homeagain, love the look of your kitchen, although I'm too safe a person to do something like that for myself. I looked at a color that was Autumn Spice, and I loved it, but didn't work with the color of the wood flooring I chose. The AS was a little too orangey for the warm brown color of the floor, and the stain cabs I chose are definitely a good match with the floor. Looking at my notes we ended up with cabs called Radford Saddle & Radford Autumn, both have a slight arch (etched) on the top of the door. I wish they'd picked the rope or braiding, those are my dream cabs! Mix with a few glass doors (which I still have no clue about) and I'm set with my kitchen lol From what I remember, it wasn't orangy.. now I'll have to see if I took pics of the choice we made when we changed it. Are you as excited about your new house as I am? I'm excited but it hard to get really excited. Once we move, I think things will be easier for me. I hate being unsure if we'll qualify for the mortgage with him out of work but am pretty sure that they won't sell our house out from under us and he will be working very soon.. so it may set us back 2 months. I didn't want the complete kitchen in the cream/glaze cabs cause I thought it would be too much, although the only upper cabs are on the side where the stove/ovens are. The bank of cabs on the outside wall have upper cabs though. I also thought with the floor being a dark wood stain, all stained cabs would make the kitchen too dark and dreary. The kitchen in my condo was never bright, so I guess i'm trying to make up for the lost light I never had. LOL I added glass to the upper stained cabs, so that will also add some brightness. I can't wait to see pics of it! Our kitchen will be in the back of the house, a window over the sink (IIRC) with a French door to the left of the cabs, so hopefully ours won't have a light problem.

Okay, if you're still painting, I think you need some sleep! :-) First of all, it is always advisable to do two coats. You might get what you think is adequate coverage with one, but there will be spots you don't quite cover and YES the color does come into its own with the second coat. Palladian Blue is a far cry from Light Pewter. I think the QM will give you what you are looking for once you have two coats on four walls. Remember, there is a reflectivity factor when paint bounces off itself from wall to wall. The color builds. PB is a very strong blue green. It is lovely, but quite a departure from the gray you started with and I have a hunch that's not what you're after. I'd keep going with the Quiet Moments.

I have been painting for 30 years and use regular primer over regular drywall and using eggshell topcoat and it comes out fine. Yes, you can see the seams a little sometimes, depending on the quality of the drywall finisher and lighting. The drywall guy is talking about a level 5 finish, which can be accomplished by essentially mudding the entire surface of the drywall. It can also be accomplished by using a high build primer.

Did you apply at least two coats of both the 'sample paint' and 'real paint'? I've had colors look completely different before their final coat due to bleed through. Compare both colors to the paint chip. Whichever one matches the paint chip is correct. In general samples are accurate but may act a bit different due to paint line or may have a different sheen then you desire, though you said the sheen was the same. The color itself should match the paint chip. How does your Benjamin Moore do their samples? The paint store I go to has rent-a-quarts, where they give you a partially full of paint with a screwtop attached for $5, you do whatever you need to do to sample and test, and then you bring it back to them in a week. I suppose it's possible some twit could contaminate one before returning it, though I would expect a paint store to check for that before putting back. As for what to do, once you figure out which matches the chip, talk to the paint store about the issue. They may want to see the mismatch for themselves. If the sample was the mismatch, if you can't bring something painted with the sample paint, show them a picture of everything together (sample and real abutting with chip on top); bring the sample paint if you have it. If the 'real paint' is the mismatch, bring something painted with it and dried for comparison with a chip and the paint. I'd probably bring all the paint either way - I hate making two trips, so I'd rather have it with me to make fixing the issue simplest.