Hi Elle! Yes, it's definitely important to coordinate (though not necessarily match) room to room. It will make the rooms flow better and feel more connected.

I would recommend going to a local paint/decorating store (not a big-box store, if you can help it, because the customer service folks at smaller stores often have good recommendations) and getting some swatches of colors that appeal to you, such as the brown and terra cotta you mention. Go home and hang them up in your room, and then look at them in various lights and various times of day for a couple of days. Then get tiny sample pots of the colors that you and your husband like best, and paint a large white piece of paper with the colors, and hang them up in your room.

It's a multi-step process, but this ensures that you get a color you can both live with and that you know will look good in your room under all lighting conditions. Good luck!

Incidentally, I do like the white painted fireplace. I think it would be a little stark with terra cotta or brown walls, but this is one of the things you can check when you get your swatches.

Aw, I love the blue, add some lamps to warm it up?

I would keep the color..it's beautiful but change up the furniture.

I'd probably go with a more sophisticated version of the color you already have. (It's a lot easier/cheaper to change up the wall color than all your furnishings!) ...Like maybe a more muted, slightly deeper teal? I think that would complement the style of your other decor, and it looks like you have a lot of bright, natural light in the space.

My living and dining room sare a cafe au lait color with white trim, looks good.

I think the issue with your space is tha the contrast is very stark, and blue is cool. One option would be to choose a slightly whiter warmer blue,if blue is your husband's preference. Or a slightly frosty version of whatever color you want -- a bit of white in it makes the trim look more cohesive.

I'd paint that duo-tone door completely white. (It reminds me of saddle shoes and I hate saddle shoes!)

I'd make the dining room a slightly lighter version of the living room color. Different but not by a lot.

And a bit of unsolicited advice: as newlyweds, don't overturn your husband's every design choice. He lives there too. Include him in the decisions that change his perferences, and if he says "you just do what you want" listen to hear if he's unhappy and resigned and unwilling to stand his ground, or if he really doesn't care. It matters!

+1 Charlotte

I think she is right on... The big box stores just have too much going on. Also check out FineHomeBuilding.com they have some wonderful articles on how to paint and prep the room. Good luck!!!

Kris

Two ideas: 1. Keep the room blue - maybe change the shade a bit. A teal blue with some more green in it will go better with the warmer elements, but still look good with the white trim. If you keep the living dark colored, paint that entry way area a lighter color so it brightens up that space - I think that is what is feeling so closed about the space. Also move that Expedit bookshelf so it doesn't break up the room so much.

Idea 2. The colors you like are almost the exact same as my apartment - yellows, oranges, teals, with warm wood floors, white trim, darker furniture. I painted my living room a medium yellow color which goes nicely with the warm wood floors, and have some other bright orange around the place, like the kitchen walls and dining chairs. Teal accents like the blanket on the couch will pop nicely with those colors.

I agree with Gwendolyn, try to go with a more sophisticated shade of the blue - don't use the same shade for the whole area, vary it a bit.

If you think the blue makes the room look dark, brown or terra cotta will have the same effect. I think that big black bookcase is what makes the room feel dark and tight. Try moving that out of there and see how you feel.

Whatever color you pick, I would leave the trim and fireplace white.
I would def. paint that door. AND make sure your husband likes it.

I'm a big fan of using several different colors in one room to help transition from one space to another, but sometimes picking one muted shade throughout can make a disjointed space feel cohesive.

I had a close friend move in with me about 2 years ago who brought some of his furniture with him and we had to work on blending our styles. I've found that gray can be a great unifying color. While some people will think it's boring, it does provide a lot of options for furniture and fun accessories.

Behr makes a great warm grey with brown undertones that I think could work well in the space. It's called Saturn Gray (UL190-7). I recently used it for a project and was amazed at how much it lightened up a room.

Best of luck!

I love this color. I think the reason you don't like it is because the couch and the walls are about the same value. If one of them were lighter I don't think you would feel the same about the color. If it were me I would change the furniture. How about adding some bright yellow pillows and a bright fun piece of art for the wall over the sofa? You need some bright elements in there.

Check out this link for some teal rooms:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/paint-color-portfolio-moody-teal-living-rooms-178106

I like it too. It looks like Farrow & Ball Stone Blue. The problem is that you have no art on the walls. Buy some large and small paintings and textles on Etsy, place them in attractive arragements on the walls, and you will have a warmer more personal space and no longer be surrounded by an unbroken sea of blue.

I think the blue is quite unappealing and very cold. I especially marvel at the door next to the window in the dining area. I hope you will paint that door first.

I would go for some warm colour, close to neutral, maybe some quite muted terracota like you mentioned or a nice greige. Thumbs up to you DH for letting you pick the colour - he must really love you! ;-)

Good luck choosing a colour that will make you both happy and I hope you will post the "after".

I think the blue is quite unappealing and very cold. I especially marvel at the door next to the window in the dining area. I hope you will paint that door first.

I would go for some warm colour, close to neutral, maybe some quite muted terracota like you mentioned or a nice greige. Thumbs up to you DH for letting you pick the colour - he must really love you! ;-)

Good luck choosing a colour that will make you both happy and I hope you will post the "after".

