I have been searching and researching for the perfect white for hours on end. And yes it can really drive someone mad. It is just white right? Nope. Anyways to try to help you first I went to the Benjamin Moore paint store yesterday to discuss whites. We chatted for some time and the employee gave me a pamphlet of soft whites. You might want to check that out and put the samples up in the wall for a week. Do you want to paint the entire room the cream/white color and accent with the pink? I was looking through a pottery barn magazine the other day and they featured marscapone on the walls of a room which has a slightly yellow creamy color to it. I am also in a bit of a white crisis. I have already painted all trim and doors in my home BM white 01 in semi-gloss finish. I like the crisp and clean look. However I have a lot of molding in my living room. Raised paneling on 3/4 of the room at chair rail height, and an full wall of raised paneling surrounding the fireplace with a built in bookcase on the left side of the wall. I already painted the chair rail paneling the white 01 since it was recommended to keep the trim and molding the same. I painted one coat of the white on the larger wall and it looks very bright. Am I just not used to this yet since I went from dark wood to bright white? OR did I choose the wrong white all together? I will post a picture if anyone would like to help me figure this out.

I'm back again. I am having so many struggles with picking the right gray (as evidenced by by the million sample cans of gray paint in my house and painted on poster boards) I still don't feel qualified to offer any advice on your space. I didn't read through a lot of the responses. I just stumbled acrosss this article, perhaps it will help you. This woman is an expert. Speaking of my gray drama, I was lucky enough to be at the taping of the new Nate Berkus show yesterday. There was a moment that he allowed for a Q&A, and I am kicking myself for not asking about "The Perfect Gray" and "paint color on the ceiling". The question that was asked was the most ridiculous question ever--so long winded that it didn't allow for any more questions. ugh. Here is a little blurb about ceiling paints: Here is a link that might be useful: Colour Me Happy

All good suggestions. Thank you everyone. So we have had many discussions and have made some progress and now we are leaning towards the following. We are going to "cap" the ceiling at the triangle, just above the second beams. So we eliminate the high triangle, thus regulating the room temp better and allowing for lighting install. We will drop the fan lower, keep it centered, and add recessed lights on either side of the fan (front and back) on the flat/new ceiling. Add sconces above the mantle (wiring behind the new drywall). Rather than paint the brick and while we have scaffolding here anyway, we think we will box in the brick from new flat ceiling to the mantle (not with shiplap) and run trim down either side. We will then frame out a new mantle down each side and across the brick. We will keep the brick as is around the fireplace and on the hearth (I don't like the idea of floor to ceiling painted white brick and felt that since we use the fireplace we are better keeping natural brick so it won't show soot and dirt), but put a new piece of stone in for the hearth. Smooth the outdated plaster walls (since plasterer has to come for the new ceiling). Paint the ceiling, the trim and fireplace walls/mantle white, and the walls a soft gray (Edgecomb BM). Cap the track lighting unless we decide down the road we need it. I'd also love to consider refacing the brick with stone veneer but maybe not this time around. So yes, our budget is blown but it seems to be a situation of go all in or don't half spend. Trying to resemble something like this but not with shiplap and with our brick not whitewashed: Thoughts/feedback? Good news is that my contractor knows us and works slowly so I can modify as we go if something doesn't look right. I toyed with keeping beams but they really aren't nice beams. We've also done away with the wood beam mantle but I think if we keep the look more robust and less delicate that we might be okay -- more thick/shaker than formal crown. Also adding trim to the supporting beams that connect wall to ceiling to make them look more "finished" - they look like planks or 2x4s now and I never realized they were actually beams until we just put the window in and broke into the wall. They are just above the windows and you probably can't tell from the previous photos. Any thoughts - would love to hear them. You've really turned me around on the shiplap - thank you!

Suezbell, In the first half of the day there’s actually a good amount of light, we just block much of it out. It’s not a basement room, it’s directly off our kitchen (2 steps down). We are set on painting the entire main level greige so that’s not changing. The accent wall will be a *dark* blue, teal, or green (dark as the in LRV of 20) so I if we do the ceiling dark we’d probably just extend that to the ceiling. The flooring will be a LV rigid plank from Flooret (stock photo attached for color).