Thank you again for all the input on this thread. Obviously I'm not the only person who has suffered white-related angst. I found Bavarian Cream to be too yellow. Part of the problem, I think, is that because there is so much white trim in this house (and it's all connected) I'm set on finding a color that is the same for the cabinets and trim throughout the house. But I have a very well-lit kitchen (south and east exposure) and much of the rest of the house is west and north exposure so the colors obviously look so much in each room. In that picture Bavarian Cream looks wonderful! I mixed up a 50-50 mix last night (fortunately both Cloud White and Mascarpone come in the 2-oz sample size) and have sampled it around the house today. I think I really like it but I'm a bit nervous about a custom blend especially when I'll be buying paint across multiple paint lines (BM and FPE). Complicating the issue is the fact that I've just realized that the windows and mullions (which are vinyl and plastic and obviously cannot be painted) are finished in what I think is white dove. I'm so bored with myself for be obsessed about this!

Well... if you get white, make sure it's actually wood and not MDF so you can repair it pretty easily. :) I had five babies in 4.5 years (Irish twins at the beginning and identical twins at the end, LOL!) and I agree with those who have stressed child training. In very glad I worked extremely hard to teach my kids to be gentle with our belongings. (My kids are 20, 19, 17, 15, and 15 now) They were never perfect, and we did have to repair a couple of walls, and I chose my battles when they were little (I wouldn't allow hubby to have a recliner until they were all school aged at least, I was just sure they'd break it and he'd be upset, LOL!) and I didn't allow them to run their trucks into the baseboards (my last three are rough and tumble boys) but I did allow them to chuck foam balls around the family room, so it wasn't like we lived in a museum even though we always had nice stuff. One thing I'm glad I did with my toddlers is that I had them always "helping" me clean. If I was cleaning in the kitchen then my kids got slightly damp rags that I handed them and they were instructed to "wipe down" the cabinets/appliances/baseboards.... whatever, I'd assign them to wipe a specific area each time and I'd praise them like crazy for helping so well! My kids honestly loved it when they were toddlers/preschoolers. As they got a little older they got to help with more complicated tasks. It worked well by keeping them in my line of sight, giving them something productive to do, keeping them from tearing up the house out of my sight (thus making more work for me) and we got to have wonderful conversations together while everyone was pitching in to help... plus they were actually getting trained to help out and they learned to appreciate taking care of belongings. I'm so thankful for older, wiser moms who taught me to involve my little kids like this. Ps, I had a lot of white woodwork and a lot of stained woodwork during this phase of my kiddos' lives... I think the white woodwork held up better because it got cleaned more often.

If you are redoing the floor, I think the time to take out the half-wall is now. If you do it later, you will have to patch the floor. Does it separate the entryway from the living area? I like having some separation, but if it were me I might replace the brick planter with a framed half wall. No more brick and no reminder that people in the 70s thought that permanent built-in planters were a good idea. I'd want some contrast between the wall and the brick, but I don't have enough personal experience with whitewashing to know whether you can get that using the wall color on the brick.

I tried that. It didn't work. Won't upload. And I tried on multiple browsers and tried uploading different file types. Seems like it shouldn't be this hard to upload a photo on community forum. Might just try another forum! Sorry, but thanks for your willingness to help!