Colors and Finishes for the Dining Room

I posted this pic a while back, showing how I hope the dining room will look once I am finished.  The main art piece is the mural above the high dado.  That will come later.  The new colors of the room are fall-like and relate to the mural work.

We've chosen the colors for the walls and caeiling.  The main walls will be painted "Acorn".  The color seems perfect and the name also seems to fit the town we live in.  The ceiling will be a pale gold.  There is a color I like but I think I am going to try and simplify things and look for the same or similar color in a Behr paint so that I have all the same manufacturer.

Before I start painting, I want to get the woodwork in order.  The current woodwork has a dull brown finish.  I believe that a PO stripped the original finish and never quite figured out what to do next.  Additionally, when the walls were hastily painted to ready the house for sale, white paint was splashed all over.  I have to go through carefully and remove all of that paint and clean the woodwork before I can do much of anything. 

Luckily, in their stripping frenzy, they missed the backs of the built-in doors.  The finish was very dark and had a slight sheen to it.  I hope to do something close to this for my final finish. 

I started experimenting with some finishes in the hallway: polyshades, varnish & stain combinations and stain & tung oil combinations.  I believe that the one that looks most like the the back of the door was a satin finish polyshade called "Mission Oak".    

You would think I had all my decisions made and I was ready to move forward, until last night.  Last night I went to a remarkable event at Glessner House.  If you are in Chicago and haven't been, you must go.  It is a great house and possibly the most remarkable home in the city.  In a place like Chicago, this is saying a lot.  Anyway, they just completed their Parlor restoration and had a grand opening of the parlor and lecture on one of the designers of the room, William Pretyman.  The lecture by John Waters was great and the room is breathtaking but the best part of the evening was meeting one of the restorers of the room.  While explaining to him my own restoration project and mentioning that I was going to use Polyshades, the gentleman winced.  I am guessing it is the same look that I give clients when they tell me that they want to use vinyl windows or siding.  I guess this is clue number one that I should probably re-think my decision.

Until I can get more information on the finish, I will put that part on hold but will begin cleaning and prepping all of the wood areas.  I will also finish the light.  There will obviously much more to this story as I try and re-create the original wood color and finish.