Decorating help needed!

**my4littlebuffaloes** · 02-26-2007, 12:46 PM

Oh how I wish my sister was here, she has such a knack for this. We are working on our dining room now. We finally have all the wallpaper off and are trying to decide paint colors. The problem is there is a chair rail border going around the room. It is about 1/3 of the way up from the floor. I had always pictured a darker color on the bottom and a lighter color on top. I am just having trouble with that. We had though a deep brown, but now it seems too formal. yes it is a dining room, but we are going for a very country theme throughout and this room will double as our school room, so I don't want very formal. Now I found a pretty green that I love. It is a dark sage type color. I think I want to do the same color all over, top and bottom. It is not one of those cards that has the different shades of the same color. It was just a color by itself, so I don't know of a darker shade of this color to put on the bottom. It is light enough that I would want it on the top. Does it look bad to have the same color all over when you have the molding in the middle?

My mom thinks we should do the green on the bottom and a creamy white on the top. I think a white or cream color will look so good with a green or red on the bottom. (my other choice was a barn red, but everyone says I can't do the red in the whole room that it would be too much, with a white on top it will remind me of a candy cane)

so anyway I am at a loss as to what to do and we are painting this coming weekend. Any tips out there?

Thanks!

Jennifer

**FrugalMomof3** · 02-26-2007, 01:29 PM

I think hunter green (country) and creme or antique white on top, remember it's a dining room and light colors will make the room appear bigger and by putting the antique white on top it will be brighter as well.

My dining room is all white on the walls and the furniture right now has black accents (table legs, chair backs), we will be changing that to hunter green as I too love the primitive/country look, if only I had those chair rails like you, how I would love that.

Be sure to send us pictures of the finished project. OH! You could go to home depot and do that machine that lets you see how a finished dining room will look with the colors you choose, we did that for our kitchen (which we havent painted yet) but it looked so nice with the greens we picked out.

**JerryG** · 02-26-2007, 01:30 PM

What other features? windows? doors, etc?

**nuisance26** · 02-26-2007, 01:42 PM

~I think you should stick with the sage for top and bottom. Greens work well for dining rooms and library/dens. Research shows that green improves concentration. Medium tones can be dressed up or down. I wouldn't go too dark; it may feel cave-like.Happy painting!~

**dcompton** · 02-26-2007, 02:01 PM

What about using the sage on the bottom and having the store mix it with white to make a paler shade of the same color for the top? It's just my opinion and tastes are different, but since it's a room you use a lot, I'd go lighter rather than darker (on a "sliding scale" if you know what I mean). It will make the room feel lighter, airier (I doubt that's a word) and less closed in. I know I would have a hard time studying in a dark room. But then, if I didn't live in an apartment with no color control, I would probably have every flat surface painted snow white. So take the source of the advice into account too.

**Laurie in Bradenton** · 02-26-2007, 03:25 PM

Green is a great color for a country themed dining room. We've did the cream chairail with dark blue on the bottom and tan on the top for for a customer. We've also done the dark green on the bottom and top on just one wall like an accent with a cream colored chair rail, then cream over the green n the other walls. Windows and doorways also do make a difference. Black accents are great anchors in a room.
Try the dark on the bottom and the cream on the top and see how you like it. You can always run a half strenght color on top if you want more color down the road. Or a full color accent wall.

Laurie in Bradenton

**my4littlebuffaloes** · 02-26-2007, 04:36 PM

More info - the living room goes through a large opening into the dining room, straight ahead is a normal size window and to the right is a normal size doorway into the kitchen. It is a very open and bright room in general. Under the wall paper was cream paint. So maybe we will paint the bottom and see how we like it? Then decide what to paint the top? it would need more paint on top regardless of what we choose, but we could tell how it would look with a basic color like cream or white by just doing the bottom first. Thanks everyone!

**Libby** · 02-26-2007, 10:26 PM

Id suggest cream on the bottom half and sage green on top

Country feel to it to me. The dark hunter green and dusty rose country colours are nice but I think can be too dark for a dining rm/family homework room - just my two cents though.

But please please please take before and after pics!

**my4littlebuffaloes** · 02-28-2007, 04:51 PM

I posted some pictures on my blog of the messy dining room right now and the color I am thinking of doing. thanks!

**Dancing Lotus** · 02-28-2007, 06:49 PM

I have a similiar shade of green in my house . The green is in the center of the house and is visible from all other rooms. I have a country home and the colors I have paired with it are a very pail yellow in one room and a dusty rose in another room. the yellow is called Gilded Endive and it looks like antiique linen. Every one that comes into my home usess the same words to discribe how it makes them feel, comfortable, relaxed and homey. Hope that helps.