You're fearless)) Check out scarlet red, deep pink(like magenta), white, warm sunny yellow. Orange if you wish)) That would be really contrasting. Make sure you like it. You can also go analogous-lemon yellows, emerald greens, purples. Will be cooler. But calmer too. Really depends on how you want to feel when in the room. Primary colored rooms can be very interesting..they have this pop-art quality about them. Don't forget to bring in a lot of texture, to soften the look..rug as you said, some wooden accessories ..plants!!! Plants are the most important. And lights too. And art. Make it cozy, think more in terms "I like this because.." than "contemporary or modern". These terms are too big, you'll need to narrow them down for yourself. Find inspiration pictures. For example Abigail Ahern calls similar style "Rock-n -roll style"..somebody else will call it differently. One of Apartment Therapy books (I think the small spaces one) has an amazing apartment featured -a loft, very industrial but so cozy and cool. They used a lot of bright colors there too.. You can also go neutral in furniture, with something very calming like camel or off-white , and then add the colors around the room. It can still be a very prominent colorful statement, whether it's art or marquee lights. You can add patterns-geometrical or botanical, whatever rocks your boat. Find some pictures of similar spaces, look at them, decide what you're drawn to the most..have fun!

Agreeable Gray by sherwin williams is actually the color I would suggest! I like Pure white for the trim. For the rest of this, I am going to make a list of suggestions. tile: Baja Tecate (12x24) with sahara beige grout (matches agreeable gray wonderfully) carpet: ride it out -whisper (shaw floors) stain- weathered wood. It's a gray stain. I would do a heavy stain on shaker style cabinets. (I know you're wanting white, but this is just for thought). perhaps bathroom cabinets? cabinetry hardware: Remington with barpull hardware (something like Hickory Hardware Bar Pull in stainless steel finish) They're very clean looking, and I love having actual handles instead of the little knobs on cabinets. countertops (kitchen): viatera quarts- cirrus backsplash: Nove Hex- Steel Mix with frost grout kitchen sink: siligranite- single bowl -anthracite black (I LOVE the single bowl sinks) bathroom vanity tops and showers: gray swirl (I don't have more information on this at the moment, but I can post pictures of what I am referring to) for lighting, door knobs, faucets, etc: keep things brushed nickel and chrome

Thanks for answering all my questions. I understand your plan and tastes much better, and I love that you are very clear on your likes and dislikes. I don't have a strong opinion either way on the light vs. the dark flooring, just that you should stick with one or the other. Given that you liked the off-white tile in your previous place, the my guess is you would prefer the lighter color. I don't think you need to have to choose the same neutral throughout the house. That's a very conservative "safe" choice that seems to fly in the face of your stated preferences. My feeling is that the private spaces of the house can be whatever the occupant wants them to be. It's the connected public rooms where you really need to think about how it all works together, whether that is choosing just one paint color or choosing colors that coordinate where there is line-of-sight. I love Benjamin Moore's Caliente but I am not fond of accent walls, which if I understand your plan correctly is what the one red dining room wall would be. When it comes to dark/bold paint colors, my philosophy is "do or do not"--"do" meaning do the whole room in the bold color, don't just dip your toe in the shallow end. But if you really think you just want an accent wall, I'd probably start with the whole open floor plan area in the same neutral, get the room furnished, take some photos and then come back here to try to get one of our very talented photoshoppers to do some imaging for you to see how the Caliente or other potential colors might look before settling on the accent wall color.

@Katie B. we put a large piece of black paper there to get an idea, but it was too severe. We also will be mounting a flat screen TV in the space as well. So if not black, which one?