When my brother and his wife bought their house it needed painting. They were able to have an in home consultation with a designer from a local paint store (even though they were only buying the paint, not hiring painters). She can twice and helped them to choose their colour palette.
My Mum and I did much of the painting for them as a house warming gift.
I like Pinterest for finding interesting colour palettes.
I think what will happen with the responses you get here is you will hear from those who prefer a neutral background, off white, cream, taupe etc, those who love colour and contrast much like there are people here who love bold colour in their quilts, and those who like quieter colours in their quilts. No wrong answers, but perhaps not the correct answer for you.
My living room, dining room and bedroom hallway are orange with a sage green feature wall. I plan to repaint (if I stay in this house) a coral and have turquoise accents. So you can see which camp I am in.
My grandmother's house was much like yours with a split entry. Every wall in her house was white (and smoke stained, yuck). She had a maple dining room suite, dark neutral upholstered furniture cream, coloured drapes. No colour in the decor to speak of. When she moved to a single level house it came with cinnamon coloured drapes. They were beautiful and she could not afford to replace them. They worked with her neutral furniture and finally there was some colour in her home.
She was not without colour in her life, she had an incredibly beautiful garden, knit wonderful sweaters and did exquisite embroidery.
It is your home and you have to feel comfortable in it.