We recently bought a home and are in the process of decorating. Our great room has a LOT of wood as you can see by the attached picture and the bottom portion of the wall has a darker wood that goes around the whole room. My husband and I feel that if we lighten that wood color, it will make the room a lot brighter. Looking for professional opinions on what to do. I know once we paint it, if that's the road we go down, there's no turning back! Thoughts? The furniture in this room is also temporary until we find pieces to better fit the space.
Personally I think painting the lower wood/wall sections a lighter color/reflecting surface would be a good start. You have a LOT of wood in the room, and it really can absorb lots of light. It would help to show off the nice flooring.
We considered a home with ceiling boards and paneling, and I would have whitewashed or pickle finished the paneling to lighten it.
The style of your home really does call for wood detail. Perhaps the issue is that it is all the same? Maybe the beams that go up the walls and over the ceiling could be a java finish along with the mantle. This way the floor and the planked ceiling are one tone and the "trim" is another.
If it were me, I would stain all the wood different shades of gray,like driftwood, but that would include the floor which is a big job not everyone is up for.
Posts: 1494 | Location: Morristown | Registered: Jun 12, 2010
I would pull a color out of the stone wall and use that to paint all of the lower portions of the wall, which looks like your darkest woodtone. It also looks as though the trim right around the door and windows is a stained wood. Might this be the case around any other doorways in the room? I would continue the same paint color that you choose for the lower wall onto these moldings. And leave everything else alone for now. If you still need a change, I like the idea of a very transparent whitewash on the fat post and beams only. Not sure if it truly so, but it looks like one of the stone colors has an olive undertone. This would look so nice as your lower wall color because it would break up all the brown and still maintain a natural feel.
