Just curious, can you go 2 colors up or down on the strip with the Windham Grey? I don't even know what those colors are, I'm not looking at a paint deck, but sometimes you get enough of a contrast and you also get the "flow" you might want.

For a cream, you might try Kelly Moore Alhambra Cream. It's a more neutral, less yellow cream. It goes well with blues, greens and wood tones.

I feel your pain. We were struggling with paint colors too - our breakfast room gets morning light and the kitchen/family room gets afternoon, granite with blues and greens, maple floors, cherry cabinets, oak table and chairs, plus darkish woodwork of unknown species in the doors and built in bookshelves. After painting poster boards with 6 paint samples plus 2 already in the house, we settled on Alhambra Cream. It goes well with the range of colors and lighting conditions. I find it very comfortable to look at.

I would also try BM Philadelphia Cream. Less yellowy cream, it has more grey in it from the windham cream. I think it would looks nice next to your beautiful wood.

You can save yourself some legwork on the internet. A few suggestions.

1. I found it interesting to know what the best selling colors are (see link)

2. I like Farrow and Ball and Ben Moore the best. Go to their website and see their favorites/suggestions

3 If you think you like a color, do a google image search so you can see it in a room

4 At the end of the day, there is no substitue for seeing a swathc on your wall in your light with your things. Even prof'ls try a lot of colors

5 Dont forget, if the color is almost right, you can do 75% or 50% strenght

6 Colors I like and used recently - BM Revere Pewter and Hampshire Grey, Farrow and Ball Mouse's back, Pointing, Lime White, Farrow's Cream, White Tie, Slipper Satin and a few other I cant recall

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: popular colors

With east light and all the wood, I'd pick something warm and cheerful. Maybe a very soft golden/beige color. It will look very nice with the wood and can take the green cast from the grape vines. Maybe add a few herbs/plants in the kitchen?

With winter on the way, I'd rather have a warm glow than a cool one...but we have VERY long winters. Hope that helps :)

We just picked the paint out - we are about a week away from having it on the walls - they are starting to work on getting the drywall ready tomorrow.

Here is the picture of our poster board paint "chip".

I love my dreamy BM Titanium! It is a VERY pale greenish gray.

Thanks all. These cabs are really throwing me! Too much of a good thing...
LRy511 - I'll get a sample, didn't look quite right in the store, but since everything looks much different I'll try. My MIL had it, very pretty in her house.
Mtrdredux - tried the tips, good advice! LOVE LOVE Farrow and Ball (almost as much as I love your kitchen)closest retailer is about 60 miles away, but may be worth the trip.
LL - thought that would work too, but the sapwood has such strong colors in it, it really competes with paint that is close to it, weird.
Thanks for the photo Cloudswift, can you send your chip my way? Maybe I'll just steal your idea :-)
Enduring - I want that in my bedroom!

Thanks, Clueless for the complement!

I know paint connoisseurs will disagree with me, but I think BM does a pretty good job of matching Farrow and Ball. DO NOT travel 60 miles, and need not pay for FnB. Just bring in the number and name and your local paint can jockey can mix 'er up.

No specific suggestions, but a nice and light frayed green is BM Gray Owl. It changes dramatically from can to wall and with light exposure. It was almost pastel in my kitchen and FR with so much light, but a pleasing gray-tending-green in the office with less natural light. I've got a pic on the desktop I'll try to post later.

I usually start my paint choosing by picking up a bunch of paint chips (big chips--not those itty bitty things) and taping them to the wall. I then eliminate the ones I definitely don't like. Then I come back and do the same thing in different light--morning, midday, under artificial light--eliminating a few chips each time. When I've covered the time-of-day bases, I move the chips to another wall and repeat. Usually I can narrow the choices down to just a few, and only then move on to actual paint samples.

For my bedroom, I thought I wanted a blue-gray. Went through a lot of chips and ended up not liking any of them. Switched over to gray greens, and that is what I eventually ended up with. I ended up very happy with the color.

Oops. When I said "frayed" green earlier, I meant grayed green. iPad doesn't like the word grayed apparently.

Here are a couple of shots of the office with Gray Owl. It was hard to capture the color as the ceiling light fixture hasn't been replaced yet so I had to use a big mobile light for the pics. If you click on a pic, it'll take you to my flickr account with a few more shots.

Forgot the second pic.

It is a nice color IRL. Better than the chip.

CC:

May I ask a quick question? You mentioned short-term counters are painted MDF; is the black counter visible to the right of the stove that? If so would you mind telling what paint brand/type and color? It's a dead ringer for SS; I would like to try living with a sample of dark counters like that and need a temp (hopefully short-term) solution, too.

I really like you cabs!

TIA,

L

LOL Breezygirl, I kind of like the Frayed Green, goes along with emotional state.
Thanks for the procedure list Cawaps, I am too impatient and have made a lot of color mistakes because of it.
Thanks Liriodendron! They are MDF coated with marine epoxy, then BM Graphite, with 4 coats of poly. We hope they hold up well (undermounted sink) but not TOO long haha