The first thing you need to do before painting is to wash the counter tops with a warm water and ammonia mix. You should not forget this work on before painting your kitchen counter tops. It will help you to remove the dirt and grime.

Here is a link that might be useful: Painting tips

You kitchen is beautiful! I love your cabinets and LOVE LOVE your new back splash. So pretty!

I wish I could help with paint colors, but it's so hard to tell from just photos. Do you have a piece of the marble left over? Maybe take that with you when you go to look at paint. Since you know the dining room color, you could find a paint chip of that too, and then just look for a nice neutral that will work with both samples.

From the last picture I think it would look nice to paint the wall above the window the same color as you cabinets to sort of bridge that area. Not sure how much other wall space you need to paint though. You could still pick another paint color for the remaining kitchen walls. That way when you look in from the dining room it wouldn't work against the green.

You kitchen looks beautiful. You must be thrilled. The backsplash came out fantastic, and I love the pulls too. Thanks for the link- I have to check it out!
As far as the paint, check out the posts from mrose that she currently has going. She has been looking at, and sampling losts of BM colors similar to what you want. Maybe it will give you a place to start.

I'm usually a Benjamin Moore gal but I had to use the SW website the other day to pick paint for my husband's office. I loved it because you can compare colors by undertone and also look at the paint formula. For instance, I was worried that a particular color might look a bit pink. I looked at the formula and sure enough, there was a lot of red in it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sherwin Williams visualizer

Your backsplash turned out so good and I just may steal your corner decoration idea. I want to give my kitchen more of a french country feel and I love the lamp and rooster. I'm anxious to see what color you decide to go with since I'm having such a hard time making a decision :)
I am leaning towards BM Lenox Tan right now, so you may want to check that one out. A couple that I'm thinking about trying are Wheeling Neutral and Manchester Tan.

Laurie

imranhenry - I don't think the OP is painting her counter tops. She wants to paint the walls.

OP - I see a lot of pink undertones in both your counter tops and the marble. I'd be tempted to continue the green from the dining room. As someone else mentioned, your photos do not show us much wall space. The idea of painting that strip above the windows is great! You could also add a little moulding to make it look more like the cabinets.

Thanks Laurie! Actually Lenox Tan is in my list of maybe's and also I am looking at Huntington Beige - I also like Greenbrier Beige...omg there are many I like. I read your thread today and it reminded me so much of my own drowning in paint swatches..I look forward to seeing your final results also :).

Newhomebuilder - thanks that was my my big question to flow with that undertone or counter it with a cool greeny undertone...I too was thinking countering it was my best option and I appreciate hearing your opinion on it. That is also a great idea with the molding.

Could you show some close-ups of using the half tile and quarter tile? I just don't understand how this technique can work all the time. My own DYI attempt has been discouraged because of the cutting. If I didn't have to cut, I might give this a try if I could find a good color.

NHB- Here are some pictures a little closer. I can't say that this would work all the time like it did for us but like I mentioned in my previous thread even if it drastically reduced the amount of cuts that is awesome and lessens the hassle of the job big time. Also if you applied this technique and if you only had a couple cuts to do you could mark your remaining tile(s) and bring to your local reno store and they will cut your tiles for you at a very small fee.

(These photos were taken before the tiling was 100% complete)

* This first picture shows the edge tiling (on the left near the brown blind pull handle) and the tiling for the socket. The edge of the brick mosiac is filled in with the 2x2 creating a straight line. When you buy a brick mosaic the edge of the tile is staggered so the 2x2's inserted makes a perfect square. That right there saved us 3 cuts we would of had to do to half a 2x4 to create that straight tile line.

Also with the convenient mesh backing it is easy to cut out any tiles to accomadate the socket and do any fill in's with the 2x2's.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here we used some of the quarter tiles. Keep in mind once you grout and put on your outlet cover any inperfections are hiden. We also have a top border tile that is not shown in this photo.

Like I mentioned we are FAR from experts on this and it is not 'professional' standards but now that it is grouted and all of our items (coffee machine, toaster, decor etc etc) are back in place it looks pretty darn fab (if I do say so myself) and we saved a TON of money by not hiring someone to do it and also it feels good for me that we did this ourselves. :)

So its a trick that can help - any reduction of tile cuts makes the job seem less daunting and deffinately more doable.

Hope this helps.
Haley

The kitchen looks so warm, the tiles are beautiful, love french country! I wish I could do tiles myself. :(

I love your kitchen! Great job.

If you think you want a light beige with a very slight greenish undertone, to flow with your dining room color, take a peek at Behr's Brown Bread. I have it in my kitchen and I really like it. Another one I like is SW Rice Grain. They are very similar.

Fabulous tile job! Did you demo the previous b/s? Did you ruin the wall board, have to replace? That's what scares me about my own.

