, Prof, now I've gone and pulled out my BM fandecks of colors hoping to find your paint choices. Also pulled out the Behr paints, which have been the source of my color choices in my last 4(or is it 5) houses. But give me a little while, and I will come up with some names for you.

In the meanwhile, I hope my DH does not faint when he sees the fandecks on my desk....he is happy with the choices we've used so far, and breaks out in hives when he feels I might be RETHINKING PAINT CHOICES.

First off, all the houses I've painted had the white woodwork and plaster or drywall. No oak wood,au naturelle, but I know what it is supposed to look like.

Question: are you wanting to maintain a Craftsman cottage? Or digress a little into a more light-reflective pallette?
What kind of lighting do you use? Are your LAMPS with white shades or the mica yellow-toned shades? Do you have overhead lights on dimmers or what?

Before I get specific with color, you say that all the rooms enter off the central hallway.

Question: How high are the ceilings? Is there a chair rail or wainscoting and what height is it? Does the woodwork give the impression of SQUARE, RIGHT ANGLED, very straight?

Okay, now I go look up colors and get right back with you.
:)

Full disclosure: I'm the last person you want color advice from! Having said that, I'll throw a few non-color thoughts your way. Since it's a small space, and not much natural light, you certainly want to keep it light. To create interest, think texture. Paneling, wainscoting, fabrics can all add texture, even if everything is stark white. I've looked at lots of all-white cottages (even the trim) and wondered why our all-white house looks so 'blah'. We have no texture. It's all plain wallboard. Our next house will have very little wallboard, and even the ceilings are going to get texture, with coffered ceilings, with beadboard infill in the living room, and tin panels for infill in the kitchen.

Another thing I like the look of is using a color as an accent in an otherwise monochromatic room. Our tiny kitchen is all-white, but when I did the tile backsplashes, I worked in a thin line of black accent tiles which really made the tile work pop. And I still didn't incorporate a color- it's white and black. That's about as daring as I get, color-wise LOL!

Moccasin: I'm not even sure you would call this craftsman. This place is three (combined) beach cottages out of five originals that were built in the early 40's. These were rentals. Three were joined together to form my little house.

All of the original woodwork and floors have been retained. The trim is square i.e. not mitered, just 90 degree angled frames. The few double-hung windows I have (2 are in this kitchen/DR) are 6-pane. The rest are "awning" windows in keeping with the original style. Window treatments are natural-colored roll-up shades or wooden blinds--no fabric.

The ceiling light fixtures are very simple school-house style. Most are on dimmers. My lamps and furniture are traditional mixed with antiques--brass, parchment shades. The focal point of this room is an oak mantle flanked by fluted oak columns that are 7" tall. Ceilings throughout the house are low--only 7.5'. No chair rails or wainscoting.

The whole house was painted in flat white. I like a subtle sheen, so I painted the dove white eggshell in the hallway, bedroom and sitting room so far. Haven't tackled the two bathrooms yet or this room.

You may find this newspaper article about my little place interesting:

http://www.capegazette.com/storiescurrent/200903/rehophilmoor13.html

retiredprof.What a great story on your house.

I am no help on paint I was all white for years and years and then went to colors mostly greens and purples. Now I am heading back to a soft white. Partly because the house is already painted that color and it is easier to repaint over the same. And sheer lazy on my part. BUT I do have one nice green accent wall in the living room and two of the bedrooms are periwinkle. They are not seen from the living room until you walk by. I painted the kitchen a wonderful green then back to white after I did the tile back splash and did not like it with the green. I am considering painting the living room the light green and it will be lovely with the darker accent green accent wall. Thee is a natural breaking point in the hall. I have not made up my mind yet and no time to paint right now anyway.

Listen to ML she has great choices in paint colors and is way more brave then I am.

Chris

I'm looking at my BM Affinity Colors fandeck, and see what the Citrine and the Salsa Dancing are like.

The Salsa Dancing is very much like the Warm Terra Cotta by Behr, and that is my favorite color in my living room, has been for 4 houses now. At night, it tends to turn a nice warm intimate barn reddish. A similar tone in the BM Affinity is Firenze (Florence), and both always remind me of terra cotta flower pots....very much Italian and rich color.

What I could suggest is that if the kitchen becomes too oppressive with two bold colors, that you instead put the CITRINE on the backsplash area where the SALSA DANCINg is now. And that you choose a paint like AF-325 HANDMADE or AF-330 SOLEIL both of which are softer and more yellow gold without being bold.

I'm not sure I read your cabinet colors in the kitchen. For an accent that will look good with the golden tones, how about some live potted plants. Asparagus ferns are very hardy and are a bright frilly green frond. Brown glazed pots with saucers built onto them would look good....

