a kitchen re-do

Last weekend while I was away on a girls getaway, my darling husband removed the breakfast bar, removed the electric baseboard heater in the "dining room", put down a floating floor in the "new family room" and added in baseboard. The first picture is the new kitchen/family room.

Second picture was taken nearly 3 years ago. That's the view of the breakfast bar, going to the dining room and you can see the table. That's from before we ever painted the kitchen and dining room the summer after we moved in.

The first picture was taken today. No breakfast bar, table is in the dining room (albeit a different table) and there is a futon in what we're now calling the family room (formerly the dining room). As you can see the kitchen is decorated with soft yellow with blue accents. Totally doesn't go with the new look. So I need a new color scheme. I'm thinking I'd like to do something like what you see on the walls at this website:

http://www.oldworldfinishes.com/pic5.jpg

Or maybe more like the colors in this one:

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic2.JPG

I really like this look too. But it might be a bit too dark for what I want.

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic14.JPG

Can you get the idea I'm going for?

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic16.JPG

A big thanks for all the samples from our friend Artorius' web site: http://oldworldfinishes.com/

Basically I want that kind of old-world looking plaster effect. I don't know how to describe it. Lots of warm yellows with maybe a bit of teracotta in it. Maybe a bit of an Italian look or French country. I don't know how to explain it. And of course we need to completely change out the window treatments. Also, we're going to hang up curtains in the family room archway made of unbleached cotton so that when we have company sleeping over, they have a bit of privacy.

The hard part is figuring out exactly what colors to use and how to do it. :-)