I think the blue is quite unappealing and very cold. I especially marvel at the door next to the window in the dining area. I hope you will paint that door first.

I would go for some warm colour, close to neutral, maybe some quite muted terracota like you mentioned or a nice greige. Thumbs up to you DH for letting you pick the colour - he must really love you! ;-)

Good luck choosing a colour that will make you both happy and I hope you will post the "after".

If you love the blue, than just keep one of the rooms that color, and repaint the foyer another complimentary color..I know some people may think this is cheesy, but Sherwin Williams and the Ralph Lauren paint website, have these amazing color groupings for the feel that you want. I would look through all of them and make each room a different complimentary color.

Personally I think the blue is too harsh with the white molding and the floors.

Also the door think is cutesy, but jarring. I'd change to another (completely separate) complimentary color from the grouping.

Oranges and browns are warm and black tends to be very cold. Teal could go either way depending on hue. But even though you like all of those colors, I wouldn't use them together in one room. Pairing cool and warm can work well but these colors you like are very harsh together, and could trap you into "post-college hand-me-down" hell. I like yellow and purple but it doesn't mean they should always go together. I'd choose the color you like most and use it as a base and the other colors can be brought out in accessories.

I think the blue is too dark, very cold, and fights with the warm wood floors. I also have warm wood floors, and a yellow/tan/beige (it looks different at different times of the day) paint on my living room walls looks great with the floors. I'd use that. Just pick one that looks OK with the yellow in the next room. I've got a different shade of yellow in the next room, and it looks fine. The white trim will have to go - will need to be painted a creamy off-white. Don't paint an accent wall - that sounds hideous in here. Paint the fireplace brick as your accent. A brick color, a lighter terra cotta, would look great. JUST the fireplace - the rest of the trim, off-white.

Now about that black furniture thing - this won't look good with this style home and these floors anyway. Black as an accent, in a piece or two, not as your main furniture color. It is all about going with the style the home was built in...that's the only way to make it look good. Black furniture is way too modern for in here. Teal and orange and brown in furniture fabrics and accents, too, not on the walls (except in art) - not in your paint colors.

Paint that door in the dining area one color, different from the wall, for an accent in there if you want - in ONE color, as mentioned by many above.

Get a larger rug for the dining room to cover that tile where it hits the living room (most of it anyway) and so the chair stays on the rug when pushed back from the table. Get a larger rug for the living room - use some of your accent colors in that, too.

I think problem is that you've got warm and cool going on in the same house, even in the same room. The floors are warm, and the yellow and burgundy room is warm. The blue and the white are cool. Adjacent rooms need to flow--there should be a relationship between the colors room to room. You could try creating a mood board triptych including the dining room, living room, and foyer. Put paint swatches and images of furniture and fabrics on the board. This is a good way to get everything to go together. It's also a way for you and your husband to communicate your styles to each other--you could also each collect images from magazines, books, the internet separately, and compare them. If you two have totally different color tastes, this could require some give and take until you both get something you can live with.

Elle, I think you are right; the problem is not the colour per se, but rather, the shade.

This particular shade is too bright and lacks depth; coupled with contrasting white, it seems as many posters have pointed out, rather cold.

I think that a good compromise would be a slightly darker and moodier shade, in combination with this one. Look at the first image on this post. Note how two shades are combined, and note how well the darker shade complements both white and black, as well as natural wood:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/paint-palette-portfolio-teal-kitchens-178297.

This image should serve as a guide to the approach in your own home.

Frankly, I find the white trim rather problematic, and don't have a sense how all the colours you have flow into each other, or contrast with each other.

Another palette to consider is this one:

http://community.apartmenttherapy.com/contests/color/2010/entries/389

I agree that the door is problematic; personally, I would explore whether it is possible to strip the door and all the trim back to natural wood. A lot of work, to be sure (I've done a lot of paint stripping, and it is a hassle), but I think that in your case, it is the element that can tie the house and all the rooms together. Natural wood is the perfect complement to teals such as those I have suggested.

Good luck!

Sorry! I meant to write -- Elle, I think you are right -- something is just a bit "off"...

I also like the blue but not the shade. I love Ralph Lauren's Aged Mint. I have it in my LR with painted white (BM Mayonnaise) fireplace, oak floors, and it looks great.

the placement & size of the windows flanking the fp are reminiscent of craftsman/bungalow style, and those walls had dusty colours inspired by nature. that style celebrated original materials, so the suggestions to remove the paint on the trim & fp have merit, and if that tile needs replacing, terra cotta or similar would be appropriate.

Fastest thing, get the door painted all white (for now). I'll agree whith others, when the time comes, a slightly different shade of blue will be easier to paint that a completely different color. Right now, the blue is too cool (as in cold). It's an interesting color & I'm not a 'blue' person. If you don't plan on painting during the holidays, you might want to work on culling, storing, rearranging what you have etc to make the rooms look better.

