SFGate

decoenthusiaste Are you leaving the carpet? Start by selecting an area rug to "theme" the room and use the color from it to select paint. Also, it will be easier to pick out bedding and match paint to it than to try and find bedding to go with a paint.

nanknutsen I plan on changing the carpet. There is no hardwood underneath so I will probably go with wall-to-wall again, although I could add an area rug on top of that. I agree about picking out bedding first, but I'd like something that works well with the pine. I'm really stymied about colors. There is not a lot of natural light in the room, so I don't want anything too dark. The red that's currently on the wall gives it a really closed-in feel.

raeleemllr I would paint the just the beams white and leave all the rest of the pine of course. For all the rust walls paint them a light grey blue.

aksnt11 How about a berber style carpet in a deep off-white base with a hints of wood tones blended in , like the pine color of the walls? Berber lasts forever, and the lighter color would brighten the room. Choose a wall color in a paint that pulls from the off-white in the carpet. The fun thing about this is through the years as your decorating style changes the cheery vanilla color (not white, too stark !) of the walls and carpet will allow you to make changes in your stayle as often as you'd like. Or have fun with holidays, red and green quilts and accent rug at Christmas, lovely earth tones in the fall. The possibilities would be endless. It's a great space, have fun!

kargus Wood and walls of white or off white are classic. Sometimes color is best suited to the accessories. Use carpet in smoky blue gray like slate or stone color, keeping a natural earth color scheme.

bumblebee728 A pale, soft yellow on the walls, mirrors across from the windows to bring in more light if you can. Then you can accent with some sage green, and a little of the undertone color of the pine. The carpet IMHO should still be of a medium or dark color, not lighter than the walls. Good Luck, it's a beautiful space to work with!

SPACIALISTS Hi nanknutsen,
Here are a few examples you might find helpful. Hope this helps.

dhankins00 I'd paint the walls a creamy color (off white) to open the space up more.

Barbara Griffith Designs I think your furniture is too much like the ceiling, which I would not paint. I would however paint the furniture..maybe even a dark brown. I would also paint the railing a dark brown. Is the carpet in bad shape..do you hate it?? In the picture it looks rather blue/gray which may look nice on the walls in a lighter tone..but decide that only after you do everything else..furniture painting, window treatments, bedding.

dhankins00 I honestly would do off white carpet...I also agree with adding mirrors on opposite wall of window, perhaps 3 lrg ones. If you don't care to paint the furniture that wld definitely break up the pine look. Change out knobs to something that fits your theme.

Acquired Taste: Interior Design and Home Staging My design style is color, and lots of it, and the key to it is HOW. What the goal becomes is to make all of your choices deliberate so that when it is done it looks as though the ceiling was a deliberate choice and not something you had to work with. If you look at my postings you will see that I am a big advocate of white. So...let's pretend.... Some colors are what I call 'light sucking", meaning they suck the light out of a room. That is already going on with the dark ceiling, so what you want are walls that will throw back some light as well as offer you the flexibility to 'pop' the room with color, texture, etc. Now, if you want a 'den like' effect, go darker. My suggestion would be white walls. "Boring", you say? Not really. It will give you total flexibility to add texture, color, fabrics, art, etc. And, if you wanted to do something splashy you could vertically stripe them with the color you would like to accent the room. There are examples of striping on my Houzz page. Also, with sloped ceilings the stripes would make the room appear taller. I would also paint the stair railings white, which will make them disappear. Wood floors with area rugs would be good, but a lighter/washed tone than the ceiling. Don't try to match it because you may not be able to have it look consistent depending on the time of day. Now, have fun! Be sure to post pictures when you're done!!!