I wonder if she was the origin of the joke about the difference between a prostitute, a lover, and a housewife:
The prostitute says, “Are you finished yet?”
The lover says, “Oh can’t we do it again?”
The wife says, “Beige… I think I’ll paint the ceiling Beige.”
We had a similar issue. We remodeled our house and repainted the whole thing. I wanted more natural, earth tones, and DH wanted to make a bright, bold statement.
I was able to find a good neutral cream for some of the general living areas, the bedroom is red, the computer room and basement bar are purple, the main floor bathroom is blue, and the entertainment room and basement bathroom are green. They’re bold enough for him but not garish, and all of our friends have commented on how beautiful our house looks. I was afraid of color and I absolutely love them.
As an added bonus, most of them sound like porn titles: “Classic Cherry”, “Shy Violet”, “Bavarian Cream”. We cracked jokes the whole time we painted. 
We used Behr paints from Home Depot, so I can give you the actual names and numbers if you PM me. My only caution we be that reds tend to cover poorly, so be prepared to need 3 or 4 coats at least.
Hardwood floors and lots of neutrals in furniture. In general, we go neutral on things that are expensive (floor coverings, couches, cabinetry), and use color on things that are cheap (paint, linens).
Mostly varying shades of beige. That’s what the walls were when we moved in, and it went with our furniture so we mostly left it alone. We’ve painted his music room a deep dark red, my sewing a room an orchid, and the sun room slate blue with white and chocolate brown accents.
All our non-neutral paint colors come from bit of furnishing/decor we really love. The blue and brown in our sun room came from an area rug, as did the dark red in his music room. The orchid pink in my craft room came from an old picture I’ve had for a couple decades.
The main room, where I spend most of my time is blue. Deep, dark blue. I love this color. Every time I look at the walls, I’m happy because it’s such a wonderful, lovely blue.
People are more likely to go “whoa” in the bathroom. It’s brown (Behr, Cinnamon Brandy). It looks like you accidentally got lost inside a sweet potato casserole. I’m not overly fond of it, but it’s the only thing that went with the bathtub that I didn’t just outright hate.
Bridging the two is the very, very light (so light that people think it’s white at first) pink hallway. The kitchen is a very, very light blue.
Paint is cheap-ish. If you hate it, you can redo it.
White. Our bathroom wall is this really bright sea green because it was all the paint we had after remodeling, and I hate it so much. It literally makes me sick staring at it. I look out the door whenever I’m in there.
The only other walls I’ve ever had are those faux would panel ones, with the stripes showing where every stud is.
Right now, several of them are “a lousy bricklayer made holes here and covered them with way more material than was needed” colored…
Once they’re all fixed, the bathroom’s wall tiles are green, the kitchen’s are grey/green/orange, the living room is painted strawberry, the guest bedroom bright orange, my bedroom is yellow on three walls and light orange in the fourth with copper overtones, and the hallway will be light-but-not-baby-blue with the bottom sponged in grey (sponged so the limit between the two halves is not a straight line, the hall is long enough as is without adding more length-wise straight lines to it).
I live on the outskirts of the Pyrinees, where brightly-colored walls are a popular trick to make dull, cloudy winters easier to get through.
My furniture and floors are wood (goes with everything) and the cloth furnishings are cheap, brightly-colored and chosen post-paint. Well, the kitchen floor is whitish tile and the bathroom’s is a similar green as the walls. Bathroom fixtures are white, the kitchen counter is granite, the new kitchen cupboards will be metallic bronze/silver/greenish and the table and chairs are whitish (and won’t be replaced unless I find something in that size that I really, really, really love, as there’s nothing wrong with them).
One of my housemates went through a creative phase lol. Our living room is some sort of swirly mix of various shades of green. Our bathroom is a medium blue. Our kitchen used to be orange with blue cupboards, but we got sick of the orange and reprinted that white. Her bedroom had a velvety red color.
My plan for my bedroom was a twilight blue ceiling, green trim, and faux beige plaster walls. I got as far as the ceiling.
Personally I like the faux plaster aged Italian villa look on walls. A similar look but with brighter colors was done very well in the family’s home in the first Spy Kids movie.
The warm bright complimentary colors you see in Spanish kitchens looks great if done well but is very easy to screw up.
If you can afford it though I think all surfaces look best with natural unpainted (stain is ok) materials - wood, brick, stone, bamboo, etc.
In the past in other houses, we had more dramatic colors than here. One of the best was the dining room that we painted deep maroon below the chair rail, with maroon/cream/black/gold stripe patterned wallpaper above - it was so rich-looking.
However, we’re mostly pastels here - very pale green in the kitchen, the same pale green plus light sage in the family room, a warm creamy color in the living room, pale peach in the dining room, light grey in the master, periwinkle in one guest room, and a light but bright green in the other guest room. The hall bathroom is predominantly white, but the wallpaper has a nautical theme that brings browns, reds, and blues into the room.
Our living room used to be a slightly muted pumpkin orange, but we got tired of it pretty fast. It would have been a great accent color, but it was too much for such a large room and adjacent hallway. The only color I don’t like to use is yellow.
I like color, but I haven’t done anything too crazy here. The living room and dining room are kind of a mild yellow-beige with a white bead board wall on one side. The entryway, upstairs hall, and master bedroom are shades of sage green, the baby’s room is a sunny yellow, and the guest room/office is a muted gray, as we haven’t repainted it yet. The master bathroom is light blue (with gray tile), the other full bath is purple (soon to be repainted dark brown, with celadon green tile), and the downstairs half bath is still that awful gray. The kitchen is a vibrant, slightly-orange yellow with dark blue cabinets, and the basement is teal. Everything has white trim except the basement, which has cream trim.