Everything is all white!

I was looking through the pages of some books about interior design in order to get an idea of a color to paint the living room. We had an idea in mind when we bought the house, I wanted the room to be a "stone pink" color which would be a slightly gray/pink drab color, but in my infinite wisdom decided to wait until the wood was done to see what effect that would have on the room.
It is good that we waited because any shade of pink would look weird against the wood.

As I flipped through the pages of the three or four books that I have I am noticing that NONE of the woodwork in any of these pictures is actually looking like wood! It is all painted white. This of course is great for the decorator because it allows any color to be used to paint the walls and some of the rooms look fantastic, but it doesn't help me at all!

The living room looks very "federal" even though it is really Greek revival. The molding is very simple but massive. Those planks around the windows and doors are 9 inches wide. If we go with Greek revival wall colors then we are limited to pale green, gray, pale blue, gray, lilac, gray, beige, gray, white and of course another shade or three of gray. I don't want too much green throughout the house but we are limited to colors that look good with darker woodwork. A shade of green may be our only choice. We have that grey marble fireplace to take into consideration too.

We plan on painting the parlor gold and having a gold floral wallpaper below a chair rail but that may change after that wood is finished. The dining room was going to be green but I think that idea has been put on hold. The wood molding can be anything we want in that room because all the original stuff was removed and currently there isn't any. I have to make it all myself from new planks and will style it off the living room molding since it is so simple. The accent color in that room is black which is in the fireplace mantle and the curtains we have. I guess we should wait until I put the fireplace in and the curtains up before we decide on a color.

Oh decisions, decisions...... I think we will paint all second floor woodwork white, it is so much easier that way!