And if you have yet to choose a color for your living room, think about the Firenze, or even if you have some paint left over from the SALSA DANCING, paint it on a piece of wallboard or plywood and lean it against your walls without slapping paint on the walls themselves.

To get a good true color, before putting another real color on top of a bold color, be sure to kill it with at least one blocking paint coat. Otherwise it won't look right.

I may just have to try some of the BM colors. But my very favorite first color ever tried which was a Behr paint, happened to be for my kitchen. And it is called THREADED GOLD. I sponged that color on over a flat white base coat, and it was like the walls faded away and became translucent LIGHT. It really enlarged my tiny study, which was 8 x 9. And THREADED GOLD is still my color of choice for my kitchen, hands down. Behr, of course.

But, ohhh, so many pretty colors and so little time to paint things.

Oh yeah. I wanted to suggest a color for your hallway. How about a classic taupe? Or something like AF-65 FOSSIL by BMoore? A long hallway like you have is the perfect place to create a picture gallery, hanging pictures which can benefit from close up viewing/scrutiny and have large white mats w/black gallery frames. I'd make the frames all gallery frames, and mounted low enough for eye view, but not so low that your shoulders brush them and make them get unbalanced. Of course, two picture hangers is a good option, and I'd consider those 3M Commander thingies that do not leave marks or holes on the walls, can come down quite easily.

I'm sure you have a lot of things that would display nicely in that long hallway, you are after all retired now and have been lots of places, had treasured moments which you could share with new friends in your new home. The pictures I hung in my DH's living room were printed on plain paper, not even photo paper, and looked great, so they could be rotated easily.

Gotta go to a Christmas party. Ciao bella.

Thanks, everyone for your suggestions. Still pondering. I finally got pics of the place loaded into Picasa so thought I would share a few with you to get a better idea of my issue. These are from the day I actually saw the cottage for the first time (and signed the agreement!). Disregard the furnishings of the PO.

The outside:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/jKm1gHJaL48NY0pqtQ_Paw?feat=directlink

Here's one end of the kitchen/DR combo room. PO had this as a LR/Kitchen combo.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PRSaJk9hooU21zOV6Qj0sg?feat=directlink

Here's the other "kitchen" side of the same room:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tHQZu_yO1NzBSHWX6shJnQ?feat=directlink

Here's the long hallway from the kitchen:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Ygg8ZBYHid6l39VQDIDcqw?feat=directlink

The more I look at these, the more "go off-white" feeling I have. It just strikes me as right with the dark wood.

Well I can see how this could be a hard decision. Darling cottage. We had a house with oak cabinets and I painted it a light mint green and it was lovely with the wood. I think a little color here and there would be nice. The off white is also lovely.

I am having the same trouble making the same decisions here only my trim is already white.

I just helped my sister paint her living/dining/kitchen. She has lots of honey oak and we went with a light sagey green. It looks wonderful with the wood.

For years I've had a two color paint smoosh on my walls in a parchmenty cafe au lait color. My sis liked that, so we went looking for the split roller system. Apparantly it is passe, and we couldn't find the rollers. But we did it anyway with two separate rollers using a very light and medium dark shade.

My brother in law took over the painting and did a much more controlled blend than my sister or I would have done, but she likes it so to the marriage will survive. It's a smudgy soft pretty subtle finish that hides flaws in old walls very well. At night light tends to reflect off the lighter of the two colors, so the room isn't as dark as you'd think from its daytime appearance.

For contrast we painted the end wall of the dining room and the adjacent kitchen in a single color, the middle shade of green.

The colors were Eddie Bauer home; chive, moss and seed

Prof, there are all kinds of OFF WHITE shades. Basically, they can all have a hint of a tint to any color that you like. All by themselves, they will read as white. But when you put something else next to them, you have color.

And I totally agree, going with the hint of a tint, or even a soft white is a good way to begin. Just make sure that the white you settle on does NOT have a blue-white look to it.

When I painted every room in MoccasinLanding cottage a white, it was the Behr ULTRA PURE WHITE. Reads a nice basic white with no hint of blue. I started with that, and then as I became bolder, and after a couple of years enjoying the clean light pallette, I dared to add color. You might find that you will enjoy the look of the light walls, and when that grows stale, that will be time enough to add some color.

Your house is a charmer! I can see why it grabbed your eye right off the bat. And you are really coming to the right place to get opinions about dealing happily with your new house. I bet everyone here will feel a kinship with you because we all seem to love our choice of LIVING LARGE IN SMALL PLACES.

Thank you for all your suggestions! And ML, I have decided that I'll stick for the light colors -- for now anyway. I bought a few samples and painted up some foamboard which I've taped to the wall in various places. Amazing! I immediately dismissed two of the colors so I'm down to three: Lancaster Whitewash, Philly Cream, and Vellum. I'm leaning toward the Philly Cream so far.

