A serious question for once.. what would you do about my lilac dilemma?

I am trying to picture it in my mind. We all have different tastes. Men don't generally care about what colours walls are unless it is something ridiculous. I hate painting and when I picture your lilac/blue scheme, I personally would leave it the way it is. I think it would be pretty.

A stencil applied at half-height in a dark colour might do the trick - say a swirl pattern in navy blue or purple.

Like Slarti said, stencils work well. You could also do sponge painting or similar. There are lots of techniques online to create a ton of different patterns. 

That said, I realize time is a concern, but it sounds like you're the type who likes things a certain way, meaning if you don't do it "right," you'll be looking at it unhappily and feeling it's unfinished until you do more with it. 

If budget is a concern, try checking in with Craigslist and Freecycle to see if anyone is giving away paint they didn't use. If your neighborhood is on Facebook, you might find someone there with some too. Since you like to mix your own anyway, it really doesn't matter what colors you collect. My city actually gives away unused paint as well, and a neighboring city has a residential paint recycling program. I've gotten some through both sources. Perhaps your area has something similar as well? 

For me... you're talking about woodwork being painted and that breaks my heart a little bit... unless you only mean trim. If it's wood paneling, I'd be in there removing off all the old paint to get to the wood. Natural wood is so gorgeous. In a pinch, I might paint it white or brown, but I'd always be eyeballing it thinking about how I want the wood to show. 

But, yeah, I think, even though your time is limited, this is a project you should do in stages regardless. Do what you can when you can, so you have something you feel good about when you're done. 

Use large amounts of neutrals to tone down the lilac - futon cover, curtains, etc. Depending on your taste you could use beige or black. You can break up the expanse of lilac walls by using removable, re-positionable wall stickers. They are quite inexpensive and available many places. I know that Ikea has them. When you're tired of them, they just peel off.  As an example, my hair salon has lilac walls and black stickers of branch silhouettes and black furniture. It gives a very different vibe than a lilac room with white net curtains and a fluffy rug.