hi noel...

As far as the paint choice goes...I would go with the lighter.

As far as the granite spots...are you sure they aren't just a natural element in your granite? I ask this because I notice "new" things in my granite all of the time, that I never noticed before.

If they are rust, then I hope someone on the forum will advise you! Good Luck!

KA:)

I vote for the sea salt, since it looks so pretty with your countertops! Sorry, I know nothing about granite, but I'm sure you'll get great advice from other posters. Your little girl is adorable :)

I have that granite in my kids bathroom and I vaguely recall seeing those sorts of "stain" when I went to look at the slab. I specifically laid out the template to avoid them. Did you pick your slab? I'm assuming you didn't notice this upon installation and are first seeing it now?

I have Delicatus granite and have quite a few "rust" looking spots but they are natural to the stone. They all fall along the vein lines (looks like yours do too). I wouldn't worry about them because they look like a natual part of the stone to me. Nice granite!

okay, I'm not nearly as worried if it was like that to begin with. But I swear that the one behind the sink wasn't there, at least I can't see it in the pic I took right after dh installed the faucet.

Gotta go supervise my 3 making zucchini chocolate chip muffins.....oh the fun the "new" kitchen will have. Thanks everyone for your help and reassurances!

I like the lighter one! (Sea salt?) I think it goes better with your granite and SS. Have you looked at the actual tile with it? I was amazed to see how different various white subway tiles were and how some went with my other colors a lot better than others!

I love love love Rainwashed which is why I used it as an accent wall in my home. I had BM make it up for me (I wanted to use Aura paints) at 50%.
Color on the left:

Noella,

I would recommend you painting a much larger sample of your wall color, like as in almost the whole part of that wall. Or a good 2ft x 2ft area at a minimum, and larger is better.

Then look at it at different times of the day and different lighting configurations.

I did three colors side by side like this and was really glad that I did. Grays are very tricky.

As a result of my little 'test', I landed on SW Big Chill which is waaaaay different from what I thought I wanted originally.

With regard to your 'stain', it could be inherent in the stone, or it could be a bleed-through from something underneath. I read somewhere that some adhesives (that could have been applied at the time of slab mfg so don't yell at your fabricator/installer) that are used on the backside can bleed through. Not sure how to rectify the problem. Can you ask your granite installer his thoughts?

Pepper
~ Gave approval on cab stain and finish today. : )

They all look good. I'd be tempted to go with the darker one, but like Pepper suggested, do a big splotch before deciding.

And what is that granite? It's delightfully swirly!

Noella,

Actually, I did six samples, maybe seven or was it eight.

Regardless, doing this test moved me all the way from SW: Repose Gray to SW: Big Chill.

: )
Pepper

Sea salt! It is such a lovely color. I have a gallon in my laundry room waiting to be used. :)

I vote for the lighter color too.

wow, txpepper - that's a lot of samples! I bought 3 for the cabinets and 3 for the walls, and the sw ones come in quart sizes, so I feel like I have so much stored away in my basement....I've decided I'm going to repaint my closet this year in a fun color since I have all of this, maybe stripes.

I'll have to do a bigger sample. Before I had painted on a posterboard and moved it around; this was the first time I actually did a sample on the walls.

And I couldn't find big chill on line or on my sherwin williams color deck (we were in there so much when we moved here that they threw one in). I had originally looked at much brighter aqua colors, and thank goodness for seeing samples and advice online....I was surprised that both rainwashed and sea salt are in the "neutral" section.

I will have to call my fabricator to find out what's up with the spots. I think that could possibly be the adhesive, b/c I just think that I would have noticed the 2 spots the day of installation, when the counters were actually all bare and clean.

Remodelfla - Every room I've seen with rainwashed is just so lovely! My dream, if I pull the room together, is that the walls will look a warm subtle aqua color, and then I'll use pops of red as an accent.

lavender lass - thanks! It's hard to take a pic of my kitchen without one of my kids wandering into the shot!

fori - my stone was called valley white, but I think it's the same or similar to white river and white spring. I was thinking I'd get jet mist, but I just fell in love with this stone at the granite yard!

stacey, I'm going with the cheap lowes subway tile. I have it already, and it feels a good match with both the cabinets (sw alabaster) and the granite. I would love to lay it in a herringbone pattern, but I think I'm just going to stick with subway as that's challenging enough for me. I've been playing with the tiles on a template, and it feels like a game of jenga I've rearranged them so much!

I vote for the darker color, the Rainwashed. It'll make the lighter elements pop, and kind of balance them out. And I think it'll work much better with the pops of red you mentioned.

I vote for the cute kid!

I'm not sure how to identify which color -- there seem to me to be at least 3, perhaps 5? But I second the suggestion to paint huge swathes. And fwiw I vote lighter than darker; seems to pickup a hue within the swirls to me better. But I'd be a little afraid the lightest is too bright -- I'd go light and deader, ifykwim. You don't want to compete with the pretty stone, but sugment it. So to me the color of the uppermost in the first picture is closest, but it wants tamping down in brightness...

I have found the paint store's online color-computer to be incredibly helpful...

Noella,

I posted a link earlier to SW color interactive that you might have fun with and show it below.

Big Chill (SW7648) is in the White Family but is shows as gray.

I tried three different colors with variations of each trying to find the right look: My original selection...waaay too dark. Second color....just not the one. Mixed the two together - bleh. Backed off on the intensity of the first one 75%, then 50% - still not right. Picked a different color altogether - close. Backed off the intensity by 25% and that is the one I landed on.

SW has paint pints for $5.00 so it was relatively painless to do the test samples.

:-)
Pepper
~ Work starts up again tomorrow ....err, make that today.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer