The easiest place to start is with what are the undertones of the existing colors? All colors "lean" in a particular direction: greens can be warm (i.e., lime greens which are decidedly yellow) or cool (i.e., teal, which has added blues). so find out what your off whites are - warm (yellow-based) or cool (blue- or gray-based). remember that cool colors tend to look more modern than warm, which tend to look homey. Thats why cold stainless steel looks modern and burnished copper looks comfortable and homey. Most country colors are yellow-based (warm) colors. My advise is to get many, many gray (or grey) paint samples and work with your wood as the primary matching color. Blue is the opposite of orange and if you move toward a cool, blue-grey, you may find that it works beautifully. Opposite color theory is almost always a safe direction for interior decoration. One caution: too much beige with that orangey wood might make it creepy, 70's, avocado, appliance looking, rather than cool, artsy modern.

Hi Jill! I did go with Shaker Beige and posted an update a while back. It looks good with the carpet now but there wasn't enough contrast for me. I don't care for the color on the wall with the wingchair in the morning - it looks pinkish (duh, I know). I put my other brown curtains back up and that helped a lot. It might not be the best color for the room, but I do like it now. I considered repainting but I'm holding off. I plan to make houndstooth plaid pillows and buy a mink fur pilow from Restoration Hardware. I also got rid of the skirted tabled and moved the wingchair and a plant to the right corner. This new arrangement, even though I tried it before, seems the most homey to me. I also added art to the right of the e.stand. I've been meaning to take an updated shot with the brown curtains. I'll try and do that tomorrow. This post was edited by sheesharee on Fri, Nov 15, 13 at 22:30

@Lori, this is too funny and I’m so happy you confirm my hunch! I’d settled on York Gray CW-45, but wondered if I could find a great equivalent by SW for the savings! I’ve read your blog thoroughly, and that’s what made me think Accessible Beige is very, very close!

It's a really lovely space but you've got very little variation between the counter, the cabinets and the backsplash, as well as a warmer color, which isn't helping your goals. I think that if you are willing to do a color rather than a neutral, then painting the bits of wall you can see in the kitchen in a blue (probably with green undertones) would help. You could also change out the hardware for something chunkier in a cool metal, as well as changing the outlet covers/wallplatess similarly. Painting or staining cabinets is a lot of work so it depends on how much effort/money you want to throw at this. If you were going to change the cabinet color I think for your goals, painting them white, or painting the bottom ones dark blue (and either leaving the top ones, or painting them white) would be helpful. Stain is a bit easier than paint but most stain colors lean warm rather than cool. You could do an espresso stain, which would break up the beige and be somewhat cool-leaning. Given the level of natural light you might find that the kitchen then ends up being quite dark. Some people like this and others don't. If you do paint or stain the cabinets, I would change out the hardware.