any chance you can post a picture of your great room?

I'm uncomfortable with that idea. I suppose that leaves me out of luck?

no i just wanted to get a sense of your furniture style and colors. you gave a good description of your kitchen but just wanted to know what the rest of the room looked like. anyhoo, not knowing anything about your furniture, i'd go with a light gray like owl gray. i've saved that one as a maybe for our living room/dining room space. i also like the idea of your just doing white, but maybe do a white white on trim like decorators white and a more warm white like dove white for walls? i've saved a pic of that too as a maybe for us.

What color upholstery in the great room?

Color can do amazing things to the ambiance of a room. It's a very important detail, especially a great room where your family probably spends a lot of time. Permanent fixtures such as flooring, counters, and cabinets will help lead you to an appropriate color family. Transitions into adjoining rooms are an important factor to keep in mind also. Think "flow".

Ever since my family and I painted our kitchen "Toffee Orange" we spend more time in there than ever. It tied in great with our flooring, cabinets, and decorations. We painted the trim a basic stock white and it really makes the kitchen feel warm and inviting.

What do you think of this?

You are the person for whom "Swiss Coffee" paint was made. It's a pale neutral cream.

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/swisscoffee

Or match the white of the cabinets.

Having a picture of the room gives people an idea of the lighting and the furniture colors ... a pale grey or blue might work for you, but I'd hate to recommend it if it would make the couch look bad.

Thanks for the replies. The couch was bought in mind with the kids. The covers can be changed at will, so colour of the couch isn't an issue. Right now, it's just a black cover because I haven't made up my mind on a colour. There's an annoying fireplace we plan to get rid of next year and replace with built in cabinetry. The fireplace takes up too much space, the fire instantly makes the room too hot even during extreme cold alerts and the heat doesn't reach the bedrooms and doesn't work when the power is out. It serves no purpose beyond irritating me. We have some wooden shelves which are just natural wood. The coffee table is wood too. We're still choosing between armchairs or two-seater. We didn't have a playroom finished for years, so the kids were using the living room. So we only had the couch and toy chest and toy kitchen and coffee table with storage.

Oh, and the shelves are a bit empty. It's supposed to be for display but I don't know that I have anything I want to display. I don't like guests looking through my stuff.

Maybe you would consider hiring a color consultant. Paint stores will sometimes have one on staff or business cards for one. A good one should be able to make suggestions for paint colors for your whole house so it all works together and with your light and your furnishings.