Wow- you really are the best. Thank you. You have helped me so much. I am going to the paint store to sample golden tan. And I took the bold step (for me) of asking the painter to take on other work for a week or so until I am certain. I think that alone will make it easier for me to make a choice without the stress of having to do it so quickly. I will let you know what we go with!

suzannesl: Thank you so much for your reply and kind words, Suzanne! I really appreciate it! You have it exactly right, 1-4 are the potential swatches that are taped up (minus the possible SW colors that I don't have swatches for) and A-D are the colors in adjoining rooms. I totally see your point about judging the colors from the little swatches and a computer monitor (I wish I could have you all visit our kitchen, lol!). Painting actual swatches on the wall would be best. I was hoping to narrow the choices down a bit - if possible (for example, if it turns out that Fernwood Green only looks good with a true white, or Guilford Green looks terrible against a pale yellow like Ambiance, that kind of thing). I suppose someone would really need the fan decks to make that judgement though. =/ Maybe I should just buy all 6 colors to test? (Hope DH isn't reading this, lol!) Here is the countertop story - We're doing our kitchen on a budget. I wanted soapstone (can't afford it now), so we got Ikea birch butcherblock countertops, stained them black with india ink (thanks to Brickmanhouse!), and finished them with satin PolyWhey. We don't expect them to last forever, but hope they can give us a few years until I can get the soapstone that I've been drooling over. (And, they can always be refinished if they get too beat up.) singingmicki: Thanks for your vote! I will also look into Ethereal Mood!

Oh my everyone. Thank you for your help, olychick, Tibbrix, aktillery, sjhockeyfan, may_flowers, joaniepoanie, and everyone else! So I bought it. It's on. Not the best pic, and no big pillows, but goes good with my clearance target performance $20 king sheets:) I also told Target I had lost my rain check and they gave me 15% off without it, so I was happy. I had a rough day with some cautious good news, so I figured I deserved it too :) So here goes...

I think some of those laminates are mimicing level one granites; many have commented that level one granites were actually less expensive than the laminate estimates they got...not sure if that included installation costs. Do you live in an area where designers are readily available? Not all of us do....I found a tile store designer with A great “eye” who I hired to advise me on paint colors and other design input I wanted. I would consider painted cabs with your flooring choice since I am having a hard time thinking of a stain color and wood that would compliment. A darker, greyed-brown might work but the wood would have to be carefully chosen to avoid orangish/reddish tones.