I'm looking for color ideas. The house itself is a red cedar chalet in a natural setting - lots of trees. The ceilings are red cedar, too; downstairs the ceilings were finished in a clear varnish, and are quite light-colored. But upstairs - where the home office is - I had given the ceiling 2 coats of spar varnish, so they're dark and dramatic. The walls are beige. The window treatment are minimal - maximum view, minimum fabric/blinds, so are easy to change.

I want to add some color this time. The desk is walnut, and there are full bookshelves on the gable end, cedar-stained plywood with cedar trim to cover the 'plywood' edges. Big windows with northern exposure. Window frames are bright white gloss.

What colors would look nice with cedar ceilings?

id probably go with a shade of grey. its a good colour to go with dark woods. we have it in our computer room and it is very nice. your own personal taste will decide if you want a light or dark here.

I think that I would go with dark green or navy blue. I would think anything opposite of the color of the wood would look nice. I think that I lean towards dark colors to give the room a cozy look.

What did you decide on Bab?

I have some paint chips in grey (several shades), blue (wedgewood to navy) and some deep greens. Haven't decided yet. Now that I've left it so late in the year I'll wait till late spring to do the painting so we can have the windows open day and night till the paint stops degassing.

All I did was repaint the woodwork gloss white enamel.

Thank you for the ideas! I love colors, but have no imagination at all when it comes to visualizing them on the wall. Maybe I'll do like the guy in the commercial, and bring home thousands of color chips and stick them all over the wall.

Bab -- I recommend you go with a warm lighter shade of vanilla/pale yellow. It would look very nice with your white trim and since the cedar and the walnut are darker powerful colors, the warm vanilla will be a nice complement.

I've also seen a lot of pale celry green paint in a lot of the new home models in my area. The rooms are accented with dark mahogany bookshelves, stairway banisters, or furniture and the celry green with white trim looks nice too.