For the most part, my furniture is casual and neutral. The room next to the dining room (but not visible from the dining room) is the family room and it will hold a brown leather Ethan Allen sectional, muted orange wingback-ish chairs, and a rug with muted green, brown, gold, and orange squares. However, the orange chairs are in storage and due to some issues we had with the storage unit, they may not come out in usable shape. So the rug and orange chairs might be replaced with any variety of items in any variety of colors. Regarding metallic paint - that's not really in keeping with our style preferences. DH wants the dining room to be a dark room but I agree with johnatemp that I won't want to walk by a cave all the time. DH also had the same suggestion as creekylis -- to have the wall under the chair rail painted with the white trim paint to give the illusion of wainscoting. And I'm open to that. The walls are flat so I think that would look okay. As Les917 suggested, I think we need a rug to lighten the room a bit. I've been going through magazines and catalogs in an attempt to find a great room I can mimic but haven't stumbled upon anything that I love. But I think that we'll have a good result if we use the trim below the chair rail, chocolate brown above the chair rail, a sparkly chandelier, mirrors and lamps to create some light, and a good rug, we should be okay. Thank you, everyone, for your advice! try_hard ...

I have done white below in my last 2 dining rooms. The first was a green above and this house has a chocolate brown above. I absolutely love it. I also did a board and batten treatment in my upstairs hallway with gray above and I love it too! I definitely like the look of color above/white below.

This is what I'm going for! Except that in this pic, the color is blue. I'd like to do the same but with taupe (beige?). https://www.google.com/search?q=dining+room+white+wainscoting+darker+upper+walls&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=tEsTVb6nD8_ooATQ0IKoCA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=320&bih=460&dpr=2#imgrc=DjARw6wc_0FNrM%3A;3hYnUEMzfq7F2M;http%3A%2F%2Fhgtvhome.sndimg.com%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fimages%2Fhgtv%2Ffullset%2F2011%2F1%2F11%2F1%2FDP_Pangaea-contemporary-blue-dining-room_s4x3.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.1280.960.jpeg;http%3A%2F%2Fphotos.hgtv.com%2Fphotos%2Fnavy-walls-;1280;960

That's good to know about maybe needing to shim the rail. I know our floor isn't 100% level, so I was expecting some adjustments there, but I haven't really checked the wall very closely. I hadn't played around much with the Ikea planner software, but now that I have, I think those 1/4" tolerance issues will be irrelevant. I believe the cabinet runs will be a bit shorter than the wall lengths, so I'll be adding some small filler pieces here and there. Since you asked, here's the general layout, though it's very light on details at the moment... http://kitchenplanner.ikea.com/US/UI/Pages/VPUI.htm?Entry=Kitchen&LoadDesign=d93f8fff01ec405ab5e68a7731f4db2b&UIContext=SE_Menu&IsSharedDesign=1 This is mostly just a cabinet project for now; the doors, windows, walls, etc are all in place, and the appliances will stay where they currently are. (There's a lot of history here that I'm glossing over... Suffice it to say, we've already put in a lot of work! Tearing out carpet and wallpaper, fixing up all the flooring, moving the range, having a gas line installed, putting in a hood, etc. This is a slow project, drawn out over several years, and we won't be finished anytime soon! When we bought the house a couple of years ago, nothing had been updated since the late 60's, as far as I can tell. Keeping the 1968 dishwasher that still works like a charm!) Not yet sure what's happening with the short peninsula area; still need to iron that out. (Will include a couple of stools tucked underneath, for occasional seating.) The wall on that side of the room may eventually get knocked out, or become a pass-through, or something like that, so no wall cabinets planned along that wall for the time being. Haven't thought about lighting at all, or colors, or cabinet fronts, countertops, etc. Not sure what we'll end up doing above the fridge. The countertop will of course be continuous, so ignore the gaps that are currently there. Molding is 1" all around, in terms of allowing for drawers to open fully. The entryway by the fridge goes to a hallway (bedrooms), the entryway by the peninsula goes to the dining room, and the entryway by the dishwasher goes to stairs leading to an outside entrance and the basement. I wish the windows provided more light, but all that you can see out of them is the maroon paint job on the neighbors' house...