Another vote for painting it a slightly different shade of blue. I'm imagining martha stewart's plumage color. I think younghouselove painted their guest bedroom that color, and it's lovely:

http://images.younghouselove.com.s3.amazonaws.com/2011/02/painting-room-from-door.jpg

As a lover of blue, also think you can keep the space blue and it would look great with... a natural wood door, the move of the expedite, or the painting of the expedite into a warm color... orange red expedite maybe? also perhaps paint a warm neutral in the dining/front room to warm it up a bit. All been said before I know.. but just want to reiterate the good ideas.
Another more thing in the natural woodwork dept. If you could replace your whit mantle piece with a natural wood piece (keeping the white fireplace) I think that would really
warm up that room.
Finally.. it is a bit hard to tell in these pictures, but one of things that might be causing this blue to come cold is the sheen, a flatter sheen will stop light from reflecting of of it in a cold way, although of course completley flat is hard to clean. But if you are considering repainting ( which again, I don't think you really need to), especially in another shade of blue, don't forget to think about the sheen.

Scrap terracotta because you already have a lot of orange going on in the floor. Consider a medium charcoal (with some blue in it perhaps and a more contemporary choice)...just grab a lot of color chips, tape them up on the wall, commit to a few, grab some sample pots, paint up some poster board with them, tape it to the walls and eventually one color will jump out as the right one. The adjacent rooms must be the same or a little lighter or darker since since they are exposed and read as one extended room. Please consider painting out some of that trim especially the entrance to the dining area since the trim is so cheesey in size next to the baseboard. Also paint out the door and trim and possibly the window in the dining area. This will move your house away from the dollhouse effect. You can paint some of the trim above floor in a slightly lighter or darker color and a slightly shinier sheen, but basically you want to avoid stark contrasts that make the rooms look smaller and cutesy. Use your favorite colors for accents not for wall colors. Your husband looks like he is a skillful painter - lucky you. Buy the best paint you can afford and have fun.

I'd go with a warm golden shade. Not a sunshine yellow, but a deeper cream color that reads golden to the eye. I'd also paint out that door with the panels so it's all one color.

Wow, thank you all for the great suggestions! I plan to get some paint chips & samples tomorrow (and hopefully repaint before the holidays... hopefully). I like the idea of separting the foyer/dining area by using a slightly different color. My husband is on board with either a pale yellow or similar to flow with the other room, or a different shade of blue. Re sheen: yes! I think that is one thing that has bothered me; the glossiness does make it more stark. Also lol @ saddle shoes and the door. I agree the front door would look better solid. I like the idea of painting the trim a slightly off white or creme; and then maybe changing the mantlepiece. Also I never realized the black (and mostly Ikea) furniture was too modern for the house (which is very, very old)... hmm. I never thought the couch color/tone was a problem, but it makes sense. It's such a comfy couch though I don't know if I could bear to part with it. Maybe a slip cover? :)
One color we both like so far is a goldeny yellow color by Benjamin Moore called Soft Marigold. And then creme trim... And the front door a deep red color (solid)?

If you like soft marigold, check out Dorset Gold.

"Wythe Blue" from Benjamin Moore(they can match it at Home Depot). Its the perfect go-to blue/aqua. Its much lighter and breezier than that heavy blue on the walls and compliments wood floors and white trim PERFECTLY!

1. I like the color: I don't think the hue is the "problem" regarding the room feeling claustrophobic. Instead, the issue may be that there appears to be some gloss in the paint. Is it semigloss? You want matte. You want the walls to be soft and chalky, not hard and oily looking. So either repaint this color in matte, or else find another color. Either way you'll be painting. :)

2. If you go with a new color, find something that complements both the orange wood floor and the grey tile. That could be tough... I'm thinking either a pretty yellow or a soft, light dove grey -- or go white white white. The kitchen door there should be white -- no color on the perp/vert boards. The color you choose should complement the yellow in the next room over (looks like a pretty butter yellow -- love it).

3. Above the mantle, hang something bigger. A big mirror, or a picture with a chunky white or silver-leaf frame to rival and balance out the substantial window frames on either side. You want something substantial up there. Also, the mantle should not have little nick-nacks on there--they get dwarfed. Go for either nothing or some "statement" pieces. Again, something reflective might help, like "mercury" glass or white ceramic.

4. Get rid of the black Expedit and replace it with something white or medium-wood grain. A white EXPEDIT will do nicely, I think. Behind it, attached to that separating beam thing, hang a soft white curtain that you can pull closed or slide half-open to provide a backdrop to the Expedit. IKEA will have some tracks for you, or else a proper curtain rod will do.

5. Get rid of the black standing lamp. and the iron lamp on the Expedit. Instead:
a. Put spot lamps on the Expedit to shine down. IKEA has some. They look nice and give soft lighting from above that distracts from the ceiling.
b. Either get a little lamp for the mantle (the mirror will reflect the light: good) -- do you think the little lamp squished in the corner next to the sofa would work? Or else position two standing lamps for the corners of the room. Nice if the lamps had a swing-arm so they can be positioned to provide light where needed.

Replace the coffee table with something glass. Anything you need to store should go off the coffee table and into a proper storage area -- maybe in baskets in the Expedit.

Those are my ideas. :)