I found my style by looking at a gazillion magazines when I was building a large previous home, and it was basically large English country house, with paintings and Oriental rugs and porcelain. After a while you begin to find a common thread in all the pages you tear out that appeal to you. Looking at decorating books in the library also helped quite a bit. You'll find out whether you like more rustic surroundings or more elegant ones, whether you favor French or English, and whether you want to spice it up with some modern art or furniture for a more eclectic look. Your house, by the way, is lovely.

I think it's less important how it's called; I have a book just on florals, and it has 9 or 12 types of only floral styles, and I never figured out which is mine lol; but then it's not the best book ever written..

I agree-look at the pics, magazines, and most importantly-books, because the books tend to go more deep into the style, its origin and inner reasoning, they go beyond just dabbing a name. You'll see pretty soon what's yours; and if it a mix of several things-that's great too as long as it flows together, works with the house and makes you happy.

Congrats on your pretty new place!

(Modern tendency is for bigger florals rather than small florals; that much I did figure out. Not that it should dictate your choices if you really love small ones much better; just tone it down with other patterns/ plains, as deeinohio said. Same is true about every other pattern though.

Ah, chinoiserie is very popular too. Very pretty. I think how to sneak it into my place..and I don't know yet))

Look what I found yesterday..those are fabric wallpapers, and removable http://www.tempaperdesigns.com/shop-tempaper/chinoiserie-by-tempaper.html

And just a note:. You can paint the woodwork! Life is too short to settle for something you don't like that is so easy to fix!

oh, and congratulations on the new house. Can't wait to see what you do with it. :-)

Ha Deeinohio you are right about the florals! :) thank you, that was very helpful feedback.

Ingrid, I tend to use on line pictures now, I no longer get magazines, but you are right, I need to start saving some boards. I do have one started that is lightwalls boho, but I think that is a bit much, so I need to go through them and pick out my favorites, as well as amongst the type of decorating I mentioned in my topic. I kind of wish I did not throw out all my old country living or cottage magazines.

aprilneverends - I do love chinoiserie. that also makes a lot of sense on the modern florals. I wonder about color too. would some color schemes indicate a more modern look.

cyn427 - I dont know how you would do that. the windows themselves are wood too. I would think if you painted the windows they would chip as you opened them. and if you just painted the frames then you would still have the wood windows.

I have been wondering how crown molding might fit in too, too formal (I think these are photoshopped)?

I think that color schemes will derive from the mood; and the mood will be dictated, to some point, by location..because every place on Earth has its specific lighting, nature, people and their culture, etc..so certain palettes are born because we're influenced of inspired by certain places where we lived or visited..maybe several of these.

Different colors will signal different mood to you. And vise versa. Some of it will be highly individual, but some will bear associations with people and places, as different as they come.

Jewel tones will maybe bring East to mind, or jungle or California Coast)) and bright happy colors will remind of Caribbean, and pastels and clean colors- of Florida, and colors of faded lace-of France maybe; etc.

Contemporary approach is that you can do whatever you want and be inspired by wherever you want-because it became so much easier to travel and to be able to see so much more. It just needs to make sense in your own space, place and time, to be translated not too literally-because a translator never goes exactly word by word when translating literature from one language to another. And if he does-it becomes impossible to read enjoyably. Trust me, I check every translation on Amazon before buying classics for my kids))

that's the main thing i'd care about when choosing colors.

Even "timeless" will look different everywhere, because every place on Earth has its own "timeless".

It brings me to the thought "modern" will look a bit different everywhere too))

I hope I'm making at least some sense, because I obviously drank a bit too much coffee in the morning.

Congrats on the new house and what fun to have so many rooms to express yourself in! I say yes to crown molding, and it can be painted. The baseboard blends in with the wood floor and window treatments can soften the wood trim on the windows so don't let that stand in your way.

When I had the whole house to do, I headed to fabric stores and used the fabrics as the inspiration for many of my rooms. Fabrics speak to me. If not fabrics, then whatever does speak to you be it a pic of a room (I liked veranda and traditional home on facebook, so I get feeds from them all the time) or a piece of art or whatever. Once you have some inspiration, color and style selection becomes so much easier. Also think about cross-linking colors from room to room in the public spaces. It lends a feeling of cohesiveness in the house.

If European style is your thing, do spend some time at bread and olives and her pinterest page for some wonderful inspiration....her pages were what inspired me to head to France last year.

Maybe it is a regional thing, but I haven't seen natural wood trim in my area in eons. (I just did a quick run through of photos on the website of one of the larger real estate agents here. Nope, no natural wood trim.) If you want the trim painted, hire a good professional to paint it. If done properly, it shouldn't chip easily. And if it does, a little leftover paint and a small brush make for a very easy touch-up.

