Well, not only one. Our kitchen, entry, LR/DR space (except for one red wall) and upper hall are all kind of a coffee with cream color. Upstairs bath is a dark moss green, our bedroom is a sand color, both boys have blue rooms, but two different blues. Bath downstairs is white, family room is a light grey.

Sounds like you are ready for some color - go for it! You can always add touches of that blue in the the nearby rooms for continuity, like towels in that blue in the bath, a vase in the LR, some touches of the blue in artwork or pillows.

Thanks Les,

I should have been clearer. We have a blue and brown color scheme going on downstairs so there's plenty of blue in the furniture and accessories. The dining room right now has blue only in the rug, which you don't see until you're in the room.

I'm concerned that, standing at the front door, when you look around, everything will be tan--except when you look toward the dining room, which will have medium-blue walls.

Is your family room the only room that's gray?

Sounds nice to me. We have one room - the link between the two wings of the house - that is painted differently than the rest of the rooms on the main floor. We also used the same yellow in the laundry room downstairs.

Jay

Oh, def. go for it! As long as you have tan in the room in the form of accessories, you'll be fine. It will add interest to your home.

My front hall is one color (Aura 'Subtle') my LR/DR is Berkeshire Beige and Tate Olive, hall bath is Stonington Gray (almost...they mis-mixed the paint but I liked it so I kept it)...

So, yes. I have several rooms painted a different color!

I think it's a great idea.
It will invigorate your scheme, make your neutral walls seem even more intentional, and signal a specific purpose for the dining room.
We have creamy off-white walls everywhere else, and a rich terra cotta library/den with bookcases painted the same terra cotta. It's very refreshing to go from one to the other.

Not sure if it helps but I have two rooms that are different. Once you enter the house the DR, which is on the right with only two walls (and 2 arches), is painted a deep green. The LR, across the hallway is rusty-red. The rest of the house that's visible from the entry.....hallway, FR & kitchen are all tan. Even if my LR were tan I'd still have my green DR.

As long as the blue is a color that works well with the tan, I see no problem.

All of our walls are painted either in Stuart Gold or Olive Branch except for the Dining Room which is painted in Confederate Red.

As you enter our home and stand in the foyer you can see several rooms in gold and olive and then the Dining Room in your direct line of vision.

Because we've brought all 3 colors into each room with rugs and accessories, the red Dining Room just fits even though it's the only red room in the house.

I think what you're planning to do sounds perfect.
Go for it!

I like the idea of taking a color that is an accent in one room and making it a major color in an adjacent room. That ties the two rooms together, yet emphasizes that the rooms have different purposes.

I think it sounds nice. Designers sometimes use that trick to unify spaces.
I was recently in a home that was painted with SW Restrained Gold in almost every room. It was beautiful.

Thanks for all the advice! I hope it doesn't matter that most of the blues downstairs are more peacock or denim, and the dining room will tend more toward aqua, but since I have different shades of blue all over, it should work, right?

It always takes me a long time to make a decision, and then carry it through but I'll post once it's done. (But don't hold your breath!)

Thanks again!

My house is old and tired and trying to be eclectic as I pump life-fluid into it.

After living nearly 30 years in various military housing, dorms, barracks, etc., and drowning in shades of "off white," I was ready for C-O-L-O-R when we bought this place.

My sewing room/ladies parlor is "Lilac Vapor," a magical shade of lilac. Our office/den/DH's dressing room is Picnic Table red for the bottom 3/4s of the walls, and camel on the upper quarter of the walls and ceiling.

The bathroom is stark black and white with touches of deep, blood red. The bedroom is a lighter green, "Safari," and the mudroom is yellow.

The living room and breakfast nook will be a sage green, "Key Lime Pie," and the kitchen and hall way (all open to one another) will be a 50% lighter version of the same green.

All these rooms have, or will have, lovely crown molding with larger, detailed corner blocks. All the molding, baseboard and trim is white or off white. The bathroom crown molding will be black.

DH is in charge of the four seasons porch. I'm sure it will be various shades of brown, barnwood paneling up to the chair rail, and sprinkled with camo. The room has 10 large windows, facing north, south, and west, and a door, so even the brown won't be overwhelming. He does have a good sense of style, just no color sense.

I prefer to space color around a house so that it's not an isolated design element and to lessen it's color shock. That's what I would be concerned with in your house. If you really want to do that, then I would introduce the color in advance to the room with accessories/art etc.

I think the issue is that you have too much tan. There are so many pretty colors on the color wheel so to be so committed to one (and only 1 shade of it) sounds like too much.

I'd vote you do the blue and then find another room to put another color in....

Thanks for more advice! I should have explained that with our open floor plan, and a two-story entry hall, there is no good stopping point to change paint colors, so we went with one color which looks different in different lighting. I am afraid of color shock but it's only paint. And I think I found the right color today: either BM Whipple Blue, or the darker color, Buckland Blue.

(FYI, the colors look better on the card than on my monitor.)
Thanks again!