We also have a plain vanilla ranch built in 1950. It was never MCM nor any style. It was just churned out as a tract home. The basic layout of bedrooms and living space was ok, but we opened the wall between the kitchen and living room, extended and moved the kitchen so the old kitchen is half of the new one and partly as our new main level laundry room. The rest of the kitchen is part of the extension and is adjacent to the new den we added on. Due to budget constraints, we only cathedraled the new extensions' ceilings and the master bedroom ceiling was vaulted as we extended there too. Where we did not raise the ceilings we added in skylights and a 5ft eyebrow window in the front of the house, boxed in like a skylight (and we have a skylight over the den up high). The greater amount of natural light is fabulous and it feels so much more spacious with the openings for the skylights and eyebrow window. We had hated the all low ceilings when we moved in. Our previous house had vaulted and cathedral ceilings over the living spaces and it was hard to adjust to low and flat. I truly think that being able to raise the ceilings and/or use skylights is one of the best features about a ranch. Since the house was built with little style and updated with no style either (unless cheap and ugly are styles, lol), we felt free to create our own vibe. We went for retro modern with a 40s feel. What a modern person would have done prior to MCM is how I'd describe it. It has some deco feel to it but the lines are simple and not ornate. Crown moldings would not have worked, so we have done simpler ones. We chose modest looking but well designed materials. No one would ever think it is fancy or frilly. We wanted clean lines but not sharp edges. It is supposed to feel homey and unassuming. Like a well worn pair of jeans that fit well. We want guests to feel at home. If you come up with your own style mission statement you can check your choices against it. At one point, we fell in love with white marble and wanted that for our counters. Then one day, we figured out it went against all our other choices and was too elegant. We ended up with Corian in their Rain Cloud pattern, which mimics the feel of a white marble, but is not trying to fake anyone out. It has a softness to the look but with all straight lines and an eased edge profile, it looks neat. We ended up with Carrera marble in our master bathroom for the counter and in the faux rug part of our floor. That space is meant to be more grown up and fancy since it is our private space and not designed for the kids. The veins that make it great there would have been too busy for the kitchen. If we had gone for another look, I'd have loved to use the marble as I usually drool when I see it used anywhere. If I ever do a kitchen again, I would want qs oak with white marble or some other medium toned stained wood. The door style would be different as well. We are happy with our vision and how the look has turned out (the gc screwed us on condition, but that will be fixed, someday). It is not plain vanilla any more! Our house looks like no other in our area and I dare say, it is now one of a kind. Hopefully, you find your groove and your end result reflects your style and vision, and makes you smile too ;)

I would only paint a room if it needed to be freshened up. The ONLY room I would paint is the bright pink one. I am house shopping and while I understand that kids rooms usually have strong personalities, yet can be changed easily, I still feel more positive when the house has more neutral walls since I know I am going to have a lot of things to do to make the house mine, so I won't be able o get them all done at once. Having neutral wall colors just makes it easier. But none of those other colors sound jarring enough to make a difference. I would only repaint or redo a room if it had a very strong personality. That said, the two kids bedrooms in my old house both had ugly splatter painted walls that the kids did themselves before I bought it, and I still bought the house. But now that I am 15 years older, less painting is a definite plus for me. So a lot will depend on your buyers too.

Swatching colors side by side on the old color doesn't really help. You need need white poster board painted the colors you are looking at with a white edge around it. Then you move them around the room during different times of the day to see the color in the space. OR you can order from Samplize to try colors. I would try the Prussian Blue in your rooms as suggested. I think it is going to way to bright.

@Hillary - I think I'd rather have the steps to the terrace than inside the house since inside the house you will be using those steps a lot more than you do going out on the terrace in daily life. It sure is a lot of quirks dealing with an old house vs. starting from scratch. Having the entry to the master from the landing seems better to me than adding additional steps to also get into the master, which I'm not sure where you would put them without taking up space in the master or encroaching on the ceiling downstairs. Or is your second picture with the raised master already in place?