Whaa? Something else we might want to do is start new threads more often. It might be a little bothersome to have multiple ones to open but scrolling, scrolling, scrolling ... is also bothersome. Perhaps a thread title more specific to the drift the conversation has taken will be more relevant. You know, however, if many people are attracted to RMG, we are faced with answering the same questions, again and again. I read a quote by an ancient Zen master the other day. It was simply, something similar to, "I don't understand Zen." Ha! I don't understand gardening ... no truer words could be spoken. Steve

You're a forum admin, aren't you? No, sadly, but if they approached me with a job offer, I'd have a hard time turning it down. This forum is too much fun. I gotta say, Summer, you aren't the first one to ask me if I'm an admin on a forum. Maybe it's better that I'm not, if people are likely to suspect me of it!

I think it is nearly impossible to choose paint colors based on other people's homes, let alone photos of other people's homes, not to mention on-screen representations of photos of other people's homes. And *especially* if you are looking for an off-white/beige. I think there is simply no substitute for trying it on your wall. The color you thought you liked is a start; does it have a name? Can you find adjacent colors on the strip to try, and then adjacent colors to that? Get those 8x10 stickie notes you can paint. Put them on different walls at different times of day. I fell in love with a lovely celery green color on the trim in a conservatory I saw in a Canadian decor magazine. I tracked down the designed and got the color! It was a color called "Pointing" by FnB. Off white. Just a dramatic example of how lighting and contents and reproduction all impact what we see.

What a charming house! You've done great. I had somehow missed this thread up to this point, and I did not read all (or even a significant fraction) of the previous responses. I have a 1910 house and also don't like subway tile. But I wanted something that fit the era of the house. I ended up going with a simple (and extremely cheap) 4x4 white field tile capped with a contoured molding tile (that almost but doesn't quite match the field tile because I couldn't find a molding I like from the a manufacturer that did a 4x4 field tile that was 4x4 rather than 4.25 x 4.25. Adds to the charm). I have very few uppers, though. I think a 4x4 white (or gray, since you seem to think white is too stark) field tile with black or charcoal pencil liner would be cool. These all show a pencil liner with subway because that's what the popular kids are doing, but it would work as well with a 4x4 or other basic field tile.