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 made the move from a Traditional house in Virginia to a more relaxed style in Florida. So, now I thought I would redo everything I had in Virginia, we sold a lot of the furniture and now I have just the few pieces I need to accomplish a more relaxed style. The trade off? The stuff I kept needs refinishing or repurposing or getting something similar but smaller or larger. It will take me a while to reuse my things. If I had it to do over, I would have taken nothing with me, that way I could furnish the downsized house with what really fits here. Harder to take things with you and repurpose than it is to measure and fit what actually goes into the newer home.

One possibility would be to exchange the red for a soft coral tending toward faded red...or if you like, a subtle lavender like the fields below Le Baux. I think one way to get the blend you are after is to take the traditional French colors of red, blue, and yellow, and then use paler, sunbleached versions of them. Go further south in France, and think of the Cote d'Azure. Find a big reproduction of one of those fabulous travel posters from the '30s advertising Cannes or St. Tropez and put it in your red (or whatever you decide on) room, to signal your French coastal flavor. What you really need to do is take three or four weeks off, rent a nice little car in Avignon, and head out to St. Remy, along the valley south of the Luberon through Lambesc and down to Aix en Provence, west and north through Dreaguignan to the perfume centers in Grasse, back down to the coast at Cannes, east along the Corniche through Frejus and through St. Tropez to Toulon; pause to get your breath for a few days, and on to the train station at Marseilles where you will board the TGV to Paris. When can we leave???

Congratulations. Let me chime in late. I have a 1937 home, but it is not a craftsman. There are plenty around in my neighborhood. I did a lot of research into period styles prior to my last round of renovation. By the 1930s, bright colors and lingering Art Deco influences were creeping into other styles. This could be a regional thing, so your area might be different. All of the original tile in our neighborhood is regular square 4x4s, in black, white, pink, aqua, mint green, maroon and yellow. The tile was used in BS, counters and baths. But with Craftsman, as everyone said above, it was all about wood. I love your cabinets and would only add the glass and refresh the finish. But if you did want to paint, white was pretty commonly used (as were the pastels). Counters were usually tile or formica; people now go back to earlier eras and are adding soapstone. I don't know if you saw this thread, but it had a pin board with retro homes. Here is a link that might be useful: Retro Home Thread, Click through to Pin Board