If you want a teensy bit of contrast between your whites, you're absolutely right. You have to wait until the cabinets are in to hold up your samples. Then, some of them won't look appealing to you, and some will. Then you narrow down.

And there you have the color for you right in your hand. Even comparing them in the store doesn't work, because your lighting is your lighting, and it always looks entirely different!

I know. No help at all, am I?

I color matched the trim paint to the white cabinets. It was a very close match but not exact. Will any trim work be up against the cabinets?

No one else will pay attention to rather it is a match or not. But I was glad I got it matched because the quarter round and various trim pieces where painted that directly met the cabinets in the laundry room and the kitchen Island.

For my wall color it was much more difficult to pick. After several large areas painted on the wall and I finally decide on a color and feel confident, I asked my DH what he thought, he tells me "yeah it looks great - if green is what you are going for" I was NOT going for green i wanted a khaki color. I didn't ask what he thought of paint colors again!

Good luck I am sure whatever you pick will look great.

Dowbright - I do have a sample of the cabinet door so I have been holding up my samples to that. Does that count? :) Neither the Simply White or White Dove match exactly, but that's okay. I am just worried overall about the trim looking too bright or too dull, or too anything, so I guess I just want a really versatile white. "Impossible" I am thinking!

RT - The only trim work that will be up against the cabinets is where the baseboard will meet with a shallow cabinet that I will have under the bar overhang.

Paint is a tricky thing! Thank you for the feedback!!!

I must be missing something, but is it not possible to get the paint name your cabinet guy used? Or a sample of the actual paint that someone (BM or SW or whatever) could match? Sorry if this is a clueles suggestion.

Leela4 - Not a clueless suggestion. A bit of a long story, but nutshell version the cab guy offered very few whites and if I could have picked a more custom color probably would have selected something a little softer and not so bright white. So while I don't want the trim to look glaringly obvious that its not the same color, I also didn't want to match it exactly, purposefully. Make sense? Kinda? I will give some thought to your suggestion. Maybe his is not such a bad white. Gonna see him on Monday so I will ask if he has a sample swatch.

Honestly I think I am losing my mind at this point :) so I do appreciate you taking the time to read and respond!

I believe Cotton Balls is a nice clean white and I THINK a little whiter than Simply White.

I prefer Simply white to white dove. It's a great color. I have it on my trim, on my ceilings and some of my walls. Looks great everywhere.

For me, Cotton Balls was much yellower than SW. I think Mtnrdredux's description of CB as an antique, vintage white is apt.

And BC--whites do seem to make some of us around here very loco in the head! I agonized, agonized over white. Good luck!

Been there, done that! I have about 40 samples in the basement from the outside of the house. Only a couple for the kitchen as BM has the big paint chips now - so bought a number of those and then tweaked from there.
I would either match it or contrast it - almost matched would not be my preference.

I took in a drawer and had my trim paint color matched. Very much like the color and continued it in adjacent rooms. Good luck!