Someone on the paint forum reminded me about the importance of texture, too. I've got plenty of plants, and Lord knows how many tchotkes, but I need some fabric in here.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm absolutely not good when faced with "overchoice." Funny, I used to teach a class on this concept and how it actually makes our lives more stressful. I've been away from the classroom too long!

And... the most important thing is that I'm living large in a small place!

The slightly off white I am using here is from Walmart and is called Crisp and Clean. It looks white until you put some thing ,like fridge, against it and then you see it is not bright white. I do like it. Since we already have white trim I also like the bright white trim against this off white. I am kind of liking the white on white on white look and trying to mix it up with textures. My living room curtains and couch cover s are bright white too.

In my lakehouse that had all Frasier fir walls, ceilings and floors, we decided to try a pastel shade of white first on the walls and loved them, then did the ceilings a bit brighter and all the trim a light taupe. The change was amazing. People feared it would lose it's coziness but it actually still read as wood and looked so much bigger and brighter. So now all the rooms are slightly different shades of white and cream. Yummy!!! I have all vintage furniture and it works very well against the backdrop. I'd stick will all shades of white if I were you.

Yayagal. What is a pastel shade of white?. What you describe sounds wonderful. Light and airy. Do you happen to have any pictures?

By pastel I mean go to the whites in a paint selection. For instance, I used Sherwin Williams Scalded Milk in my living room and the trim was painted SW Roman columns. All my pictures are at the lake house in my other computer. I wish I had them to show you. Check out the paint color you like and find out the dominant shade in them, the mixer man will tell you. So you could blend a warm white next to a room with a taupy white and then on to a warm yellow white etc. I would keep all the trim the same and I love Roman Column. It's not stark white, has a nice warmth to it. I'll see if I can find a picture somewhere here at home.

OH Thank you for the explanation Yayagal.Interesting how there can be so many whites. Whenever you get a chance I am in no hurry to get into painting yet. UGH Used to love to do it. Not so much now.

yayagal: I'm with you on the white/cream idea, but you lost me with the "dominant shade." I understand what that is, but how are you using that info then?

When I first posted to this thread I looked for below picture and could not find it. Came across it this morning purely by accident. Anyway you will see I had quite a time of it choosing the "right" green for me at this house.

I choose a perfect mint.We liked it so well I painted this whole house and then almost all of the next house the same.

Here is a link that might be useful: Choices

RetiredProf, I guess I should have explained it better. Ask the fellow or gal mixing the paint to tell you the formula of the paint. If the tints are warm toned i.e. gold, brown, etc. then the room will feel warm. Same with cool tones if that's your preference. I like all warm tones so it would give me a clue as to how the paint will look when applied since they look fairly white in the can. I feel that's why so many people pick the wrong whites. I have 7 different shades of white in my lake house and they all blend effortlessly yet add layers of faint colors. It helps so much if you have these little clues when you shop for paint.

Yayagal, I'm with you on the white spectrum being to the warm side.

Put those pictures now on your other computer into a tiny USB smart drive that can be used anywhere. Then we won't be denied our "fix" while waiting for you to get back to the lake...when will that be, SPRING? OH SIGH.... :)

It is surprising what a tiny bit of color can do. And even reflected light onto white (other colors but white especially) can do to a room. I learned that when I painted one wall in a room a nice broken lavender. (Broken color is easier on the eye than a smooth paint coat). I put it on the wall opposite the window, and the other walls and ceiling were white. When the ambient light fell on that light lavender, it bounced it onto the white walls and ceiling, and changed as the day progressed. Awesome.

Folks might think that yellow, for instance, is a "warm" color, but not necessarily. It can be an EARTHY yellow, like ochre, or it can be a hard chemical CHROME yellow, which is a brazen color and does not fit with a warm pallette.

So finding out the formula for your paint is a good recommendation. Going back to the basics is important if you wish to have a cohesive environment.

Love your house, Retired. Looking at the pic of the long hallway reminds me of the house I grew up in, which had a long narrow stairwell leading to the semi-finished attic, which I used as my teen "pad". One day I got bored with the plain walls of the stairwell, and ended up painting murals on both walls based on the flower garden from Walt Disney's Alice In Wonderland (the one with the flowers that had faces, and the rocking horseflies and the bread-and-butterflies). Everyone loved it! Years later, after my father sold the house, I received a letter from the new owners, asking me if I would come and sign "my work". Since then, they have also written to ask if I minded them having a professional painter come and 'touch up' the paint with was fading a bit after 30+ years.

I guess my thoughts on your house would be to go ahead and use color. :)