breezygirl, thanks for your input - it really does look yellow green in this room, no matter what time of day. I don't think I'll be using it, too bad I stupidly bought an entire gallon already! I did pick up a bunch of samples of whites from BM and Behr (while I was at HD to pick up the sample tile) to study over the next week or so, and thankfully I have not done all the work of cabinet painting - I'm just out $45 for the gallon of White Dove, better to cut my losses now and repaint the ceiling when I do the cabinets rather than go to all that work and not be happy. The subway tile is a soft white but not as yellow-green as the White Dove, and looks GREAT with the James River Gray and the appliances etc. I'll be taking pics throughout the project to document, I'll either be really happy at the end or I'll have filled my kitchen with a lumpy mass of concrete! To me, this is great fun although there is often a point about halfway through when I just wonder why I'm doing it, don't think it will ever come out right... but when it ends up well in the end the feeling of accomplishment is worth it. It's actually the second time I have made a major mistake purchasing white paint. At least this time it was only 1 gallon. When I was painting and doing flooring in the whole house (had less than 14 days to finish everything and move in as we only had a short term apartment after selling our condo) I bought *4 gallons* of Super White for the ceilings for some silly reason - having chosen Mascarpone for the walls (I thought I had to do "plain" white on the ceilings. Partway through the first gallon I realized it looked terrible. I just hated the idea of wasting that much money on the paint, but could not stand the idea of finishing the job that I would hate. So I bought more Mascarpone and did ceilings the same color (which looks great) and tried to sell the Super White unopened cans on Craigslists to no avail. Ace wouldn't let me return them even for a store credit or restock fee :( I ended up donating it. I thought I learned my lesson but I was so sure that White Dove looked lovely in everyone else's photos and was such a universal favorite (and who could not like the name) that I would love it too. Lesson learned - test the color in your own space even if it's "just" white! On the other hand, they do not have test sizes for the whites in my paint store and a quart is $17 vs $45 for the gallon - so it's better just to buy the gallon.

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..)

I have White Dove Cabinets, they come off rather creamy to me too, although I didn't want stark white. I had Gray Owl BM walls and was having walls repainted a couple of days ago, painter made a mistake and paint SW Agreeable Gray instead! They of course offered to repaint but family Said they like the AG better, so I had them paint the same up the stairway and large loft room instead. Im no color expert so Im hoping the AG looks as good with my cabinets and quartzite countertops!! I have a subway tile that I found from someone on here that goes really well with WD cabinets. Subway is classic and timeless IMO. I have 5 recessed lights in my kitchen and also tried several bulbs, LED looked to bright and sterile to me, but I my give them another try! Sorry I can't help with suggestions, but will be following your post to hear what others recommend.

Okay! One thing I've heard is that because the enamel used for the cabinets differs slightly from the paint in the paint store, it may not be an exact match to a paint sample or paint chip from Benjamin Moore. Do you have a sample of the painted cabinet to use when choosing your countertop? In general, I don't think there will be anything wrong with Dove White and those countertops though!