If you like the look of the natural wood, go for it. I don't think it will look silly with the medium brown maple cabinets, the differences in stain/no stain will look great together.

I'll give you my Golden Oak spiel. :) When you look at oak the thing that stands out no matter which kind of oak it is, brown, orange or golden, there is the grain. Heavy, dramatic grain. Often the color focus is on the color of the oak, brown, orange or golden. One option is to shift focus to the grain. If you can get a wall color to harmonize with the lesser real estate of the oak which is the grain, it's likely going to harmonize with the main stain color. It's a different approach that opens up new color thoughts and considerations about oak trim and cabinets. Often folks who have oak, feel like they are stuck with a narrow band of wall color choices because they exclusively look at the bigger part of the oak which is the stain color and not so much the smaller portion, the darker grained areas. There's a color from Ellen Kennon called Powdered Pebbles. It is a taupe color. Now, a standard color belief is that you can not put a taupe with an oak. Powdered Pebbles was born out of flipping the focus to the lesser real estate of oak which is the grain. Powdered P. *came from* the colors in oak graining. As always, nothing in color world is one size fits all, but Powdered Pebbles' provenance (as they say) is directly related to an oak experience and it is an option to consider for similar oak situations. It might be worth grabbing a large chip from Ellen to see what you think. A *traditional* color option for oak to snag from Ben Moore might be Powell Buff HC-35. Here is a link that might be useful: Powdered Pebbles

I bought 5 samples today, one of them was a white for trim so just 4 for the walls. After considering what I already have, I decided to pick ones that had different undertones. As an example, I didn't get Horizon, b/c it's so close to Paper White, and i have that color in two rooms in my current house. It's pretty, but it definitely reads blue. I think this is partly due to my trim being Snowfall White, which is very close to Simply White. I think with a truer white it might appear a little more gray, although still cool. I ended up with Intense White, which is actually what I had wanted to use in one room instead of the Paper White. Also got Shoreline 1471, which reads a little more gray than Horizon, although I feel like the purple will come out I wanted to make sure. Also got Classic Gray ElleN, I'm going to give it one more shot. And Swiss Coffee, b/c my sample is so old for that one. I feel like with what I have and the new, I should definitely be able to come up with something. I buy these small flat canvases at Walmart in a 3 pack and they work amazing for paint samples. I have found that even foam board can curl pretty easily, and I'm not a fan of painting directly on the wall anymore, have screwed that up too many times. ElleN I agree Halo is very green, so I don't think it will do me any favors. And Gray Mist is not a very fun color, but I can't believe it looked so yellow on your walls. I think you're right, they might have mixed something wrong. Here's a couple of pics of our old kitchen with it. It was a great neutral with the floors, cabinets and countertops.

Sounds like you answered your own questions and know exactly what you want! Pretty house and congrats