Hello, this is the Original Poster again. I thought it might be helpful to show you my living room, which is also visible from the main hallway. That hallway on the left side of the picture leads to the entry hall. And you can see the china cabinet in my dining room. Maybe that will help you better envision the layout. I've also copied a larger picture of the rug in my living room. The colors in my rug are a bit more muted than they appear in this photograph, but you get the idea. Thank you in advance! Try_Hard

Hi Makeithome. I'm not in love with that blue, but it's not my house, so that doesn't matter. What matters is not the specific color, but how it's handled. The existing scheme, with a different color on the stairway wall, looks really off, like the room was never completed. If the stairs were in a room of their own, having a different color in that area would make sense, but this just looks like the painter didn't come back after lunch. So yes, paint the stairway's walls--both sides--the same color as your living room. And don't worry about painting the upper hallway the same color. Use whatever makes sense up there, and let the blue begin on the two separate sides of the stairs. Easy. But here's a caution: the paneling on your inspiration photo looks awkward, and here's why: the dado rail (and the panels below it) is too high. These days, in new houses, building codes mandate higher stair rails than they used to, which messes up traditional proportions. But safety (or "safety") concerns trump aesthetics, so we just have to deal with it & do the best we can. At any rate, dados now need to be higher in stair areas than they used to be, in order to match the rail on the other side & keep the visual balance. But in your inspiration photo, it's even higher than that, and as a result, the panels look clumsy & amateurish. They're too big, there's not enough height between them & the baseboard and there's too much horizontal space between any two adjacent panels. The overall design of this wall makes me think maybe the layout was done by the carpenter, not the architect, and while a few carpenters are up to that sort of thing, many are not. For someone with a better sense of proprortion, coming up with a better design would have only taken twenty minutes, while others could work on it all day and never figure it out. Anyway, all the problems stem from the height of the dado itself. The height of the dado on the stair wall (not the perpendicular landing wall) should either have been lowered at the point where the two landing walls meet, or there should have been a step-down from the current height of the landing's dado down to a lower angled molding at the first step, in the same way that the actual stair rail drops down a foot or so at the same point. That would given the stair wall's panels much better proportions. The good news is that since your stairs have a straight run without a change in direction & you won't be doing any structural work that might triggers the new codes' railing-height, you won't have to deal with that problem. Just make the dado top out at the height of your existing railing. Then add the panels. BTW, if you're going to add a chair rail to your living room, I'd carry it all the way around the room. That way, it will look like it's always been there, rather than something somebody decided to add, then changed their mind.

I have the following options: Option 1. Kitchen - Dark tile from the picture above (won't stand out so much next to the hardwood floors, easier to keep clean, will ground the white kitchen with the dark espresso island). Foyer - Very light tile (shiny polished tile or marble) Option 2. Foyer and Kitchen - Light tile from the picture above (the foyer won't look chopped off and won't have a problem with two tiles meeting). Option 3. Kitchen - Light tile from picture above Foyer - Light tile, but polished (shiny). Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Proper lighting is not boob lights you need fixtures that allow actual lighting ideally with LED bulbs in 4000K to keep colors true at all times of the day and evening. I find the art you have all very similar maybe take a trip to a gallery or 2 and see what you love then if you can’t afford the originals at least try to find some pieces similar to the gallery ones