One of the things we learned about grays (and I'm sure whites) is that it's all about the light in the room you're painting. In our old house we painted the north facing LR BM Silver Lake (a blue undertone). It was so great we thought we'd do it in a south facing bedroom. Horrible! For the new house we must have 6 sample cans of grays, none of which are the grays we used in the old house. Take these suggestions, but be sure to paint up (large) samples in your kitchen. You'll never know until you try the colors in your lighting. If you want to do this now, it's all good. The cabinets, etc. will change, but the lighting will only change from winter sun to spring sun.

Thanks for responding:) I'm posting pics of the sofa, wingback chair and ottoman fabrics, as well as the rug and the tapestry that will hang nearby. Please note that I chose the colors of the pillows due to the disparity in the green colors of the rug and tapestry. I've had the tapestry for a while, but haven't used it, so I thought that it might go with these new colors. It's 5X5 and if I don't use it I've thought of a large 5x5 mirror instead. Before I threw the tapestry into the mix I was going to go for the leaf shades in the rug and the "teal-ish" border for pillows. Please give me your thoughts on that, as well as a paint color, e.g. Manchester Tan? Thanks much!

Yes, to your first question. You can see the lower TV room ceiling here and how it opens to the foyer. That walkway measures 47" width ( including future baseboard.) I thought a post against that wall would balance the newel on the other side and allow for a "separation" between spaces? I don't know what the color should do in this area? My husband wants the darker brown for the TV room. Also, our color "cocoa" drives me crazy- it goes pinky (flesh beige) with an east facing window light-(the picture below was taken this morning) and goes blue(brown) and relaxed in the evening with sconce/lamp light. I love the color in the evening. Most mornings, I think I need to repaint! Thanks for your interest.

Get a sample of BM smokey taupe, it's a wonderful tone to live with and it flatters dark floors and light floors. I have it through out my home, I had steamed milk which was nice but this is better. For my bedroom I had them mix it a tad bit lighter. It's so cozy feeling.