I have picture mouldings under my windows...it looks exactly like the picture posted above by mairin. Are you doing the work yourself? If not, I'd rely on your trim carpenter. They've trimmed out many houses...you shouldn't have to tell them what dimensions you want your picture mouldings, etc to be. They (or at least mine did) will work with your rooms dimensions and lay it out accordingly. I was OCD about everything involved in my build, but I allowed the trim carpenter some creative license...and it turned out much better than I could have imagined because of that.

Yes, I'm in the process of painting, too. We closed in a door way, so that's what has started this snowball. The front door is mahogany, so I'll have the color differnce in the wood there as well. I'm going to start on the foyer tomorrow and see how it goes. I've never done wainscot, so I may be a little slow, but I'll post some progress pictures and let you know how it goes. Stay tuned!!

So many good ideas! I like them all! The rest of the house has neutral paint with white trim and wood floors. The kitchen cabinets are white. I do like white. I have especially always adored white trim on colorful walls. (Though I'm not always brave about colorful walls). Beth posted a pic with gray walls and white wainscoting - I like that. She also posted a pic with gray panelling and shelves - I like that too. I love my current family room. It has neutral walls with white trim, white bookcases, and white panelling around the fireplace. I have IKEA Ektorp sofas and an armchair with white slipcovers (those could be easily changed - in an all white room, I may switch to tan slipcovers). I have a large modern area rug, that is multicolored, but mostly blue, and I have blue accents (I like blue). It's a light and airy room. If I paint these panels white, I'm thinking of adding some blue through pictures on the walls. I homeschool three kiddos, so I'm picturing a large, high quality map of the world painting with a bright blue ocean, a few other paintings or tapestries with blue, and some family photos with nice frames. I'm open to keeping the wood, and like the idea of lightning it with window treatments - I like the pics Irene posted. BUT the problem is, there are NO windows in this room!! There is some light from the sunroom, that's all. right now, the only place I could add window treatments would be over the doors to the sunroom. this brings me back to the idea of adding french doors between the rooms. the family room (panelled room) is smaller than what I am used to (it looks bigger in the pic than it is) Having it open up to the sunroom helps for sure - opening it up to the formal sitting room, as well, would create a wonderful flow for entertaining. and would allow some more light in from the sitting room windows - it would also be another place I could add window treatments. In our current house, the sitting room is also sectioned off like this one, and it is only used to play the piano and for the christmas tree. I think if the two rooms were connected, it would get more use. BUT - in the new house we will no longer have a guest room, so I'm planning to put a fold-out sofa in the formal sitting room - for that use, I like that it is not connected to other rooms, and that it currently has doors that can be closed for privacy. If I connected the two rooms, I would want either solid doors like the ones already there - that would stay open all the time unless a guest were sleeping there - or glass french doors with curtains. the main floor also has a dining room, which i am planning to close off as an office by adding a door. We have an antique dining table that can fold down to a small buffet and be pushed against the wall. I'm thinking of putting that in the sunroom, and setting it up on the fairly rare occasions we actually want a dining room. There is a door connecting the sunroom to the kitdchen, so it makes sense as a dining room, and hte folding table could also be used for crafts or projects, as I hope we will spend a lot of time in the sunroom. I could possibly put the fold-out sofa in the office (formerly dining room), but I don't know if there will be enough space. (the office will have desks for me and hte kids) Any thoughts about connecting the two rooms? Also, about the fireplace. I kind of like the stone. Do you think it would go better if the wood were painted? I am thinking of upgrading to a gas fireplace. Would that be a good time to change the stone, or does that not affect the stone at all?

No such thing as too many shelves in an office! And if you have a ton of books to fill all those shelves, even better! The look of wall to wall books is beautiful. All the different colours on the book spines gives the room plenty of colour and interest. I even like the existing desk. But, everything needs a coat of paint. Your office won't take much to update it. Paint all the shelving and cabinets around the perimeter white, paint your desk black, replace the tracklighting with a funky semi-flush mount light, replace the carpet with Vinyl Plank flooring as suggested by Jan Moyer, add funky cabinet hardware to the cupboard doors, and that's it. The little room outside the actual office area is where you can add colour and artwork etc. Make it look like a comfortable room you would have in your home rather than a disappointing office with horribly bland furniture and non-descript artwork. By the way, use a really good primer on the oak prior to painting.