You don’t mention specific paint colors, but no matter. Whatever you choose for the great room, go two or three down on the strip for the dining room over the paneling.

Or, coordinate with rug colors….

Mindshift, thanks so much for the suggestions on layouts. I guess some things are a matter of personal opinion, since I have had others tell me not to layer the rugs, but I like how it looks in your photo.

JudyG, thank you for your suggestions and pics! In one of the pics of my current home it shows a soft green dining alcove accent wall that picks up the green in the living room chair. Because the new great room is open to the kitchen and hallway, there is no good place to start and stop color, so I thought of using a neutral like cream/off white with white moldings and painting the fireplace wall that soft green as an accent wall in the great room to add a touch of color and coordinate with my existing furnishings. (I’m nervous about doing anything too dramatic and afraid it may not go with my current furnishings). However, I don’t really want to do green in the dining room so going down 2 or 3 on the strip to give the DR a color wouldn’t be an option. I think I need a better color scheme and am certainly open to paint color suggestions but was hoping to use the colors in my rug (please see photo) since what I have coordinates with it, and I can’t afford all new stuff. I would like to stick with earth tones as much as possible though, since that is what I currently have and I’m not a big fan of red or blue. Any other thoughts you have are most appreciated!

You haven’t talked about your kitchen, but from your layout it appears that is the room that will be visible from both the great room and dining room, yes?

What are the major big elements? Wood, stone, tile or art glass? Any standout. color? What will your island look like?

Thank you for asking. Yes, the new kitchen will be visible from both the new LR and DR. Please see the pics attached of my current kitchen, (The bottom picture was taken before I decorated on top of my cabinets.) I’m hoping to duplicate much of this in my new home in terms of major elements — cabinet color, granite, oil rubbed bronze hardware, stained glass. Don’t know if I will keep the same plain cream backsplash tile or possibly integrate a few “art tiles” for a more craftsman feel. Will likely stick with similar colors as I love earth tones. I will have a sink that looks out a window and hope to put a simple stained glass craftsman design in the window as well. Any suggestions on how to make the paint colors and other elements work in my new home would be greatly appreciated!

Hopefully you're taking cabinets in the new home to the ceiling, or are eliminating a few of them in favor of more accessible drawers. Generally, paint colors are based on fabrics/textiles to be used in the spaces. Your greens should be a great starting point for that. Don't forget to get some large peel and stick samples from samplize.com once you've narrowed down the colors.

Why not move in and then see what works and what doesn't.? You may find that your living room furnishings take on a completely different appearance or you may find the large size of the rooms need larger rugs for better sound absorption.

Thank you so much Beverly for your suggestion and the examples above! I like the rugs you put in the photos of my existing living room. Are you able to share the names of the patterns and where I can find them? I’d like to get a closer look at them on line.

I might hold off on deciding a paint color for the dining room until I had decided on the stained glass, but how do you feel about a squash color for the dining room, and maybe as a unifying color scheme for all the rooms. Does it go with your rug? (It is hard for me to tell colors truly on my computer screen)

Craftsman in Woodside, CA · More Info

Theta Sorority House · More Info

Do you think your rug would look good layered over this?

Safavieh Vintage Collection VTG113 Rug, Warm Beige, 10'x14' · More Info

I really like that squash color a lot. It’s very warm looking! My rug has so much pattern in it that if I layered it I think I would put it over something without pattern, just some texture. Below is a closeup I just too that hopefully you can see better.

So this is not a dining room or a living room, but I think it is a fascinating craftsman color palette, including the tint of the ceiling, which I might describe a light dry clay.

Deephaven Craftsman · More Info

It might be too rich and saturated for your tastes but swapping out bronzes and earth tones for the spicer reds would still leave it quite wonderful. However, one of the reasons I think this room’s color scheme is so successful is the panorama of leaf greens out the window, so I think in your new home you should think about lots of plants. And more plants.