If at all possible, have all of the painting done before you move in.

YES! on the crown molding. It will upgrade the look and feel of the house almost immediately. And don't go skimpy. From This Old House: Ceiling height is the ultimate arbiter of size, according to architect Richard Sammons, coauthor of Get Your House Right. For standard 8-foot-high ceilings, the crown/cornice height should be 2½ to 6 inches; for 9-foot ceilings, 3 to 7½ inches, and for 10-foot ceilings, 3½ to 8 inches.

In each case, I'd go with the widest acceptable molding.

Good luck. I can't wait to see what you do with your new house!

Boopadaboo,

Congrats! What a pretty house and the setting is wonderful.

Like you, I'm about to close on a new place. Also like you I've never been a big fan of wood trim so what did I do? I let my husband talk me into a log cabin, wood absolutely everywhere and DH is adamant about not painting. I have to agree on this as it would hurt resale as far as a cabin goes. I have come around to working with it thanks in huge part to the wonderful input from the GW gang. I also spent a lit of time on Pinterest and houzz compiling pics of rooms with wood and wood trim.

Can you post a pic of the room you referred to that you love?

Your post got me thinking about the difference between English and French country. To me, English will have florals, chintz, some plaid or tartan and will have maybe a hunt scene. French will have toile, and farm scenes, chickens and such.

Ok, ya gotta love Pinterest. I did a quick search and found this blog,

Wood trim stays

And a few pics, very formal but shows the mix.

Congrats on your new home!

IMHO, whether or not to paint dark trim depends a lot on the vintage and quality of the trim work. I worked around dark trim in a beachhouse of all things because it was beautiful wood and quality. I think there was a recent era (70s? 80s?) of less distinctive dark trim that looks more like clamshell. If i had that, I would in fact update it.

It's much easier-logistically-to paint everything before you move

It's much harder-decor-wise-to paint everything before you move, and before you know what furnishings you got where, and what the house "asks" from you

The choice of paints is close to infinite. It's wise to start with the more restricting choice.

Even though I agree it's physically harder and time-consuming to do it later.

That would be my advice regarding painting-yes, I read it in like a hundred design books, but I also had no choice as to paint the whole empty house this year, because GC's have their schedule and the city inspector have theirs.

It was really hard. Had to take all the samples into both houses (new and current one), because the only thing the new house had was the light it got)) All the rest of our stuff is in the old house.

Granted, here it'll be easier because the flooring will stay, other things probably will stay. We didn't have even flooring in-the paint comes before the floor when majorly remodeling.

But still. I wouldn't make painting my first priority. If possible of course-sometimes you're too busy, sometimes you hate the paint that's there too much)).

But.

You live in the home, you spend there some time-you see much better what you want, what you've got, what vibe you're going for, how the light falls in every room, and how you'd like to paint.

As about for what's English, and what's French..from all I read and learned-the most important thing about both of these styles is that they don't give a damn)) They don't take themselves too seriously. It might or might not have toile or tartan, but it will be relaxed, cozy, a little bit faded maybe, maybe eccentric -yet elegant at the same time, because confidence is elegant. Chicken and hunt, tartan and toile are our interpretations..they all exist of course, but they're not really needed for translating the style.

If you want-I can probably compile a list of books for you..I mean the ones I read and loved.

(Because obviously some I never read, and some I didn't love enough to recommend them))

Thank you all! We had the inspection today and I think all went well (pending receipt of the final report)

Lily'smom - I agree, I think they are pretty neutral rooms, and while not really architecturally interesting, they should be easy to work with I hope!

aprilneverends, your colors post made total sense to me :)

thank you for the links Annie Deighnaugh. you are right, fabrics or even rugs for me are usually a good starting point.

bbstx - very good point about the crown molding height, and one I would not have thought of. I agree - most new houses are not built with wood trim too often around here either. I am still struggling with the window chippy thing. the one benefit of wood trim is no touch up! my house now has it, i was really hoping to get away from it!

Annette Holbrook - how funny about the log cabin. I tried to actually convince my husband to look at a couple that were in our price range, but he would have none of it! I like your thoughts on english vs french country, and I think that would totally steer me towards english. I found that same blog post and it is funny how much she hates the wood trim, but tries to be helpful! here is a picture of our family room with the barkcloth and rug (the best I can find at the moment):

MtnRdRedux - thank you- your beachhouse is lovely of course, and this is not anything old and lovely like that! I think it is of decent quality, for example t the french doors seem very well made and the pocket doors seem very solid. I just have a hard time thinking of them holding up well to being painted and used regularly, I have to read up on it maybe. :)

back to aprilnever ends - I agree, I think I am not one tht can get it all painted before I move in. If I had the money I would have the floors in the bedrooms redone before moving in, but we have just decided to put more down on the house and will deal with it later. so that means we will probably go room by room in general and will probably really start with the first floor, although I am sure my husband will want to hire a painter given the high ceilings in two rooms. It took me a few months to find the perfect cream color in my current house, I could see it taking awhile in my new one too.

