I haven't read your post thoroughly.......gotta leave in a minute.........but if the colors you're showing are accurate they appear to be too cool against our cabinets and tile.

You may want to try a warmer color and one that isn't going to blend with your backsplash.
Personally, I'd go with an amber or terra cotta, similar to what I see in the backsplash.

Have you taken all your samples, including the cabinet door, into a BM store and asked for help? If not, call around and find one that has a consultant on staff. I find them very helpful but it may be best for them to come to your home since lighting plays a huge part in selection.

My cabs are about the color of yours. We used SW Blonde. The pic isn't a very good representation of the color. It's what you were looking for, a creamy beige gold. They have it catagorized in their neutral collections but it's gold.

What's neat about the color is it's the only one I tried that would look good with both the cooler and warmer elements in the room.

Our last house had tile on the floor and I still went with gold paint. I found that my swifter was all I needed to keep my floors from looking dirty. :)

I love your selections so far.

Thanks so far! I did take all my elements to the BM paint store and they said I am on brown overload and I needed green. I don't know...I'm just not feeling it for some reason...maybe I need to buy some more samples - Ugh!

I love the warmth in Parma42's kitchen. However, she does have wood floors. I haven't really seen a good example of that creamy gold/beige color with a travertine (or travertine-like) floor. Would the 2 colors clash?

Have you tried BM Olive Branch? I have cherry cabs in a sienns stain with EK Edgewood Green walls. I went through the same paint h*ll after my kitchen remodel. Paint is ALWAYS so hard! Oh, and I have Tropical Brown granite!

I think green is DEFINITELY the way to go, but you haven't gone green enough. Olive Branch is a lovely choice; also Ellen Kennon Olive.

Laura Ashely's Olive 4 is nice...

This is one of our member's kitchens:

Olive green will make your cabinets POP. Any shades of beige or yellow or gold will make them murky.

Before I got down to the part of your post where you said you were sampling greens, I was thinking "the gray in the slate only more so" would be great! Maybe you should look at greens with a touch more blue in them....less yellow...slightly cooler.

I'm not great with colors (going through my own color hell right now with pretty much every room in the house) but I too thought the blue-gray in your slate backsplash might look pretty.

Thanks everyone!

kmcg85...Beautiful cabinets! I did try the 2 oz sample of Olive Branch early on and it look NOTHING like it does in your beautiful kitchen. It was horrible in my house. Maybe I am seriously under estimating the lack of natural light I get in the room. Also, with your color choices, what did you do for a backsplash?

Thanks for the other color suggestions. I never imagined anything leaning towards blue in my kitchen...See what I mean about my individual material choices leading me toward colors that I would not normally choose? I am just so worried about taking a room with sunlight issues, putting a cool green-blue-gray in it, and having it feel even darker. Is there no way I do something creamy gold? I've seen cherry cabinets with cream/gold/yellow paint all the time and it seems to work for them, why not in our situation? I am just trying to understand a little better what it is about our materials that may not lead us to those colors.

Thanks so much!

We have cherry cabs and uba tuba. We never got around to the backsplash, so I painted in northampton putty, and it looks great. The rest of the walls are richmond bisque. (Sorry, no picture!) We do have a large window, though, so I'm sure that affects how the color looks. For what it's worth, I have olive branch in another room and tried it in the kitchen, but it didn't look as good. The northampton putty comes in a sample size.

I have Kraftmaid Hickory in Sunset and my wall are painted SW Blonde. My counters are a olivey solid surface Formica. I get many compliments on the color but it probably does make the cabinets look more golden. HTH

merimom - kmcg85 actually used EK Edgewood Green in her kitchen, not Olive Branch. It's so hard to tell the colors from your photos, because they look different in each one. Which one is the most green in person? I love the way Tree Moss looks in the picture next to the pink, but in the other pictures it looks more gray. If the one next to pink is more accurate, I think that would look great with everything else you have picked out.

Laurie

OK, Edgewood green in kmcg85's kitchen, not Olive Branch. I see now that I misread her post.

Sorry about the color differences in the photos...It is so hard to get the color to come across accurately. The photo with my paint experiments is pretty close to accurate (That side of kitchen only has a window over the sink facing east so colors read a little darker of there). The photo with the Spanish Olive and Tree Moss is a little washed out and more gray than it really is. The photo with the Tree Moss and the pink is pretty close (That is the wall adjacent to the 6ft window on the opposite side of the kitchen so everything is a little brighter over there).

rnmomof2...Would you happen to have a photo of your Sunset cabinets and SW Blonde walls?

