What a lovely home you have. You've made your hand me downs look great. I love the rug you have in the living area and would look for the peachy beige color of some of the leaves. Being opposite on the color wheel from blue makes it complimentary and would look great with the bookcases (until you move them) and fireplace.

I like your house ,,, nicely done!!

As far as paint color, in my opinion ,,, the blue in your kitchen is a "bright" color whereas the sage color is "muted". If you took that sage color and turned it into a light lime green (think granny smith apple), then the colors would pop together (look at the inspiration photo of the spider plant next to the blue paint).

For that blue ,,, I would pair with (in the same tone and intensity) lime green, yellow, tangerine, or crisp white. It really depends on how much color you want. I can see a yellow or tangerine in your dining room with those teal chairs, but I also like lime green. I would not go with tan, I would do a crisp white before tan, if I wanted to go neutral. A "tan" that would work with that color blue, I think might clash with your hardwood floors. With the hardwood floors and the mix of woods in that space (which I really like, by the way) I would put white on the walls and bring in color with accents (pillows, rugs, pictures).

Also, what's up with the red room in the background? Do you like that room? Is that color staying?

I really like your fireplace. Have you ever considered painting the brick? If you do go with a bright color on the wall, you might want to consider painting it white and leaving the accents black.

Good luck ,,, can't wait to see the after pictures!! :)

Thank you! LOVE hearing suggestions from other people!

jlt - sorry, I should have clarified that in my post. The red room IS the kitchen. Or the kitchen pre-blue. The whole house was painted and decorated in a muddy/rich/elegant looking color scheme when we bought it 3 years ago - reds, browns, sage green. It looked great when we bought the house...but, the longer we live here, the more I realize that elegant is not me. ;-) At least not me with three little sweet smudgy handed babies. Thanks for the accent color suggestions for the kitchen. You make me feel more confident, because I've got yellow, tangerine and white going on in there. ;-)

As far as the brick, I have brought up painting it to my husband, but he's a little concerned about devaluing the fireplace. It's an older home (at least for Montana) - 1925 - and is original brick. I thought about possibly doing a fireplace makeover RE: The lettered cottage (http://theletteredcottage.net/my-82-fireplace-makeover) as something less permanent, but with the same lightening effect as painting it.

A friend of mine recently painted her new home in bright colors like tangerine & lime green, somehow managing to pass them off as cheerful "neutrals". I personally couldn't relax with those tones in my own home, though! I like jlt's suggestion of yellow; it would work nicely with the blue and also look good with your current furnishings. A Lettered Cottage style fireplace update would be cute, too, and I'm pretty sure you can build one without gluing the wood to the brick (which surely would devalue it just as much as painting would).

I really like that blue color in the kitchen! And I think that a pastel yellow color would go nicely in the living and dining room. Pale yellow looks so pretty and friendly with blue and is also considered a neutral because it goes with so many other colors. I have Windham Cream in my dining room (it is a pale creamy yellow) and I love it.

That cottage fireplace makeover is cool. Okay, I'll confess, I have a traditional red brick fireplace too, and I won't touch mine (though I'd love to paint it white). Too chicken. As cool as I think a makeover might look, I think a botched one would be worse, especially since mine is in really good condition and I don't trust my ability to pull it off (or "undo" it). But notice how I have no problem encouraging you to "go for it" ,,, lol.

Your place isn't small, but this blogger likes white with pops of bright color. Scroll down and check out the blue floor kitchen ,,, with the yellow walls for more color scheme inspiration.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Floor Kitchen

You have a very pretty house. I like the sage green in your living room but it doesn't seem to complement the pastel blue in your kitchen. I agree that a brighter, cooler green might work, or maybe a cooler grayish blue?

I vote for painting the fireplace or a makeover a la the Lettered Cottage!

I'm not great with colors, but the first thing that stood out to me is the red brick fireplace. Just me, but I'd want to paint it. I did mine & loved it. I've also seen them whitewashed & they looked pretty. Makes that dark brick seem to look less stark.

I'd use a warm tan and there are so many out there, then I'd stain the fireplace a tone similar to your book cases. Those two steps will make a huge difference. Just google "stain my fireplace" It will still look just like brick but not dated.

Yes, your desire to paint is your nesting instinct coming out.

You have a lovely home. Rather than paint the fireplace brick, consider a surround.

What if you took the blue color that is in your kitchen and went one or two colors below that on the color strip?

For example, there are 7 colors on a color strip. We painted our foyer SW Ivoire. We painted the spare bedroom SW Blonde, which is the next color down on the strip.

We painted our master bath SW Wool Skein. We painted the master bedroom SW Relaxed Khaki, the next color down on the strip.

If you don't want to stay in the blue family I like the idea of painting the living room a soft yellow. It would look really nice with the red fireplace. I have a two story red brick fireplace and am most likely never going to paint it so I always try to work with it.