I am in the midst of choosing colors for my renovated bungalow and am trying to get colors to "flow" while staying with earth tones mostly but not doing the same color everywhere! Quite a challenge. I started with my trim (at the insistence of cabinet maker, who is making medicine cabinets with trim to match what's around the windows and doors) and chose BM "cotton balls" (hope I don't find that too white but I wanted something whiter than what I had before, which was Ivory White). The kitchen will have cherry cabinets, medium brown wood floors, soapstone counters, and the backsplash tiles are hand made 3x6 that vary from light green with gray to greenish-gray with darker gray edges - I chose Sebring White. The sunroom I'm thinking Vale Mist, the den off the sunroom maybe Vale Mist mixed at 25% (lots less natural light), the hallways Morning Dew, the living room off the hallway Coastal Fog, the dining room next to it (and leading back into the kitchen) Tapestry Beige (in part to pick up color in fabric of dining chair seat). Master BR I've chosen Silken Pine but mixed at 150% - it's to complement the bathroom tile, which is P&L P138 (of course I'm using the store's sample and who knows if the tile will actually be that color!). Trying to decide what do about ceilings. If my builder and architect get what they want, I'd use "ceiling white" but no way am I going to go with yet another white - it will either be Cotton Balls (in a different finish than the trim) or should I go with the room colors, perhaps mixed at 50%? Thoughts? TMI????

Thank you, voila, for coming out of lurkdom to help me! This HAS been painful in the sense that I really dislike being in limbo, uncertain, and indecisive, which has also been time-consuming since I have been looking at paint colors off and on for 2 or 3 years, and stewing around about them trying to figure this out. To clarify regarding the Carlisle Cream with the hint of pink: this is not the trim color. I will try to see if I can find the name somewhere in my files, but the color of the trim for all of the house and most of the ceilings has a yellowish cast. The Carlisle Cream is only on the ceiling in the DR & MBR (and the paint chosen for the DR will also be used in the MBR which faces NW), as well as the walls of the mudroom, laundry, powder room, and MBath. You are correct that it fights with yellow, because the tiles have hints of yellow tones, and it does not look good there. Except for the 2 ceilings, the Carlisle Cream will be changed to something that goes better with all of the tiles and countertops that probably need a color with some yellow, rather than pink, in it. When we painted our former N facing foyer with Pittsfield Buff, it really pulled together the colors of the 2 small rugs and tile, which are almost the same as what we have now. But that is a whole nuther story. Wythe & Palladian Blues are on my "possible" list, so I will give them further consideration. The HC 139-141 at first glance under kitchen lighting seemed minty, but the lighting in the LR is halogen, so they look different in there. I will need to see them on a sunny day. Another vote for HC 146, 147, and Gray Wisp is good! And I really like your suggestion of Quiet Moments. It is interesting that you say, "all greens seem to go together", which I had heard before. The reason I got a new LR rug was that my old one had multiple colors of green and greenish gold on a cream field, and to me it clashed with the fireplace in daylight. I moved it into the kitchen eating area that has the same slate tile on the other side of the 2-way FP where it only gets light from the NW which is not directly on it as it is in the LR, and it looks perfect in the different light! Also, if I turned the LR rug around, it would look much better upon entering the room, but to me the green from that direction looks awful with the FP green. I think it will be a lot easier to choose the DR paint than that for the LR. I will definitely pursue looking at grayed colors for both rooms, but I would still like to try maybe a rich tan that does not lean to red or yellow and see if that could work in the LR to pull out those colors in the rug, but maybe nothing will do this? I suppose that would only add to the blendy feeling that I am so good at achieving. I had originally imagined having a sort of rich, dark cream, but I guess that would mean yellow, so it is out. A correction regarding the "drapes." They are actually 4 drapery panels on each side of a 7 ft triple casement that help to set off the piano and a small chest near the creamy beige rug, and at each end of a 4 window bank (each 42" wide) next to the chest and behind the mauve wing-back near the FP. They are not directly next to the 9 x 12 "green" rug. The 2 rugs are separated by the sofa, so you do not see much of the Bokhara when entering the LR. I know that all the detail causes many people not to read this, but I welcome comments from anyone who has the patience to work through them to give me additional guidance. Anne

Years ago there was a paint color that was all the rage on this board and others -- I suppose it is dated now that gray is all the trend because you never hear about it anymore, but it was called Tobacco Road and was produced by several smaller paint companies that shared the same color deck (California, Duron, Graham were 3 I know of). I'm sure you can still get it mixed by BM or SW because they should have the formula in their system. Anyhow, if you google, you might find that it is exactly what you want. There are lots of images of it -- as I said, it was quite the trendy color for a while. (And personally, as you can probably tell from my living room, I never got on the gray bandwagon -- so I'll proudly fly my mid-2000s-paint-colors-flag! There is enough gray outside all winter to give me a very strong dislike of any kind of cool/gray paint color in my house, though I think it can look good in other people's homes.) anyhow, here's a sample of tobacco road, though on my monitor it looks a little browner here than it does in real life. from here: Blog where I got that photo

lukkiirish, I have the SW paint deck too (as well as an older BM deck). Painter will be here Sat and still haven't chosen a color! I'm hoping to get to Lowes no later than Tues and buy some shades in eggshell. Maybe even matte as I've decided against the dark purples. Right now I'm looking to go no darker than SW Mythical. I have some bed sheets that I'd like to see if they can match the color. It's about the same color intensity but more red, less gray. I'll see about lightening the color if it's too dark. I don't want to leave the paint desk till I have a color nailed down! What about touch up painting with matte? Does it blend well?