Right now you're dealing with two small sample doors in a sea of drywall. When your cabinets are installed you will get a much truer view of the effect your grays will have on your space - and your floor will be there too, which is very important. It's great to get an idea of paint colors you might want to sample when it's time, but it is really early to actually pick your paint.

Regarding the brick... you will have issues keeping it clean if you leave it as is. Oil stains will darken it, and food will be tough to remove. I don't know whether simply sealing it will be enough to make it a more user friendly backsplash, but you could use Glazed Thin Brick for all, or just the rest of the bs that will give it all a similar feel.

Is the white cab sample for the perimeter and the grey the island? I love the grey and the brick together. I would move heaven and earth to keep that brick as is - gorgeous.

I realize it would be best from a color selection standpoint to put the cabinets in first, but the contractor doesn't want to do it that way (which, having painted most of our pretty large house myself, I understand) and its not something I think is worth making a production over. At worst, if it looks bad, it wouldn't be a disaster to repaint it.

The "white" cabinet is actually a very light grey, it was supposed to be a tinted varnish match to SW Repose Grey, but it turned out a little lighter than anticipated but we liked it as much if not more. That color will be used on the L shaped run that includes the brick. The grey stain is for the island, appliance wall, and lockers. The door style will be the same and recessed, rather than raised, panel. The samples were just color.

We do really like the brick and I suppose we will try and keep it with a sealer. It's original to the 110 year old house, so nice to keep a part of it intact. I cleaned it up a little last night which makes the transition at the top less obvious and it will broken up some by the hood duct cover. My research is that people that actually have sealed brick behind a cooktop/range seem to think its fine. Suppose we can always cover it later but once its covered going back would be tough.

Wife (our roles are reversed in this endeavor from what I think the more common scenario is, I've done most of the hardcore planning while she weighs in about the things she has a strong opinion about) decided she wants the light blue (Tradewind) on the perimeter and the interior pantry/closet/appliance walls to be either Sea Salt or Comfort Grey. I had sort of pictured it as majority a greener shade with the blue secondary, but I think either would work.

Our contractor had the opposite opinion/desire - cabinets first so they didn't have to worry about damaging the paint. In fact, they drew on the wall to mark lines, make notes, etc.

The walls were primed first, but the paint color was not put on until the cabinets were all installed.

It sounds like you have your answer. I will throw out there that with our cabs (that are also two different colours) we decided we didn't want colour on the walls and just matched the wall colour to the lightest cabinets (in our case a warm white). We found that when we looked at colours, it just seemed like too much going on. However, I do like a more neutral palette and lots of colour is not my thing.

I'm glad you're going to keep the brick and the colours you've chosen will compliment it nicely.

My contractor painted first but is planning to touch up after most of the work is done. What I don't understand is why they painted the entire 17' wall that is almost completely covered in cabinets from floor to ceiling, but it's done now.

I'm wondering what's the rational for painting the pantry and closet a different color? You have a lot of different materials, and I think it would be more cohesive to keep the paint consistent.

From how the colors look on my monitor, I like sea salt or comfort gray. Tradewinds is coming across very pastel, baby-blue. I see nice pictures on Houzz, but mostly with white trim/cabinets, so I'm wondering if the gray is making it seem too blue? Of course I'm just guessing based on the pic; you can tell much better in person!

My monitor shows the Comfort Gray as slightly green, very pleasant, background color. It doesn't announce itself loudly, but blends everything together in a very homey, cohesive fashion. Of course, that is based on one little swatch and a few samples, but that is how it struck me.

I think comfort Grey works best too for the same reasons. Its definitely in the green territory, but it is blue/green/grey all together. My only concern is that it is a little darker. I always worry when picking anything other than the lightest color on a strip for a big area.

If your worried about the darker color saturation, you could try the formula at 75% or 50%. I find with a 75% formula that most colors lighten just enough that I am still happy, and my color-adverse DH is less horrified.

Thanks, that's a good idea. I'll try comfort grey at 75%. The drywall was finished with tape/mud over the weekend and they are going to paint later this week, floor next week.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/pittsburgh-kitchen-mudroom-closet-addition-reveal-dsvw-vd~4948003