Yellow is a cheery contrast for gray. I'm working, slowly, on a sewing/craft room; I didn't originally plan to paint it gray, but I saw a friend's living room, &...there I went. Although my usual mantra is "warm colors with warm colors & cool colors with cool colors"... when the cool color is gray, it seems to highlight the light, bright, warm pastels. My current, not set in stone or even jello, plan calls for curtains with a yellow/green/orange pattern, or maybe a turquoise/orange (or peach) pattern. so...release your inner butterfly!

I would NOT paint the vertical trim or horizontal trim on the walls .. to me, that.looks like part of the stairs somehow. I think I WOULD possibly paint the grid on the slanty ceiling though (making the wood the same color as the ceiling - you would still get the effect of the grid pattern on the ceiling, just not so intense). Why not get some samples of those woodsy colors and just put them up in those spaces on the wall next to the stairs - the thing about wood is that it is such a strong presence in a room (esp. a room like that which is kinda arts and craftsy in style) that it can really look spectacular with a deeper, darker richer color to complement and balance it... you might find the idea growing on you once you see it. Or not! You dont have to commit - just see how it looks. Have fun!

This is my first home, so I'll be getting new furniture, so that's a bit of a to-be-determined matter that I'm still thinking about, and will likely be getting after I get the interior painting done. Off the top of my head though, some of my initial thoughts are maybe like medium greys for things like sofas, dark-ish stained wood for a dining table sort of thing, but I've really not yet spent all that much time looking over possible furniture options.

I bought 5 samples today, one of them was a white for trim so just 4 for the walls. After considering what I already have, I decided to pick ones that had different undertones. As an example, I didn't get Horizon, b/c it's so close to Paper White, and i have that color in two rooms in my current house. It's pretty, but it definitely reads blue. I think this is partly due to my trim being Snowfall White, which is very close to Simply White. I think with a truer white it might appear a little more gray, although still cool. I ended up with Intense White, which is actually what I had wanted to use in one room instead of the Paper White. Also got Shoreline 1471, which reads a little more gray than Horizon, although I feel like the purple will come out I wanted to make sure. Also got Classic Gray ElleN, I'm going to give it one more shot. And Swiss Coffee, b/c my sample is so old for that one. I feel like with what I have and the new, I should definitely be able to come up with something. I buy these small flat canvases at Walmart in a 3 pack and they work amazing for paint samples. I have found that even foam board can curl pretty easily, and I'm not a fan of painting directly on the wall anymore, have screwed that up too many times. ElleN I agree Halo is very green, so I don't think it will do me any favors. And Gray Mist is not a very fun color, but I can't believe it looked so yellow on your walls. I think you're right, they might have mixed something wrong. Here's a couple of pics of our old kitchen with it. It was a great neutral with the floors, cabinets and countertops.