Decorating guidance needed!

[IIOY]

I received this email from a friend.  I'm at a loss because I suck at decorating, and I'm not interested in telling her to visit this board herself because I'm not a fan of mixing real life with my internet life.  Thus, I'm just going to post this here and take credit for any of your fabulous suggestions!   Thank you!

"I recently painted our Jack and Jill guest bathroom Lyndhurst Timber by Valspar with white trim. I am now stuck as to what to paint the adjoining bedrooms.

The first bedroom I want to tackle sits at the front of the house and is visible from the living/tv room. It has standard sized windows (one on the east wall of the room (that faces our large front porch so the sunlight is not direct) and another on the south wall of the room. It has all original woodwork (so painting it white is not an option since I want to maintain the integrity of the wood) and I will be refinishing the natural hard wood floor in the room.

The other bedroom has a faux type window seat (imagine a window seat indentation but will ceiling to floor windows on the south side of the room). Same original woodwork applies.

The doors are all original to the home as well (early 1900's) and consist of heavy leaded glass doorknobs with black hardware."

Any thoughts, H&G?

[emoflamingo]

I agree. I always pick bedding first, then paint colors. Because otherwise you'll be stuck with wall color you can't coordinate (or match) to any bedding.

[my4girls]

Lyndhurst timber is essentially dark tan, it was our old master and I loved it, I had a pale blue bed spread and it looked really nice with it. I agree with picking bedding first, but if it were me I would go with nice white bedding and something like SW rainwashed on the walls of one of the rooms. Obviously my personal preference, but I think that would look nice with the original woodwork too

[Deleted]

I'd go even lower and start with a rug, if she wants one. I always find a room comes together more easily if I start from the ground up. Does she have really dark woodwork or a lighter color? Mine is super, super dark, and I find that lighter colors tend to work better. I have mint green, aqua and cream walls, which play nicely off the woodwork. Sage also looks nice, but DH hates sage, so I had to settle for mint. However, I broke that light-color rule in my foyer and used a darker coral color, which I also love, so I don't think it's a hard rule. I think gray is almost impossible with stained woodwork.

[emoflamingo]

I am still getting used to the whole "floors need rugs" concept lol. Rugs are harder to buy than bedding, considering I am a cheapskate.