Thanks everyone!

Thanks msrose! Yes, the paint in the picture is EK Edgewood Green. I was only suggesting Olive branch for you to look at. I would settle on the granite first then the backsplash. Uba Tuba is a pretty dark green with gold flecks. It looks great with cherry. I don't think that you can't do a gold. Perhaps you need to look at a deeper gold instead of the creamy golds? I have seen many cherry kitchens with goldish walls and it is pretty. I know that it is easier to paint before the cabs go up, but once the granite and backsplash are in place, you might change your mind about the paint color and want to paint again. All that work! Ugh! So my advice to you is to wait on the paint. Pick the granite. Afterall, along with the cabs, it will be the star of the show! It should compliment your cabs and vice versa. The backsplash is a backdrop to that and should help to tie everything togther! Here is a pic I took trying to get the cabs, granite and backsplash together.

I included this pic because Amy suggested a gray. Oddly enough, when I removed the wallpaper from the PO, the walls underneath were gray. So here are cherry cabs with gray paint. Maybe not the right gray, but it gives you an idea. Now, imagine your backsplash. It might work! There are gray's out there that are not all cold looking. Amy might have a better idea. HTH's!

I'll throw something different into the mix-
In a kitchen, there simply isn't all that much wall space to paint, especially these days where backsplashes don't get paint in a lot of cases. I think this leaves the door open for slightly stronger colors than the ones you have sampled. I think you are on the right track with the greens-
have you looked at the BM strip that begins with #470? Aganthus Green 472 and Weekend Getaway 473 are both really nice shades. There is also the strip that starts with #1492-again the 3rd and 4th colors, Vale Mist 1494 and October Mist 1495.

BM Chestertown Buff or Waterbury Cream for a gold? Creamier might be Monroe Bisque Dunmore Cream or Pittsfield Buff.

Thanks, kmcg85! Once again, a beautiful kitchen.

trk65...I actually had those 2 paint strips in my hand at that paint store and decided they were too green-green (is there such a thing? ;-)) and too green-blue. However, given the comments I have received here I need to grab them again and at least look at the strips in my lighting.

All your comments are so helpful...Gives me lots to think about. Thanks.

Oh, I am taking my door over to my friend's house today to put it next to her creamy yellow walls and see how it looks. She has maple cabinets that are more red than mine...The yellow looks great in hers, but I know my wood is a different tone.

Thanks again!

Don't overthink this too much (I think that was redundant).

If you like gold, do gold. I love it and don't change it out when the greens show up in the mags. If you look at the gold and yellow post on the gallery side, you will find lots of them.

My Blonde seems to go well with anything I throw at it. The Ben Moore golds that were suggested by kmcg85 are lovely, too. Pittsfield Buff is especially nice, falling a bit more neutral.

Let us know how your cabs look with your friend's paint.

Just a suggestion...I had sooooo much trouble choosing a paint color. Our house is painted almost entirely in Barnwood by Waverly (at Lowe's). It is a khaki/green/gray color that goes with my off white cabinets AND my dark walnut wood. It's a great neutral that looks different at various times of the day. People think it is green most of the time.

Remember the guys at the paint store are not designers. You have to pick a paint color that you can live with. Posters above gave you some great advice and pics.

Even though the clearer colors are scary under the lights in the paint store, remember, your relatively dark kitchen will tame them some. If you pick something tame in the over-lit store, it will die on you when you get it home. Low-light + toned down colors = mud.

It may be easier to understand this in reverse. Imagine a clear color on a bright room. It will just about vibrate! And may be too much. That kind of high-light situation is where you want a color that is toned down some, so it doesn't overwhelm.

As for some rule about not using dark paint in low-light rooms, I think it is hooey. Of course, if it does not suit your taste, then you should stay away from darker colors. But, dark can mean dramatic, cozy, sophisticated, bold. It is not a "mistake" in and of itself. The mistake is not having adequate lighting, at various levels (ceiling, cabs, over sink, etc.) and/or on dimmers so you can control the light levels.

