NICE! How did you do it? It depends on what look you want, and what the furniture will be. Stripes of matte and gloss gold would be an opulent, Gilded Age over the top look ... and it will need equally opulent rugs, drapes and furniture to balance it out. You could go Victorian or modern but they have to be strong. Stripes of matte and gloss of other colors would be a bit less posh, but would still requite poshness in the rest of the room. Plain walls and white wainscoting would get you into ordinary territory, where the ceiling is just a tin ceiling and you have a few metallics to link it to the rest of the decor.

BM Chantilly Lace is a very neutral white. It tends to be too bright white in most homes, but it is the perfect color to compare other whites to when trying to determine the undertone. (Got this tip from Maria Killam) Color meters like the color Muse are not accurate enough to really measure very light colors and, in my experience, are not the best way to determine undertones in White. If you look at Alabaster next to Chantilly Lace you will see the pink I am talking about. Like so many other neutrals, white looks white until we paint a large area. On Trim you may never see the pink undertones. On a 100 SF ceiling it will be more obvious. If you want white and want to be safe, Cloud White is the most popular white sold by Benjamin Moore for a reason. It works with just about anything. You can sometimes do better with a bluer white if you have a light blue gray pallet or a creamier white if you have rich warm golds and oranges. But for a neutral color pallet, Cloud White is usually the answer.

As for diluting color . . . You cannot simply cut the colorants without understanding the base color and what the colorant is. Example. I have a can of paint here that has 4.25 / 32 Y3 Oxide Yellow 5 / 32 S1 Black 12.125 / W1 White 2.5 / 32 R3 Oxide Red in Base 2 If I cut the formula in 1/2 the white also gets cut in half and I will end up with a color that is darker, not lighter than the original formula. The computer systems are literally doing the math, but not all colorants are equal in strength - red it more transparent than most other colors, yellow is weaker than many other colors, so getting the mix right can be difficult. If you really want a lighter color that is between two shades it can be done, but I generally will buy a sample of the lighter shade and the darker shade and find out if they are both mixed with the same base. If they are in the same base you can play with the colors and mix the lighter and darker colors in different ratios until you find the perfect shade. I use syringes to measure the amounts so I am sure that the ratio is measured accurately. Then I do my own math to determine the amount of each colorant used in the samples and provide the paint store with the base color and the formula that has resulted in the color I want. If they are in two different bases you can do the same thing, but you will need to buy the appropriate amount of each paint and mix them together in a 5 gallon pail with an paint mixer drill attachment or ask the paint store to mix using their mixer. The same applies if you are trying to get a color that is just a tinge more green or yellow or blue than another. Tools like easyrgb have made a lot of this unnecessary - I can find a similar color in another brand and have it matched by my BM or SW paint store.

I want to lighten up the facia and siding -- possibly the gable area another shade of the same color. Was thinking about replacing the shutters with custom made, stained cedar shutters & IF i left that rail in front of the door, possibly staining the cedar to match the shutters. Also considered the removal of the railing. It really is there only for looks. The tree near the window is not really as close as it appears in the picture. I have tree people coming out next week to lift the canopy up where practical. Paint is a lot cheaper than replacing with cedar on the garage or siding. They make these kits for garage doors that turn out very nice -- kind of a faux finish - wood-like look. I could make it look cedar too. I do want to pull a color from the stone - but trying to get just a teeny bit cheerful and brighter -- I'm not so creative with colors. Thank you both for responding! Oh -- Probably will remove the bushes and replace. The front yard only gets filtered sun - limitations on bright color and also have to deal with deer munching on plants/shrubs.