I suggest you post over at the Home Decorating forum (http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/decor/). There are some great color experts over there. This forum tends to be more about painting techniques than color choices. That being said, one of my favorite BM reds is Raspberry Truffle, but that might be the shade of red you are looking for. You can ask for advice at your BM store and maybe get a sample pot or two of popular red shades and paint them on some foam board and see what you think.

Still undecided here. I think it's best to keep the furniture arrangement like it is. I had considered flipping the two rooms, but don't want the dining table obscuring that first view of the fireplace when you enter the house. So that's decided. Still pondering the suggestions of the storage/shelving being in the other room... The idea the cabinet guy and I came up with is to split the dining wall into thirds, do two 55" bookcase/storage cabinets right up to the ceiling, with an equally sized wainscot between, allowing space for some sort of table I can store stools under (to be used at the table when we need extra seating). I'm also trying to fit in a desk of some sort for a computer, maybe on the opposite dining wall. But I don't want it to look like Apple is taking over our dining room, it's gotta be inconspicuous. I love the look of this room too, and it would fit great with our lifestyle - four kids and lots of homework:

I think your idea of shelves around a reading nook is a good one. You said you’d like storage, so imagine any of these with the top shelves closed off with pretty glass doors or whatever — you could store things up there. There are so many ideas out there for home libraries in smallish rooms. You can make the shelves any height/size you want. You could use freestanding cabinets and still have plenty of room for a comfy seating area with chairs and ottomans. Search ’home library ideas’ … ’small home library ideas’ … ’reading nook ideas’ … etc, for tons of inspiration. If you’re on Instagram and/or Pinterest search hashtags and key terms for even more. IG example: Hope you update us, would like to see how it goes. I’d paint the room a beautiful color, get the shelves in, decide on furniture, and find a gorgeous rug.

Regardless of whether or not you use that sliding door to go in /out or just to open for air ventilation, the correct treatment using any kind of hanging panels or drapery for that slider is to have the panels / draperies stack off to right when open & I’d stack them back to corner to be able to clear as much of window as possible when open. Anything else would look funny. There is a formula for amount of fabric needed to cover windows with proper fullness & yes, the type of pleat factors in to amount needed. Plan on at least 3 X’s the width of wall span plus window width for fabric width needed. If there’s a pattern to be matched on fabric length wise in drape, that has to be calculated according to repeat measurement but your fabric doesn’t have pattern. If a drapery / panel were to split in middle & stack evenly to each side, on the left side the light switch is blocked as well as door handle. Also, drapes would be bunched up against cabinets on left & ruin the look of them. Doesn’t matter if you don’t use light switch (for outdoor light my guess) or door handle. As for the pleats, either is good but I like the box pleat as a cleaner look. Hardware wise, I’d go with whatever color the chandelier is & it would also go with dark window trim. I’d hang drapes close to ceiling.