Go back to the store and grab some chips that scare you a bit. Get several of them and cut them up, tape them together to approximate larger chunks of color. Try going a bit bluer with the green. Move away from the yellow and look for clear colors....not muddy. Good luck! :)

BM Nantucket Breeze?

Well, the trip to my friend's house was enlightening. She has a pale, creamy yellow from Lowe's, Churchill Hotel Hazy Yellow. I was expecting the cabinet to blend too much up against it, but it really didn't. It didn't POP like it would against a green, but it didn't look bad either...I kinda liked it. I think her cream seems a bit too light, I would prefer something a bit more gold, but I think the color in general is a possibility. I didn't think my backsplash tiles would work with the yellow either, but they looked quite nice too. The yellow made the blues and greens in the tile pop more which could be nice for using those colors as accents in window treatments, etc. Lastly, was the floor tile (Yes, my friend thinks I am nuts for lugging all my samples over to house, but she's a brutally honest person so I trust her opinion). She has natural maple wood floors and my tile is almost the same tone as her wood...kinda funny. We decided the tile looked fine. If the walls were any more yellow, the floor might look a little dingy, but I think I would be ok if I stay with a creamy, yellow/gold.

Also, the same friend has a pretty olive green in her family room. So, she hunted down the paint and guess what it was...Nantucket Gray! Funny bc even she thought the Nan. Gray was much more brown in my house. I guess it's all about lighting.

So, where does this leave me? I think I am going to sample a few creamy yellows in my space just to see. Just like the Nantucket Gray looked so different in our homes, so could the yellows. I have not ruled out the idea of a green bc I do think it could look awesome if I wasn't so color-challenged. You have all given me so many great colors to sample. As Amysrq said I should pick a couple sample colors that scare me and one of them just might be it.

Thanks again. I promise to post once I decide and absolutely once the kitchen is done!

Merimom, I have the kids help me post pixs tomorrow when they get home from school. I'm sure they will get a big kick out of helping me do that : ) You know, anything to show you know more than mom does!

Thanks, rnmomof2! Mine are 3yrs and 6 months, so it should only be a couple years before they can work more magic on the computer than me! ;-)

I bought a valspar 7oz sample from Lowe's today to see how that Churchill Hotel Hazy Yellow look in my house just as a point of reference...Should be interesting.

I personally still like the green with the backsplash you have picked out. You could always get a sample of the EK Edgewood Green and compare it to some of the BM greens. You mentioned that you would be doing the 4 x 4. Have you considered the subway (if that's what they're called) that you have pictured above?

Laurie

Since Amy leaned towards a blue based color, I would try EK Ashen Green. Hoyamom has this in her DR and it is a very pretty color. It was a contender for my kitchen too!

kmcg is right...Ashen Green would be lovely! Here it is in my last house:

Here are pictures of my kitchen with the Blonde walls. Actually they are LA Gold 2 which is almost identical to SW Blonde. We did a mini-remodel a few years ago with lots of cosmetic upgrades. The counters are Formica solid surface Pesto Mist. The cabinets are Kraftmaid -one of the hickory styles in the Sunset stain. My cabinets are 18 years old but the crown, end panels, sink trim are all new. It was great that we were able to add them and the color is still the same.

Thanks for posting the photos, rnmom! I grabbed a Gold 2 paint swatch yesterday. It looks very yellow in the photo, but I am guessing it is creamier in person.

I still don't now which direction I want to go...I think green would look great, but I have not found a green that makes me HAPPY yet. More and more I am convinced to wait to paint until everything is in. Whole kitchen full of cabinets and a backsplash full of tile will most likely "read" much differently than my samples do.

THANK YOU ALL for your help. I have some great color suggestions and I bet one of them will be the one I choose. I'll keep you posted!

merimom - You've probably already seen this post with Tree Moss, but I thought I would post it just in case you haven't.

Laurie

Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Moss

There isn't a ton of difference btw these greens but I understand the obsession.
I think green is a good choice with what you have. I think your are right about yellow and your tile, unless you want sort of almost match your tile with something light and subdued and go for a monochromatic effect.

I really liked the Nantucket Green that Suero posted.
Pittsburgh Paints has something similar - Tabu? Which is very close to a BM color....can't remember was really popular a couple of years ago.

I went through something similar and did a posterboard of SW Blond and BM's very similar desert tan, they tended to go a little sherbert on me at night - or at least to my eyes - I think the color you see in your light can be sort of individual