I just remembered I have a pinterest board that might be what I am looking for. it just never worked in my current house (as you can see above I had dark trim, dark floors and those dratted beams to deal with :p )

this is the new family room - like a weight has been lifted compared to the old one :)

I think your choice to put more down and spend less on decor is a very sound decision! My hat is off to your solid judgment.

hanks bbstx! :)

Ok some inspiration pics I have on pinterest. I can see I am going to have to kind of start over again organizing and thinking about pics with a new house.... and I definitely need a velvet sofa at some point given the amount of them I have pinned. :)

Boop, I have had stained wood windows and stained trim painted white in a previous house ... never had a problem with them chipping. Have it painted before you move in. It made such a difference in the space to have the trim painted white. You only live once, don't settle, and get it done for this house!

..it will be beautiful)) I love your inspiration pics.

(I also dream of a velvet sofa...

I found one on Craigslist, half a year ago. It was pink)) A very nice pink. It looked nice and clean, looked new. It cost 60(sixty) bucks. We went to look at it. I bought it. Wouldn't you? Sofa that looks like a rose, feels like a rose, costs 60 bucks? I felt like an old lady. And a bit unstable one, at that. But like a happy old lady, you know))

Well we had to furnish my MIL's apartment. She loves it too))

So I still have a velvet sofa to dream about!

Boop, so funny I have some of those same pics pinned. Oh, and I'm dying for a velvet sofa. Check out my mood boards for my master and great room. Although I'm now using those colors for my guest suite.

I love your room, those curtains rock!

Boop, you might want to spend some time looking at Christopher Worthland's page. He's got great rooms and inspiration all divvied up by style. Anele found him a few years ago, and it's definitely a great place to visit.

I had to paint before I moved in to our new house. I was picking fabrics while the window openings were just roughed in, guesstimating how much fabric I'd need. I was selecting paints while the sheetrock was unfinished. Before we moved in, I did have the PR repainted as the color I selected wasn't saturated enough. After we moved in, I repainted the walls in my bedroom and redid the kitchen. I figure that's not too bad considering the number of rooms and spaces I was doing and the number of decisions I was making at the time.

thanks Annie Deighnaugh I will check it out.

thanks Chispa - I started talking to DH about it. :) I think it would be expensive to do before we move in, but maybe we can do it room by room. I wouldn't mind having the kitchen cabinets painted too :0 but I haven't brought that up yet :) (my dad called while I was typing and had a fit when I mentioned painting :) he says it is expensive trim.

I bet that was a gorgeous sofa aprilneverends. :)

fabulous room boards Annette Holbrook I can't wait to see your rooms. how funny you have the same inspiration picture. I have this bolt of fabric that I still have not done anything with - maybe in the new house :)

Annette I love that shower on your inspiration board. That's what I want when I redo my shower, big tiles on the walls and little stone ones on the floor for no slip.

Not to contradict your dad, but (a) men hardly ever want to paint wood trim, even crummy wood trim; and (b) so what if it is expensive trim? There are lots of expensive things that I don't want in my house for various reasons, not the least of which is "I don't like it." Like this expensive sofa, which you could not give to me!

I just wanted to chime in to say that I've seen pictures of homes with doors and window sashes that are unpainted wood paired with trim work that is painted, and I thought it looked beautiful. Basically, anything that opened/closed/moved was unpainted wood, and the rest was painted. So that's something to consider as an option. I wished I'd thought of that option before we went with all wood trim and doors in our main floor living areas and all painted trim and doors upstairs (bedrooms, bathrooms, and laundry room).

We have lots of stained wood (trim, doors, built-ins, etc.) on our main floor, so I understand the challenges of decorating around it and finding colors that work with it. But when you find the right colors to bring out the best in your wood AND give you the vibe you want, it's worth the challenge. There were times (after spending too much time looking at trendy design magazines or web sites) when I second guessed our decision to go with so much wood, but I've come to love it more over the years because of its character and richness. I grew up in a house that had unpainted fir paneled walls in every room (even the bathroom, though the walls in there were varnished), so for a long time I just longed for light, bright, painted walls. After having those for years living on my own, I guess I finally came around to appreciating natural wood again.