Hello all, thank you! Cawaps, I've got a sample of the Formica Grass, and IRL it looks nice with the tile, but only nice. What I'm hoping is that something will really wow me. I would settle for even being somewhat wowed, haha. I wonder if stainless would work, as Jterrilyn suggested? In and of itself it's too cold a color, but maybe if it's surrounded by yellow it would warm up? Does anyone have pictures of stainless counters in warm-colored kitchens? We have stainless right now and functionally speaking it's excellent, particularly with the nautical edges, but I'm so SO not into grey. The only place I like grey is on cats. Or maybe dogs. That's about it. Of course, our stainless looks as grey as possible because our cabinets are grey and the walls are putty-colored. (The whole abomination is due to Tasteless Previous Owners with No Common Sense... see rants on other threads.) Black or charcoal grey I'm fine with, but not dull cloudy-day medium grey. Lavender, the black counters in Mama Goose's kitchen look great. Our first thought for counters was soapstone, but then we got a quote and I realized that my brain refuses to process any sentence that contains both the word "countertop" and the words "six thousand dollars." They just do not compute. :-) It's not about being able to afford it, it's about refusing to pay that much. The ghosts of my grandparents rise up and remind me that they grew up in the Great Depression, and then they say, "It's a COUNTERTOP. It's just a COUNTERTOP! You could lay BARE PLANKS across the cabinets and it'd work just fine! Do you realize what else you could do with $6000 etc. etc. etc." So that's what we're dealing with here... :-) And Lavender, I'm a total sucker for jadeite and also for carnival glass. Colors! Give me colors! Love 'em!

Our painter used Dunn Edwards and I knew I wanted gray for the trim & a blue similar to Benjamin Moore’s Greyhound for the front door. So a Dunn Edwards color representative found colors close to what I liked and mocked them up. See the picture for exact colors.

It looks quite good. I would recommend removing or at least trimming back the shrubs next to the house. Nothing keeps a house wall wetter than shrubs that are planted too close.

Love the body + trim! (But severe contrast garages doors always remind me of a huge gaping mouth) Sorry! They certainly have impact and draw the eye though. I just don’t understand why one would choose to make something so utilitarian and large in scale, the major dominating feature of the whole home? To me the fashion equivalent would be - a fabulous new black dress for a BIG night out accessorised with diamante knee-pads! Perhaps if I owned a few fabulous cars, I might feel differently! 👍🏎🏎🚗🏎