I am going to check all these out. No, I am not doing it a lodge theme, I meant that if I wanted to use a red flannel comforter and decorate with lodge items, that it would not clash with the paint......so i need a neutral color that is LIGHT but contrasts with my cream colored furniture -. i dont want green or blue undertones and do not want it to look like a specific color. i think a cappucino color that is warm based maybe???

I want to come buy flowers from you! What a fun and potentially very satisfying (from a creative and making people happy point of view) business you have started. I didn't have any trouble figuring out why you wanted us to pretend to be a bride or a MOB. ;~) It's a time in a life when someone might be looking for things from flowers and their arrangement that they won't be looking for ever again; and it's a time when choosing the right thing and the right person to do it has a lot of stress and emotion attached to it....so you understandably want a first impression and "curb appeal" that shows you can pull things together in an appealing way. Now I personally love your periwinkle door and would enjoy visiting a cottage or farmhouse with all the doors a different color; but I leaned toward the darker soft rich green from your cushions for the doors, and using the coral pink as accent colors in a few different spots because I think that would present a sort of "together, decorated, color-coordinated" first impression that would look professional from a design standpoint but still fun and relaxed and fresh. If that makes sense! LOL Oh, btw, I don't "really" farm but I'm a definite wannabe...live in the country and mess about with farmy thigs and animals. I understand your concern about wind and a bucket on the front door....not long ago my wooden rocking chairs on the porch blew right over and a metal light fixture attached to the house actually ended up crooked from the wind! But when les suggested a flat-backed bucket or other container for the door to put rotating and/or seasonal arrangements in, I could just SEE it...such a charming idea. I'd have to look around, but I think I've seen some kind of bracket or even metal wire loop that is firmly attached to the door, that the container lifts in and out of....that would be secure enough to not move around and scratch your door? Anyway, that just seemed like a really neat idea, but you could make the same impression with porch pots where you do pretty combinations of flowers in season and then seasonal things in the fall and winter. I feel sure it will be charming because you've already headed down that road by yourself!

Thanks, Monica. : ). Your room looks so homey, and very much like normal life around here. ; ) I was picturing a wall color more like your orange- rust colored pillow when I heard burnished pumpkin. Aimee, it could be partly a function of climate, which might be why I find this to be a challenging decision! That's very interesting that you find cozy colors to be more intimate. I find that appealing, rather than off-putting, but we seldom have "strangers" in our home, and if they are here, I usually want to help them feel welcome and as much a part of the family as possible. Annie, can I come over and stay at your house and see what it's like to live in warm and cozy for a week? : ). I've seen a few pictures of your home, and it looks very warm and inviting. Thanks Lisa. Yes, the little blue library is off our kitchen. The kitchen can just be seen to the right of it. The doorway to the living room is between the library (errr, the bathroom, to be more specific) and the kitchen. Could we possibly get away with a color like this in the living room? This was my absolute favorite room at the home show this year. It's a dark bluish green.

@Stephanie Billadeau - I won't tell you that gray is wrong or that beige or taupe or greige is right. The truth is that there is no perfect neutral that works for everyone. I started my color journey about 20 years ago when I had a color dilemma that I couldn't solve on my own. I found a mentor that helped me find the right colors. I was also working in the mental health field while I was looking for colors for my house and became fascinated with the impact of color on our mood. Since you have not begun painting your home I would like to ask you to take a step back before making any color decisions. I may also be saving you several decades in getting your home perfect for you. What I have learned over the past 20 years. There are colors that bring us joy. There is a connection between happy memories and the colors we associate with those memories. Seeing those colors actually raises the amount of dopamine in our system and makes us feel happier. (When we are depressed and dopamine is reduced we see less color - everything is less colorful and we say we feel blue, but we are actually feeling gray). For most women these colors that bring us joy are the same colors that look good on us. My sisters and I are all over 60. By this time in our lives we have figured all this out and each of our homes is decorated with colors we love (Colors that complement our skin tones, eye color and hair color). We have also figured out our style. I have not studied furniture style vs personality type, but there seems to be a pretty strong connection. I can look at the homes that my siblings live in and understand why they chose the colors and furniture styles. It fits their personality. Without going through my entire large family I will give you just a couple of examples. I am a winter, dark eyes, dark hair, fair skin- burns, does not tan. I am also a manager of a team of data analysts who analyze data quality. By nature I am an introvert - too many people exhausts me. I like numbers and colors and animals and nature. I look good in clear, bright colors, especially reds and purples. My closet is filled with large patterns or solids or a solid shirt with a large flower or animal graphic. It should not be surprising that I am drawn to MCM furnishings, clean lines, solid colors, not a lot of patterns or anything overly busy and the prominent accent colors are teal, purple and red. The neutral that I picked for my home is taupe - gray with a bit of beige that leans purple and my white is a very clean white. My sister made her living studying consumer insights. Very outgoing, quick wit, extrovert, charismatic. Extravert - People energize her. She is a fall - medium brown hair, brown eyes and an olive skin tone that tans easily, never burns. She picks clothing with much smaller, busier patterns than I do and has a lot of muted colors that make me look sick. Her home is an eclectic mix of Antique Queen Anne furnishings and industrial pieces. Her accent colors are greens, golds, orange reds. Her neutral is Moss - a gray beige with a green undertone. My sister-in-law is blond haired, fair skinned with blue eyes. She was a stay at home mom until her kids were grown and now works at a jewelry store. She is a mild extravert - likes people, but doesn't feed off of their energy like my sister. Her home is decorated with country style, oak furnishings. She has cornflower blue and peach as her accent colors and cream as her neutral with a creamy white. Being one of 6 kids and being married to a man who was one of 7 kids I have had the opportunity to look at dozens of homes belonging to people who I know intimately and see how their styles and colors are influenced by their coloring and their personality. I think when we are young we are strongly influenced by current trends and what is popular rather than look inward at who we are and what we love. Can I ask what colors make your heart sing / bring you joy? Do those colors - the one's you want to incorporate into your color scheme work beautifully with gray? Do you wear a lot of gray? Do they work with the trim color you have?