Every holiday after will be a little darker for that niece. 

If you are going to paint it a color, brown or darker grey would be better.

The darker the color the higher the ratio is. 

I would get rid of the pink curtains in favor of some burgundy hunter green plaid like mine, :)No, really, I'm behind Carrie on this, especially the darker stain, might see what thick smoke glass shelves look like with the wood sides, change the hardware.Don't mess with those beams, they look good IMO.I wouldn't paint paneling, there is a thick paintable textured wall paper to use over paneling and then paint it.

The concept was a deeper blue with white trim.A bit of stress set in as the paint started going on - the blue was quite a bit darker and before the white trim was done, the house looked dark and drab. 

They may also recommend constructing the roof with longer eaves/overhang on the face with prevailing {summer} sun to shade the windows during mid-day {this will reduce your cooling load} and have recommendations on where to plant trees or place screens.Your architect may have already done this in the design ... s/he would also be a good person to recommend a resource to address your fenestration needs.

I learned a painful lesson on roof color recently - go with the gray/black option and depending on your brink color maybe consider the brown/gray roof shades, sometimes called woodland?

See my previous response for the explanation of how things worked out.This increase will bring these tenants up to just a shade below the market rate, the increase is to cover the increased cost of the property tax increase this year.

@Cara Lonsdale, Lot's good thoughts and enough shades of gray to paint an impressionist zebra! 

I'm thinking simple/cheap cordless accordion shades would be best.