We have dark wood trim in this house and our previous. I tend to stick to more earth tone colors rather than darks. Our current living room/dining room is latte from Restoration Hardware. In the old house our dining room was a turquoise blue and it looked great with the dark trim and hardwood floor. We are also painting two bedrooms and keeping the dark wood trim. One will be a pastel blue (Atmosphere Blue from RH) and the other a very pale pink (Petal from RH) Any contrast will be enough. I would just stay away from dark brown or red shades. The trim could be a stained oak. Ours is mahogany.

1) Neutrals will take an undertone, so it is important to know which neutrals according to the primaries...red, yellow, or blue? 2) Then, once you know that, choose cool or warm of those undertones. Then, light or dark. (think skin here. Why does gray look so bad on some people and yellow look great? Why does yellow make some people look sick, and gray makes them look fresh and hip?) 3) Natural daylight. No natural light in the house? Unless you like a cave-like feeling on a Sunny day, limit yourself to the first top 3 colors of the card in the paint fan. If you like a cave look during the day, go ahead and use the bottom 3 or 4. If you have a house with tons of windows and natural light, lucky you, paint every room in deep saturated color....it's great in the day with light, and there is nothing like dark walls at night. Okay......that being said, here are some great colors I've used. BM Aura .... HARMONY This is the ultimate beige/ neutral. It goes with yellow, taupe, green, blue. It can be warm, or cool, depending on what's in the room. It's nice. Cut it in half and the color is a light, pleasant creamy color. BM SMOKEY TAUPE....the EXACT color of that beautiful linen sometimes called 'flax' (the sample looks like it has a green undertone, but it goes competely gray gorgeous taupe in my cream and white bedroom. It's classy, and fabulous with white trims. SW NUTHATCH: Dark and gorgeous brown without looking like you tried too hard. I had it in a bedroom with white trims and off white carpet. Caution: Ceilings look really bad when you have these dark colors if you leave them white. Paint the ceiling a few shades lighter (go up the card sample in the same color....that always works.) BM - PATRIOTIC WHITE. This is a quick change white. It can go white with a tinge of ocean blue, or ocean blue-green. It's cool one minute, then turns warm in the sunlight. At night it's warmer. It's a very fresh white. It's great if you need light in the room from lack of windows. Pair this wall color with very white trims. With ebonized floors,blacks, browns and greys, driftwoods, and touches of sunny yellows this color would be so chic. SW Spaulding grey, Garret Grey, : these are great deep colors of taupe/brown. I painted my exterior with Garrett Gray....it was a dark purply taupe. I had blue-green shutters, soft white trims, and a cherry stained front door. Very, very beautiful. Inside, Spaulding grey is a dark purply brown. Very nice with cherry wood, or maple. Great for a feature fireplace wall. Makes medium or light stained wood, stone, brick "pop". SW Mystic Beige: a medium light nice warm beige...goes with everything. Some people would call it boring, but if you have nice architecture, or nice furniture, fabrics, or paintings, this color will let them be the star. One opinion: I really don't like the paint "rules" you'll be told at the paint store. I'd stay away from asking advice in there. Find out if they have a color consultant on the payroll who you could talk to. Also, if you read decorating magazines, keep a file in your file cabinet for "paint color" .......almost all of these magazines have a section on what colors to use. Rip out the pages, and stash them in the file. When you need to pick a color, you'll have the names, and the descriptions, and sometimes pictures of the rooms using the colors.

Linnea, that white is horrible in your very rich and wonderful kitchen. Honey...once you go to the dark side, you'll never return my young Jedi friend...oh wait that was another life. Umm where was I? Dark trim. This is a mix of half black and half dark chocolate brown...we have it EVERYWHERE in our home...it's fabulous with rich copper reds, burgundy's, greens, yellow, pumpkin...any rich earth color rocks with this trim color. I will never (ok maybe not never, but not soon) do light trim again :) Don't focus on what's in this room, just focus on the fact that it's mostly a green base color with accents of green: Window trim and paneled wall are both dark with amber gold walls Bad pic, but copper colored walls, leaning towards that red tone in your counters, with the same trim color: Hopefully it will help you think about shifting to the dark side...believe me...we have better parties at Darth's house than we ever did with that boring old Luke :oP

Oh, I didn't know that Chambrey was light blue, thanks for the fyi. I'm sorry they didn't help at the paint store, I would definately try another and I understand about the stripes, it was just a thought. Since you mentioned you want to leave your options open for bedding changes, I would say go for a warm low key beige that has a yellow base to it. Some have a pink base and that wouldn't be so good. A color I've put on my walls and have already talked about in another thread is Raffia Cream. It would go with the blues beautifully. You can find a sample card of it at the big box. :c)