I like your pragmatism Patricia43, and think you hit it right on the head. Like Lynne said too, there are criteria for choosing a home that are more important than the style of the house you love, and usually the house purchased is a compromise. Still, a person who loves Victorian probably wouldn't choose an ultra-modern flat top house filled with stainless steel and clean lines unless it was the only house for sale in the area they had chosen. I don't think a lot of people would even notice that a style of house is Queen Anne and the furniture is French Country. It would take a big contrast for most people. With so many newer houses being a combination of many styles, anything works. That said, I have a neighbor with a house built in the 1980's, hip roof, center front door flanked by two leaded glass bay windows. The house was bought for the size, acreage, and location. She is from El Paso, and remodeled the house to reflect that style. She raised the ceiling without raising the roof to have an open loft, added a wrought iron staircase with Mexican tile on the treds, put Mexican tile throughout the house, had the walls retextured to look like heavy adobe, and painted the walls in shades of ochre. Her furniture is traditional for the most part, leaning toward southwest, but she does have a grand piano in front of one of the bay windows. I found it a bit shocking the first time I saw it finished, simply because style of the inside is so different from the outside, and yet her decor would go with either. I have another friend who also lives in a modern house, raised panel inside, but she is from Florida, and painted every room a bright color, from lime green in the bathroom, yellow and blue in the kitchen, to orange in the living room. She tiled the living room and kitchen using bright colors. Her furniture and accessories are traditional with some antiques. It is a surprise when first seen by newcomers, but it makes it more like home to her and makes her happy. The only reservation I have with both of these houses is that a lot of the changes they have made are permanent, or at least will cost a lot to change, and will affect resale. But neither plan to move any time soon and aren't concerned about resale, and they are happy with their homes. The bottom line is, do what makes you happy since you are the one who has to live with it.

I freely mix styles but only do what is pleasing to my eye. I have a fair amount of hand-me-downs (err: antiques) that I mix w/ sleek silver picture frames and more modern streamlined seating from IKEA. Those chairs also sit beside very gentlemanly dark leather Parisian styled club chairs w/ nail head trim. I have a pine TV armoire w/ rusted hinges and pulls mixed w/ a banana leaf cocktail table. In my kitchen you'll find a mahogany Duncan Phyfe style table w/ french chairs w/ cane seats in an ebony finish then move through to my mudroom that houses a Balinese hutch and a bureau w/ Eastlake drop pulls. Our office is a study in contrast: I have a fancy handcarved drop desk made by DH's great grandfather w/ a cute little French styled chair and modern curvy white floor lamp that 1/2 of GW'ers liked and 1/2 didn't. There is a sleek dark Bombay Co. console to the side that holds office supplies. DH has a large cumbersome library desk w/ an antique highback oak desk chair that I find to scream 'Heart of America' w/ a modern desk lamp. I find that it took me years to get it all to flow from room to room and to do so I ended up w/ a palette of neutral grays, browns, creams and black but used in nontraditional ways like the black ceiling in my hallway that has the very Victorian Gold Swan mini-chandelier. I've also kept my art uniform from room to room but that's not a sacrifice for me. That just gives me more reason to load up on black and white photos. I think that finally toning down my colors makes my eclectic mix of styles, wood and furniture take center stage. When I had many varied wall colors mixed w/ The riot of styles and crazy mish-mash of furniture I was on visual overload. I do have some friends who still compare their sense of style and decorating to mine and that's not fair to either them or me. They have a home full of lots of different styles that they like and maybe haven't figured out how to get it all to go and they actually apologize when I come over. And the whole time I'm thinking 'Hey - this is a home and it looks really, really wonderful! If you want me to help you tweak things then great, I will, but changes do not need to be made'.

I would leave them ivory as well, or at least I wouldn't paint them a matching blue. I think you would lose the integrity of the back of the chairs by trying to match them, especially with the tufting of the blue chairs. I would want to show off the design of the back of the chairs and not downplay it as if it isn't important. That's what gives them their uniqueness against the other chairs. And yes, you can use them together, the shape and size is very similar.

Cute house. I like lighter colors in hot sunny climates, since they do a better job of reflecting the suns heat. Dark gray just sound hot, even with the shading that you have. How do you feel about pastels? Given the vintage of your house, it wouldn't have been unlikely for it to have originally been pink, or yellow, or mint green. Are you familiar with the imaging tools offered by paint manufacturers? You can upload a photo of your house and use tools to define areas for painting ("wall", "trim", "door") and then try out different colors. They are pretty easy to use. Here's a link to Benjamin Moore's but most brands have something similar.