Back to paint: SW Ramie and SW Rice Grain might work. You could also check out SW Relaxed Khaki or go a bit warmer with SW Chop Sticks. I also agree your dining room color would probably look nice too. Sample 'em up and good luck!

Thanks alot Greenthumbfish!

We actually did demo some pretty horrid 1960's tile but that was a couple years ago. I will tell you that if you demo and plan to retile I would not worry too much. Replacing jip rock is not too bad, you would not have to putty your seams since you are retiling so it is a matter of cutting your pieces to size and screwing them in with drywall screws.

Thanks for the SW suggestions I am actually going there tomorrow so I will look for your recommendations :).

Thank you, haley_comet. I will have to take a look at tile choices. I always thought I'd want the 4x4 or 6x6 tiles with metal insets, but after seeing your job, and knowing I could save by doing it myself, I may change my mind. I wonder if I can find some tiles similar to yours.

Your kitchen is gorgeous. I think a taupe might look good.

Beautiful backsplash and I love how you've accessorized your countertops! I honestly think the current paint is fine, too...

NHB - Your welcome! Actually my tile is pretty common and you can find it anywhere and I know you can also get travertine in the same various styles and tile sizes (that was actually my first tile I was strongly considering until I found this marble mosiac on Craiglist). If you found inserts or anything decorative in a 2x2 or a 1x2 you could totally do that too. Good luck!

I am off to get more paint samples today but have a better idea of what I am looking for thanks to all your comments!

You are all wonderful!
Haley

Beautiful work! And I love your spice rack. Where did you get it?

You are to be congratulated....BEAUTIFUL JOB!

The contrast between counters and backsplash is perfect!

The way you accessorized your countertops just brought everything together wonderfully!

I will tell you what I've been using for the last five years.
Maybe the lighting is different in your home, maybe the colors in your home won't work the way it does in mine. But for us, the perfect tan....not too dark, no undertones,no pinky, no green....has been
Pony Tail by Pittsburg Paints but we've had it mixed in BM and SW.
Computer monitors vary so here, the color might not look as good (or might even show undertones-which it doesn't have) as it does in the rooms where we've used it.

Here it is against Dove White Door in our bedroom mid-afternoon/blinds open, with ceiling light and table light on:

FOR DIY TILE PEOPLE:
Our first bathroom: we tiled everything except what needed to be cut.
We took those to Ho-De and since we are on a first-name basis with some of the employees, we asked about having them cut and they cut those tiles for us....I think we were charged 35 cents per cut. After the fourth cut the nice employee just cut the rest for free.

While we were there, another employee wandered over, chatting with employee that was cutting our tiles.

Second employee told us to buy a $15.97 tile cutter (only does straight cuts but that's all we were doing anyway) and told/showed us how to do it ourselves.
These inexpensive Straight Tile Cutters are called "Snap and Score" tile cutters.

By the time it came to doing the second bathroom tub tile, we decided we'd try the tile cutter.
It's nothing fancy, my 11 year old grandson was helping with the cuts.

The second bathroom used 4" x 4" Travertine squares and we had no problem making straight cuts with the little tile cutter.

Line up the tile on the board/bar, score it with the little sharp thing attached to the running handle, then put a bit of pressure with the handle on the scored line and snap...easy peazy!

I know there are the pro tile cutters with the water that runs to keep the blade cool. But for us, the few tiles we had to cut, the little $15.97 tile cutter paid for itself 10 times over!
Buy some extra tiles and practice and I know you'll get the hang of it!

IMPORTANT: make sure the tile cutter you buy is big enough for the tiles you want to cut, and that it will cut the thickness of your chosen tile.

Then there is the grinder.

We have several grinders....4" 4.5" and 5 inch.
You can buy special blades, buffers, sanders that will make straight cuts on granite and those types of stone. Just measure the stone, draw a light mark in pencil where you want to cut and run the grinder blade over the pencil line. In less than half a minute you have a cut tile.

Then switch out the blade to a sanding disc or buffer disc and smooth out the rough edges you just cut.

Again, 11 year old grandson helps with the sanding/buffing and is getting pretty good at it. lol

The little bit of $$$ you spend on the tools....they really do pay for themselves.

If you want professionalism and perfection, then you might not want to do the tile cutting yourself.
Reason I say this.....the more we did the better we got and we can now look back at rooms/areas where we first started our own cutting of tile and see where we could have done better.

Mr.Amity's Motto: "It's not professional, but it's passable and presentable (just don't look too closely)."
:)

Grinder:

Here is a link that might be useful: YouTube Video: How to Straight Cut tile

Mellie - thanks so much - I actually purchased my spice rack at Costco.

Amity - Great post. Thanks so much for your comments - It took me an embarassingly long time to pick the look I was going for and I too am very happy with the results. I did end up painted since my first post and I went with SW Latte and it looks super with my tile. I have to say I love Mr.Amity's Motto - I think that motto applies to almost my whole house! Thanks again for your kind words :).