Just wanted to chime in and thank you for this thread, nutmeg. I've been searching for that "perfect" neutral for my kitchen and, after painting it the wrong color last year, I'm back on it now and this thread really helped. Just picked up samples of: -Tobacco Road (I have admired this one for a very long time, but it may be too green for the space) -Whole Wheat (pretty sure this will be the one, but I like choice ;-) -Macadamia (this one may be too neutral for the space) We'll have to see, I'm going kicking and screaming against going too green... I have a dark green ceramic tile floor that I'm just not crazy about, but it cannot be changed right now so I must embrace it to a certain extent. The floor and the lighting (the big obligatory florescent - ick! - another thing to be changed later) are creating havoc with my walls ;-) and the color there now (Valspar Cottage Linen) is too neutral and not dark enough. I do love it in my studio (next door), however, so the excess paint will be used - it's what I call "tuxedo", plays well with black and white. I'll let you know which one I choose...

Thank you! So much great feedback. Sadly, the paint job is a necessity rather than just aesthetics -- paint on the back side is failing pretty badly & peeling off in layers. (After reading up on the paint forum, I think it was just too many layers of latex on top of old oil paint without adequate prep.) Maybe we will keep it close to current color. I'm not sure what color it is, but I'll have to stop by the BM store and pick up a tab for Briarwood. I think those color visualizers are just a bit off, at least on our monitor -- Down Pour is a very smurf-y blue on my screen. Luckily, SW store is right down the street. Of the SW colors, we liked Mineral Deposit -- gray, but not quite so dark. Johnmari, my wife said exactly that about warm trim looking bad with cool gray field color. I just want to get away from the current ultrawhite, just tone down a bit but not too much. Shutters? I think we will someday, after we've finished the essentials. Of course, being picky, I don't want to just screw aluminum shutters that don't match window size on there, so might be a while given that real shutters & hardware are pricey. The suggestion about doing the sash black is good--that could look really sharp and make the windows pop a bit more until we can dress it up a bit more with shutters. Absolutely agreed on the landscaping solutions. Could be more varied and it would add a lot. THANK YOU for all your suggestions, such a helpful group & nice little corner of the internet.

You guys are the best! She read your suggestions/comments/recommendations and I I am happy to announce that our little miss will be residing in a .........(drum roll please) Stonington Gray room!! DD did say it had a very slight blue undertone with the blind open but she is quite pleased with it. It is going to look even better when the furniture arrives this week and all the bedding and accesories are in. She is two hours away so all I have seen are cell phone pics, but I think it looks great. Kate and Jterrilynn - you are so right - the surrounding environment (light, trees, etc) definitely affect color. I will see if she can post a picture when she gets the room finished. She is much more tech savy that her mother :).

Trust me I feel your pain. After 15 Samples of light gray from multiple brands and all throwing blue or blue/lavender I discovered: - if I paint over light beige I get these off results - if I prime/kilz first and then paint my gray I get entirely different color gray. So prime a wall white to compare your color. Even if you are painting with the paint/primer mixed paint. Also use samples first. I took my gallon of light gray paint, told the paint specialist my problem and she added her own formula which looks like green was added to it and it came out gray (no blue) when painted over white. But looks like mud if painted on beige. Formula is: BL 320 , CL 258, IL 15, RL 112 in 1 gallon. if you look at behr color book, on page 200, the color on the wall (over whie kilz2) is between color numbers 790c-3 dolphin fin and 790d-4 granite boulder. Good luck.