where to start with picking house room colors? (dining & kitchen)

[Anonymous]

Must repaint these two rooms, both with chair rail molding.
Where do I begin with deciding on colors? I am in need of some inspiriration and practical tips (i.e. with chair railing, darker color should go on top/bottom; avoid blues in north facing room that doesn't get a lot of sunlight; etc.)
Can anyone recommend a website (no time to go buy a book) that gives this kind of advice / pictures?

TIA.

[Anonymous]

Houzz.com is a great site. First select "Browse by Room" on the left. The "filter by style," to choose traditional/modern, etc.

[Anonymous]

check out the younghouselove.com blog, they have LOTS o decorating advice. Also, apartmenttherapy.com.

One recommendation: use the Martha Stewart line of Behr paint from Home Depot. she has coordinating trim and ceiling colors on the paint cards and she has such good taste, most of her colors are going to look great. Also, at something like $25 a gallon, it is a cheaper version than Ben Moore (and WAY cheaper than BM Aura) for a very good quality, low VOC paint.

[Anonymous]

Also, the Post has archives of old Home Front chats on home decorating, and a lot of their questions (at least 25%) deal with painting. Unfortunately, they don't have pictures so you can get a better idea how things would look.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the Post chat Home Front always has paint color recs. You can just do a web search of a color and there's often a photo of a room that someone, somewhere has painted in that color.

Also, if you find a design blog you like, take a look at their blogroll or recommended links. A lot of times they link to other great design blogs.

Some sites to get you started:

Urban Grace Interiors
Jessica Helgerson
House of Turquoise check out her list of recommended blogs along the bottom right margin
Design Sponge sneak peeks (house tours)
Apartment Therapy house tours

[Anonymous]

If you are like me and can't pick paint colors I highly recommend hiring a color consultant. I hired someone through Potomac Paint and Deisgn Ceter. She came to my home and for $100 helped mt pick colors I love for all my rooms. As someone who has wasted a lot of money on paint colors I later hated and had to paint over it was worth every penny. She also ensured that the colors flowed and worked togehter. As a result our home feels very cohesive versus totalyl different colors that I just liekd in every room.