Hi Allison, You may need to consult your local planning authority if you plan on changing the appearance of the house. www.pwjarchitects.com

Ah thank-you, yes that would help! The rooms overall are very light, apart from the hall downstairs. The living room has light carpet and mid-grey ophelia sofas from next - I would eventually like to restore the original floor boards but we will have this done at the same time as the original parquet floor in the hallway (so in the next few years). I have alcove shelving and a light wood and metal TV stand - overall nothing too special but the space works for us - just need to get a few finishing touches (shutters, footstool). The other rooms are up for decoration - I'd love to have the dining room white walls with 1 or 2 walls in G&B 1946 paint but I'm worried it will look a bit out of place, as it does now in Sage green (I ended up painting the room on the colour I love and not thinking about how the room would look in the house and how we use it - I don't want to make this mistake again). The dining table and chairs is currently a light wood colour, which I may paint depending how the room ends up and we have a dark solid solid rustic fireplace. The house is mainly used from late afternoon onwards during the week and all day at weekends. I love a more traditional feel but also love the scandi feel (prehaps as it's so light and calming). I really like the idea of having more darker styles in the home but not too much as I think our home suits a much lighter palette (1930s 3-bed semi). All of the woodwork is painted white apart from the original doors which are various shades of light wood and I'm not a huge fan of wallpaper hence thinking about just re-painting all the walls. Should I try to pick a few colours which are present in each room then add additional shades/colours which compliment, in the different rooms? I guess I'm feeling a little lost now I have free-rein (always been in rented houses).

Hi. Yes. There is a big chunk you can do yourself. If you measure a floor tile say, you can find out to which Hue Family it belongs. (H) Really helpful when trying to match a number of different near neutrals in a space. It can tell you how light or dark a colour it is. (L) How colourful or near to neutral it is (C). You yourself can find out on the accompanying app, the nearest colour match in paint. On the 2nd app you can input the same data & by altering the values gently, find lighter or darker versions of the colour. You can use the device to find fabrics which come from the same hue family as your tile, when you are looking for curtains in John Lewis, say. All of which can be measured & the Hue Angle plotted on the free Colour Wheel. Faced with a pile of grey paint chips from different paint companies, not listed on the app. you can measure them quickly to see which grey comes from the same Hue Family as your tile. (Rather than guessing). Lots of people in the US will have a stab at that themselves. They might hire somebody like me if they are desiring multiple colours to sit in the same space, or need help to find the perfect white to tie 3 separate surfaces together. But it’s possible to use the device on a number of different levels. Honestly, no pressure - ☺️ Am just enthusiastic! 🤓 The process isn’t for everyone. 🌈

Have you considered Benjamin Moore Barren Plain? It’s a near neutral colour which sits just into the Yellow Hue Family. (See the colorography below by The Land of Color). It sits well with the richness of the mahogany colours. But this colour would need to be considered & sampled within your space in order to see the effect of light upon it. This is because all low chroma (near neutral) colours from this section of the color wheel are prone to shifting purple in imbalanced light. They aren’t purple and don’t have purple ‘undertones’, it’s just a phenomenon of light and context. However in a reasonably balanced light, they will look just as their color notations in the colorography describes them. Worth a thought,,, Good Luck with your colour quest! 🌈