I'm not a fan of your dark colors. Sorry, I don't mean to insult your taste, that's just my taste talking. If you want dark you need to find something that is dark and festive. Your colors with the stained woodwork just swallow up everything around them and all I see are the walls and not the furnishings, accessories. If you're proposing painting them the same color I would choose something lighter. The beige wall is really pretty and shows up the curtains. The lighter color also shows up the pretty stained woodwork. On the dark walls it just looks drab.

I think if you're going to have dark walls you should have white woodwork. That's just me. I know a lot of people like dark walls and stained woodwork, but I'm not one of them.

I'm going to google and see if I can find the site I ran across the other day that talked about paint colors and stained woodwork. I'll post it here if I find it. In the interim maybe others with stained woodwork will post some of their photo's for you to see.

Thank you. I think.

I'm a little confused. Is the first color you show in the LR, the one labeled 'before', is it the Olive Branch? It looks more blue green on my monitor. And the dining room is red right now?

I don't think there's a thing wrong with having the two rooms that are connected by a single wall being the same color. And here's how I would play it out......If I'm not loving my DR anyway.......and want to change the color...........and already have the green paint..........then, all I've got to lose is a little time. Paint on into the DR, see how you like it after you live with it for a couple of weeks, then, if it's too much green, you can always go find something else.

I do think getting rid of the sheers probably helps to de-formalize your LR. I finally went with plain jane chenille drapes a couple of shades darker than my wall to achieve some more comfortable feelings in my LR. I had fancy London shades in a yellow/blue toile on pale butter walls before. This is much more in tune with how we live.

Your dining room set and antiques are very pretty, Cathrugg!

Red

Here is a link that might be useful: Wall color is BM Baby Turtle, and it doesn't look that golden in real life, more muted olive

I'm confused by the "before" photos. Is the living room now the green or the light beige, and is the dining room no longer the deep red, or is it that you want to change the DR color from the deep red to something else?

If the LR is the green, I don't think you should also do green in the dining room. My first thought was gold, but then I remembered you don't really want gold. If you love the dark colors, how about a navy???

Oh wow, Red. Your living room is beautiful!

Thank you for your insightful and helpful response, Red!

Yes, the before is the olive branch (i was just showing that wall painted green, and then the after is painted beige). Sorry if I confused it.

You are right, all i have to lose is DH's time lol.

Your living room is gorgeous. That's the feel I am trying to achieve and can't seem to get it right. The vision in my head never comes out right when I try to do it.

I wanted to get rid of the living room curtains all together but for a $160 a window and me swearing to DH i'd keep them for 10 years lol, i have to keep them a bit longer. Ugh! The promises a wife makes...

In that case, I think green would be fine for the DR! If the dining room is adjacent to the living room, though, I don't think I would go with a deep green, since I think that would be too much contrast. How about a mid-tone green, instead?

I think it would be fine to paint it the same color since both rooms are connected, but you can always take the gallon back in and have it lightened one or two shades. If your tired of the drapes, just remove the valance and keep the drapes. They are nice and match any decor. Your DH probably wouldn't even notice. You can always add the valance somewhere else in the house.

Our previous house has the same style as yours. You walk in to the tiny foyer and the formal DR is to the left and the LR to the right. We painted our LR, foyer, hallway and DR gold, and we had stained trims and baseboards. The LR is kinda separate from the foyer with an arch, and we painted it a lighter shade of gold. It turned out great.
How about sage green on both your DR and LR? I've seen pics before and they really look good with stained wood.

cathrugg, please know my comments are not to insult you, only to give you other options. With the help of the truly talented people (not me), you'll have 2 beautiful rooms.

There is another lady on this forum who loves baby turtle, but of course I can't think of who it is. Maybe she'll see this thread and post her photo's too.

I just ordered about a dozen different color sample cards from BM in different greens as that's the color I want to paint my foyer. There is an Affinity color called Croquet that is absolutely beautiful. I don't know if you are close to a BM store or not.

Cathrugg, I agree with brutuses about dark colors and stained woodwork. Just today I was watching one of the shows (forgot which one) on HGTV about selling a home and the owners had rich hunter green walls w/ stained trim. Of course, that had to GO. Once the walls were painted a more neutral hue, the woodwork looked much more refined. I probably didn't describe that very well but I hope you get the idea.

Good luck to you!
Susan