You may get some responses on the Home Decorating Forum. Here is a link that might be useful: Home Decorating

I have a few more options. What do you think? Palimpsest, I did the one panel like you suggested and fixed the heights. I also like the idea of doing sort of a raised panel look, either in the color of the trim (with everything the same color) or else in the color of my book cases so it could mimic the book cases on the other wall (they will be stained blue) Any of these options look good? If I went with option 4 or 5, I'd probably have the paneling look more like this than exactly like above: Either painted trim color or painted in the blue.

I have a two story entryway that's painted the same color as my dining room. It leads into my living room which has ten foot ceilings. The living room is green, the dining room is taupe. I just stopped the taupe paint where the ceiling changes. I know it's completely against the rules, but for me it's the best solution. Is there a green paint color that you've already picked out? I think a light olive green would go well with the pumpkin.

Can you post a rough sketch (straight lines are not required!) of this floor of your home so we can see how they relate to each other? If you can note each rooms wall lengths and door and window locations, I'm betting there's a good solution out there that we just haven't come up with yet because we still don't have a very good feel for the existing layout. It's really too hard to get a complete idea with just photos. It would also help If you let us know your budget. That will help us know if we can dream big, or we need to keep to modest changes. One of the first thoughts I have, even without seeing your floorpan, is maybe you could split up the room next to the in-law suite (your current dining room I think?) so that part of it combines with the in-law suite to make that a little bigger, and part of it combines with that little extra room that's really just a hallway and plant area now, so that it makes the dining room bigger. (Again this is all based on whether or not I'm understanding which room is which, but I hope you are understanding my idea.) Now, it would be more expensive than just tearing down one wall, because you would be tearing down two walls and building a third, but maybe that would make the perfect size dining space, and you'd have a little bit bigger in-law suite as well. That could be a win-win. And now, you or others can say that can't possibly work because of this or that, (or maybe it does) and someone else has an idea, and so on. So please give us a rough sketch. That could be just the thing for someone to come up with a brilliant idea.