I have Restrained Gold in a very dark North facing room. The only window in the room is a set of French doors that lead to a (north-facing) sunroom, which really isn't very sunny. In effect, there is no direct light coming into the space. The Restrained Gold is a great choice for this room because it isn't so light that the lack of light makes it muddy. It holds it's own and brings a lot of warmth to the room. I would use this color again in a similar situation. Nicole

Squirrel I'm glad you brought up the bookshelf. It is very outdated looking. I think I'll ask dh to cut a piece of wood and nail it up there. I guess it wouldn't look any worse than it does now, lol. I had plans to finish installing the crown molding tonight, but I am ticked off with dh for taking too long with another project so he is ticked with me, ;) I think we might need to take a break and relax for a while. Reading some of the 'why men won't read directions' thread in the kitchen forum cooled me off quite a bit. Men, just gotta love 'em!

IMO it makes sense that you'd have green in there, because northern exposures tend to bring out blues (I'm meaning in colors here, not in people, although that applies too! I know because the entire back of our house, the area in which we live most, is north facing and I get greens in colors you'd never expect to see green in, when I put them up on the wall). The orangey tones in your oak cabs might bring out the complement, too, which would be blue (the same way the paint is bringing out the rusty/golds in the laminate). And painting over Olive Branch without a primer might very well also be contributing, as you note. If you really don't want any green in there, you might want to look for paints that read more orange in the store than you like. But so you really don't want green in there? It's obviously a natural partner of the colors you've got going...

Les - Thank you for the encouragement in your previous post. I really have been beating myself up about this, mainly b/c I'm such a perfectionist and it kills me that I made such a big, costly mistake. But you're right, at least I am doing something and in the end it will look great. Polkadots - Yes the banisters were a LOT of work. It took 3 guys an entire day just to do the banisters. First they taped off everything around them very carefully, then they stripped them, then sanded them, then stained them, then sealed them, then put a veneer on. It was a ton of work! But I absolutely love the result and I'm glad we did it. It had bugged me, the light oak color that they were before, ever since we moved in a few months ago (this was a spec home so we didn't get to pick them). I appreciate the pp's cautions about the art niche. I do agree that it will be limiting in what kind of artwork we can put there, but I think we plan to put a large iron scrollwork of some sort there, so the color won't matter and will set off the iron that much more. Also, we are just doing the back wall of the niche in red, not pulling it onto the sides of the niche, so it won't be as overpowering. At least I hope so. OK everyone...so now I'm wondering - do y'all think that pulling the Latte through to the LR will make everything too dark? Also, do you feel that Latte is too dark for the entryway or is it OK? I am thinking that having everything one color, since the floor plan is SO open, would make things flow better and look bigger. At least that's what I hear on all the design shows LOL. So we were just going to do Latte throughout, but now I am questioning whether I should pull the Latte through or do a lighter coordinating color, Nomadic Desert or Kilim Beige, in the LR... Is the Latte too dark for my big open LR?