I do not have my sample of natural wicker in front of me. Don't remember how 'off' white it is. Not sure this helps, but in my family room, the trim is Vanilla Ice Cream, which is a creamy white, and the room is painted Manchester Tan. All the other rooms on my 1st floor are more intense color (Baby Turtle, Moroccon Red, and others) with the same trim. I love the lighter color with the trim.

Shanghaimom and Willow - Here are the answers to your questions: Shanghaimom: Yes - we plan to have a darkish dining table. Haven't decided on the exact color yet - I guess it will somewhat depend on the color of the beams. Willow: The ceilings are 9' high. The light should be good - there will be french doors and 2 windows facing south; and light from the living room coming from the north. I will be buying a new dining room table and am not planning to have a rug in this room (not until my youngest (3 yrs) is a little older. There is no dark wood in any other part of the house. The feeling I am trying to achieve (I think) is old/classic, but new/fresh. I like your idea of keeping them dark and then if it doesn't work, we can always paint them to match the trim later. Couple of other notes/issues: * I am including a drawing of the kitchen. The cabinets will be white/cream inset. The island in the kitchen will be distressed black (Amaretto) with a butcheblock top. The island color was somewhat of a random choice; I didn't want it to be white and distressed black was the only color that my husband and I could agree on. The counter on the perimeter cabinets will be Quartz in Raven (I think). We haven't decided 100% on a wall color, but are leaning towards a warm color red/orange/ color (BM Fire Dance). I know that cool colors would probably work better in this space - but somehow we want to try a warm color. With the wainscoting and the cabinets there will be a lot of what/cream to water the color down. * The other weird thing about the coffered beams is that there are 4 light fixures sticking out of them where the beams cross. So, there is a chandelier (which we will replace) in the middle and then 4 light fixtures wih just bulbs sticking directly out of the beams. I went on the "Old House" forum and was told that these lights are architecturally correct and most people suggested that I leave them as is. While I would like to keep them for the sake of preserving the character of the house, I think they make the ceiling look way to busy - with the coffered ceiling and the chandelier, there is just way too much going on up there. Plus, I don't really want to look at plain lightbulbs and haven't found any type of mini shade/cover that could go on them. The problem is, of course, that if we take out the light fixtures, we will be left with big holes in the beams that will be hard to fix, as well as expensive. This is partly why we had originally planed to paint the beams the same color as the trim... So, as you can see, I have some issues to work out! Let me know what you think I should do. thank you!!

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions and roobear to you for the great photoshopping, as well! Family room is an addition , so we are going to eventually be replacing most of the furnishings from our old space. There are high ceilings, the same early American stained wood floors and a fieldstone fireplace at the far end. Because this is part of one large open floor plan, I have been leaning toward a neutral color on the walls and then I would bring in some color with accessories etc. But I am now realizing that another reason I am finding it challenging to find one color that will work throughout the whole space is that I also don't want to go too dark in the family room. However, maybe I could go darker in the kitchen and a shade or two lighter in the family room area? Cabinets are kind of a cross between Sherwin Williams Antique White and Vanillin, if that helps. I thought I'd try out SW Believable Buff in the kitchen, Whole Wheat, which is one shade down for the family room or the reverse (or even darker for the kitchen) - anyone familiar with those? newhomebuilder - Thanks for the warning! Would limestone be any less peachy? What did you end up doing for your backsplash? Thanks again, all!

Meditative may be too dark, but I could be wrong- not sure what you're going for... Whatever you put on the walls I would cut it back by more than 50% b/c when it is in the whole area it takes on much more color. We are doing yellow cabs and the paint for the wall I could swear wasn't even yellow-- more beige with slight yellow undertone. Once it went up it looked so different than the 16" x 16" swatch I painted up. Definitely seemed yellowish. It actually worked out but just remember it will look darker (more saturated) when it's on all of your walls. Actually, once the cabs went up it toned that color down so much that it doesn't look yellow anymore so if that's the case ignore this paragraph! lol We used BM Mascarpone AF-20 with our upper cabs and all the crown and base trim which I am LOVING. It is a creamy white but you'd have to see how it looks with your Meditative. Actually we are using it with BM's Woodlawn Blue HC 147 and it looks great.