I don't really want a pure gray but rather a greige. I have Stonington Gray and Gray Owl from another room, and it's too gray for my taste. Edgecombe Gray reads a bit greenish, something I really want to avoid. To complicate matters, this morning, both Agreeable Gray and Balboa Mist look good.Does anybody know which one of the two leans more towards the red/orange/purple side? (As far as the rug, I only meant "ditching" it from one room to the next, sorry)

color on the walls never went away.. I feel it's about tastes and preferences of course, but geographic location first and foremost. every place on Earth has its own settings..its own light. so yes, the colors are chosen to work with the light that's there as you say adhiker..bright or soft..lighting up and shutting down as with the switch, or lingering.. I also think: every color is a color. White is. Gray is. So what if they're neutral. To me many browns and greens and blues are also neutrals of sorts.. Whatever your eye is used to see a lot is a neutral. People would think neutrals are less restrictive..true..but with so many shades and tints-you'll still choose one main direction for the rest of your things(warmer or cooler, brighter or muted), and add a bit of other colors. But you still will choose main direction. I love taupe, ivory, cream, off white..I have both taupe and greenish off white besides greige as I've said.. I also have shades of green and purple And they all work perfectly well together because they're a tad muted..they're soft, muted, and change with light but in a way that I like the changes And you can actually get away with many much brighter, saturated colors too..so many beautiful examples, whether it's New Orleans or India..:) or England or Russia you can have enfilades of rooms, or just rooms all painted or wallpapered differently yet it all perfectly works that's when you have this very-very open floor plan only, and certain style of a house, when you have to choose a color otherwise hard to pull off.. Also so much depends on the materials a house is built of..architectural style..etc that's why I actively dislike all this "timeless" blah blah. Timeless is beauty. Beauty is different. Forest is beautiful, and sea is, and jungles are, and mountains are, and deserts are. And the most timeless you can do is to go with what's there already, and create a dialogue between the place and you. I don't know why people think something is in vogue. True, something is, but there are literally hundreds of"vogues" going simultaneously It's like if all the people would dress the same but why on Earth should they, when everybody's different? I feel bad writing so much..:)

It might not work. Wall colour is so dependant on the light - natural and artificial. We can wish it all we want, sometimes we have to change direction. My greige suggestion is BM's Silver Satin. If a greige looks too dull in your space and you still want a light neutral, consider brightening the colour and going with a warm white/off-white. Less grey undertone, more white or yellow.

IMO worrying about the kids and the wall color would be secondary to kids and carpet. There is no way for us to give you advice on wall color. It is best to get 3 sample cans of colors you like paint large foam boards on with each color and see how they look at different times of the day in your space. I would advise you to make sure all the bulbs in the space are the same and I like 4000K Leds for a good natural sunlight look at night.