One more squash-gold color scheme

Medallion Cabinetry · More Info

This is beautiful and, in fact, these are colors I used in my master bedroom. However, it’s not craftsman style because I love the cherry canopy bed that I got years ago before I fell in love with Craftsman style and won’t get rid of the set. Although it may be hard to see, the bedroom fabric I used has the rusts, browns, greens, and golds. The gold or squash and these colors could work with my rug. But if I use the squash color in the DR and as a unifying color elsewhere, wouldn’t that be too much of a good thing? I think greens, golds, rusts, and brown earth tones are what I gravitate to, but I just don’t know how to apportion the colors to the different rooms. I also have a very large foyer and long entry hall to think about.

The foyer and entry hall should showcase your personality, the home's style and also set the expectation about what one will see in adjoining rooms. Maybe start with a green runner for the hallway.

Might be too much of a good thing. Hard to know without being in your space.

I can’t really tell what color the throw is on your rocking chair, but that is sort of what I meant by possibly unifying rooms with squash in different proportions.

Here’s an artwork that might fit some spot at some point

"The May Queen" Poster Print by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh · More Info

And a great vase

Cyan Lighting 12.25" Large Dimple Vase, Bronze Copper Finish · More Info

I greatly appreciate the comments and suggestions from everyone. Several people have suggested that I wait until I get into my new home to decide on paint colors. However, because the builder is giving us a choice of any three colors we would like, which is included in the price of the house, I feel as though I need to make these choices now since he will have to paint before we move in. If I only go with cream and white as my default, I will then have to pay additional for someone to come back and paint in the colors that I ultimately decide upon once we are in the home. That's why I'm trying to decide in advance of moving in, and I don't know what to do for safe colors other than cream and white. I wonder what other people do who are moving into a new home in terms of their paint colors.

I don't know who HU-338153728 above is. This is Joanie123 and I wrote the above comment so not sure how someone else's name got on my post!

I'll repeat my post here:

I greatly appreciate the comments and suggestions from everyone. Several people have suggested that I wait until I get into my new home to decide on paint colors. However, because the builder is giving us a choice of any three colors we would like, which is included in the price of the house, I feel as though I need to make these choices now since he will have to paint before we move in. If I only go with cream and white as my default, I will then have to pay additional for someone to come back and paint in the colors that I ultimately decide upon once we are in the home. That's why I'm trying to decide in advance of moving in, and I don't know what to do for safe colors other than cream and white. I wonder what other people do who are moving into a new home in terms of their paint colors.

Is your foyer large enough on its own to accommodate the 5x7 rug? If so, then you could pick up on its colors for the hall runner, and move on to larger, different rugs for your living and dining. I don't think cream/white are safe in your case since you already have the fabrics/textiles you want to use. Drag cushions and rugs with you to the paint store if you have to. Better to struggle with the decision now than deal with it later. Have you searched for a local color consultant? They might be helpful, or they might resent being boxed in by your upholstery, etc.

Thank you

I copied the photo of your rug to my photo program and sampled the colors in it. I then compared those colors with paint colors from Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams. The light gold of the background most closely matches SW 6374 Torchlight. The light brown was similar to BM's 2166-20 Caramel Latte. The green matched SW 7729 Edamame, and SW 2806 Rookwood Brown is similar to a taupe in the rug. Neither the coral or the dark red have any matches, and they would overwhelm a room in any event. What looked blue in the rug sampled as gray. These colors in your rug are muted by the small areas they occupy. They are more saturated when viewed by themselves. Below are approximate samples of the above colors.

You should first of all check out these colors on the manufacturer's website in their virtual paint. Here is Benjamin Moore and here is Sherwin-Williams. Remember that you can choose a lighter version of these colors. For instance, SW 7726 Lemon Verbena is a lighter version of Edamame, and SW 6373 Harvester is a lighter version of Torchlight. Once you have narrowed the choices you should buy samples and paint on poster board. You can then set the poster boards against the walls you want to paint to see how the colors work. This is the only way to see if you like the colors enough to live with them. Otherwise you would be better off choosing neutrals.

Thank you Mindshift for taking the time to do this and explaining the color concept. I just tried the Benjamin Moore app and got a message that they are having technical difficulties so I will have to try later. When I use the Sherwin-Williams app and uploaded one of my living room photos to use, the program froze so will have to try that again as well. They look like great tools if I can get them to work. 😊