Decorating and Design - Advice: Neutral to go with Red

I'm looking to repaint an entry stairway and small hallway at the top of the stairs. The front room that shares space with the bottom of the stairway is a fairly bright red color - since the red is a pretty dominating color, I don't want to continue it into the stairway, but I don't like the way the current neutral and red look together and I'm having trouble figuring out a color that will flow with or complement the red. I don't completely hate the current color, but it's a bad semigloss paint job (came with the house) and it needs to be redone...so as long as I'm painting I'd like to get some better color flow.

The current color is a light tan/beige...I bought a sample paint that is a darker, more brown color but I don't really like the way that looks either. I have a lot of white accents and plan on painting the wooden stair risers white, so I'm hesitant to use a white/off-white color.

Here are some pictures as it exists now, and the sample color I bought (click for larger versions):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/2755005520_d090e655ab_s.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/2755005520_d090e655ab.jpg?v=0) --- http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2755005570_9775aa924e_s.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2755005570_9775aa924e.jpg?v=0) --- http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2755005630_8cdfc3a012_s.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2755005630_8cdfc3a012.jpg?v=0) --- http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/2755005460_ba76233a56_s.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/2755005460_ba76233a56.jpg?v=0)

Any advice would be much appreciated...thanks! :)

i think the problem isn't that you can't find the right color, it's that you're not liking the sharp contrast you're getting there when you try to change colors there, so how about continuing the red up the stairs? save the neutral for the actual hallway/landing area at the top of the stairs, and just let the red flow up the stairs. it's just a stairway. there's no reason it can't be red. stairways are usually boring anyway. yours won't be! make the color change further up the stairs at the landing where it's less visible.

Or, consider painting the front hall/foyer the same color as the stairwell. Save the red for an accent wall where it will tend to have greater impact.