Thank you yayagal. I did do that, but I noticed many of the photos are actually painted in other yellows once you look them up. I did find a few though. Thanks for responding.

Yes, I've been looking at the colors at ALL times of the day... morning, noon, night, sunny days, cloudy days, lights on, lights off... :-) I went to the paint store today, and they were pretty helpful. They said if too much red is showing to look for a color that has more green. (the green cancels out the red... makes sense now that I think about it...) So the two colors that seem to be standing out are Fresh Butter and Hawthorne Yellow. I'm also debating Barley and Vellum. BTW, they gave me a great tip at the paint store: to grab several of the little paper strips of the color I'm interested in (say, Fresh Butter) and cut out the color I want from all the strips, and then tape the little squares together to make a bigger square. This will give me a chance to see the color in a bigger "swatch" before committing to the little $4 sample pot of paint (yeah, $4 doesn't seem like much, but I've already bought three and the colors, once "big," looked SO different from the little chip that I could probably easily go through 4 or 5 different sample pot colors, and it's going to really add up!) Thanks for all of your help and tips!!!

Thanks everyone for your answers and ideas, and especially to those who are being so supportive with the encouraging words. I just got off the phone with my son. Let me see if I can answer some of your questions. I did tell him -- and I'm sure he knows -- that I've certainly made paint booboos before, and that everyone has. No biggie. I asked him a lot of questions. He owns the house. We are in the greater Seattle area, so 9 mos. of the year it's grey and rainy. He says when he saw the gold he just kept thinking of the green and that he LOVES that green and loved how good the "fake wood" hall doors look with it. He's not happy with the blue paint, and wasn't as soon as it was done. He keeps saying he can't afford to replace the ugly blue tile right now, and I know he doesn't want to do the work. Decorpas & Funkyart, I've read you can paint tiles, but that it's a bad idea in an area that sees a lot of water and use. I looked into that too. He says he knows the kitchen is going to look bad until the tiles are gone. Funkyart, have the tiles worn well for your friend who did it? Can you please find out more? Like products? Sealer? Did she paint her grout too? I think either black or some shade of tan/brown would look good on the counters. I ran the dishwasher panel by him but he says his is so old he's not putting a dime into it. He owns the brown loveseat, bought it himself a few years ago. He owns the chair -- it's a hand-me-down antique from his dad's side of the family. It's theadbare and then some -- a pale aqua color. But he won't part with it (sentimental). The red color on the chair (which he wants) and the pillows and the draperies were my addition with the mockup; they aren't there IRL. The little rocker to the right of that one pic was left behind by a renter and he thinks she's going to come get it one of these days. The lace curtains were left by the PO. I've asked him about them and he says he likes them and wants to keep them. Go figure. He likes antiques. He dislikes modern decor. Funny, he's always been a Navajo White kind of guy in the past, so this burst of color really surprised me. I think he surprised himself, too. His LR/DR and Kitch all flow together. Like, you come up stairs from the front door (split entry) and the LR is on your right, the hallway on your left, with the kitch straight ahead. The LR opens to the DR, and the DR opens to the kitch. The wall you see painted green is the wall that separates the kitch from the LR. What you see painted blue in the above first pic is the kitch's shared wall with the DR. So at this point he says he wants to keep the gold in the LR and the half of the DR as it is (LR and DR share a common wall). He really likes my mockup and still wants to do that, and wants the green down the hallway as he has it now, and intends to paint that green in the kitchen as well. He still wants to accent with red... leaning toward the rust tone, not toward burgandy. So do you have any comments, ideas as to how to pull that off without making it look like a Christmas explosion? That green really threw me for a loop.

Stick with your soapstone idea; it is what you want. Ask the stone yards you've been working with when they anticipate getting new shipments. Realistically you aren't going to be ready for soapstone for at least four months (assuming you'd start next week). By the time you need it, there will be some new stuff in town. Do you have a subscription to Angie's list? If not, get one. Even if it saves you only one headache, it is worth it. The fabricator I am using gets A+ on there for value and responsiveness, and I couldn't be happier. To chime in on your previous posts about not even being able to get bids, I have been surprised at the places that have never gotten back to me despite them asking me to give them dimensions and my requirements. Apparently they don't want my business, and even if they returned my calls or e-mail now, I wouldn't work with them. I obviously don't know you at all, but my perception from all the planning and research you've done on this is that you would be better off being in total control of the project. Now, buy a really good book on being your own contractor for a kitchen remodel so you'll know all of the exact steps needed when, and DIY (the hiring of subs and coordination of steps). I am making this recommendation as a fellow control freak about some things I care deeply about. We are looking into a self-guided bike trip in Italy, and I am very uptight about the places they might pick for us to stay (we had a very bad experience with a travel agent on a small trip last year). It is not that I need deluxe by any means (in fact, I want small and intimate with charm rather than fancy but sterile), but I also know exactly what I consider optimal in lodging that suits ME, and I am pretty leery about handing over that control. I'm guessing you are the same way about your kitchen.