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 started to second guess my posting and whether that bluish color is actually Silver Sage -- I am so sorry, I know how confusing this can be and I don't mean to add to the confusion! It could actually be Benjamin Moore Cashmire Grey. Whatever the color is, on this dark, dreary, rainy morning - it now looks more green. This is why it is always a good idea to get samples and put up on your own walls so you can see at different times of the day. All my samples and 1000+ paint swatches went in the trash after reno - part of the "cleaning" out process. I can't help you with those other colors and don't want to guess!!! Trust yourself, you have beautiful colors in the other rooms!!!

Posted this several months ago. finally getting around to actually painting the walls. I love beeswax color suggestion but my sofa is a darker shade. Either way I'm going to grab a paint chip sample of beeswax. My living room is basically a large box with with a large french door. My floors are dark polished concrete and I have a huge jute rug. the french door trim is painted white and furniture is medium wood tones. I know it sounds completely boring to the pros here but Im looking for a pottery barn type style. Something I can live with for a long time. I'm really thinking about just buying off white slipcovers but I thought I would try to get some more recommendations before I spend money I don't really have. btw, my sofa and loveseat are basic with square arms and my ceiling is low :( 8ft so not sure a dark color would work. Here is a picture of a living room I'd love to have. Thanks ahead of time and sorry for the long post.

Comedy of errors (only after we had a few drinks was it comedic) 1. We greatly underestimated the effort to paint textured walls, especially on the ceiling. That and we're 15 years older than many of the projects we've done the past. 2. Turns out we got the wrong color paint. I'm not sure why I had a different color paint stuck in my head and even though I checked color swatches I still got it wrong. And now that we're going to pay someone to do it I definitely want to make sure the color is right. Only after I came back to this post did I realize I gave the store the wrong color. We're going to suck it up and pay someone to do it which is good because that also includes trim and doors. Although now I have to take a week off of work. Good news: we can donate the paint to Habitat for Humanity ReStore.