I'm having a somewhat similar challenge, except that I like the lightness of RL Dovecoat but want it to look a little warmer so I've bought little sample pots of it and Behr's Pebble Stone and I'm mixing it in different proportions and painting squares on the wall, at the same time putting samples on white paper that I can take to the store when I've hit on the right combination. It doesn's cost much and will take the guesswork out of the process since I'll have actual wall samples to look at. You might say I'm creating my own custom color and I like that idea since no one else will have anything quite like it. (Not that I would mind sharing my formula with forum members once I've painted the walls and post pictures, should anyone be interested).

I just got a gallon of paint from SW which was color matched to a BM color. The paint manager said they had most of the BM formulas and were an excellent match. Hope that helps your concern...the 40% off sale ends today.

The whites are funny, in that they are always whiter than you think from the chip. If you want a brighter white look, go with the White Dove. Some beautiful bright white kitchens to check out are rmkitchen, redroze (BM Chantilly Lace as paint). If you are looking for a softer look, take a look at these kitchens: SW Creamy (sprice5105 just posted today) or BM Linen White (dlspellman just posted), SW Almond white (Jen4268 kitchen), BM Lancaster Whitewash (mamadadapaige has her cabinets this color). Good luck.

Well that's exactly the reason on why it's so hard to give general advice on colors Revere Pewter for example is a lovely color that is highly praised, yet in my place looked like wet cement or something. I bet so much depends on a particular house in a particular geographical location too. That's why I dislike when people from, say, Vancouver say what's "timeless" to everybody whether they're living in Vancouver too, or maybe Arizona, or Florida That's why also every trend here gets bashed so, IMHO..because people pick it up and go with it(homeowners or builders) regardless whether it works in the first place..then it's everywhere whether it makes sense there or not much..then of course there's over-saturation of sorts, and folks start hating it. When nobody frankly put the gun to their head in the first place making them go with X or install Y. well I guess when it's put everywhere then it's not like you have big big choice either and at some point builders start putting whatever the trend everywhere, sometimes tastefully, sometimes ..lets say not so much That was off topic of course, for which I apologize:) As for the paints..might be a matter of many things. Say all mine are Dunn Edwards..and I had no idea such company exists at all, they don't have stores on the East Coast. Then when we remodeled the GC highly preferred for us to go with Dunn Edwards since he had an account with them, and they're very popular here. I could insist on other paint but would cost more..Dunn Edwards is considered pretty good..so ok, had to study Dunn Edwards. When I frankly would go with Benjamin Moore just because I know their colors a tad better. with Dunn Edwards had no idea where to start even the amount of samples I had to go through..can't decide whether it's funny or awfully funny lol (my white to go for trim is Swiss Coffee..luckily Behr has it, Dunn Edwards has it, I think Benjamin Moore has it..and they're pretty much Swiss Coffee all of them, so at least that..)