Heidi - if you are still trying to resolve, I recommend posting your question on the discussions side of this board. There is much more traffic there, and you will likely receive more input. Good luck!

I love BM Simply White. I'm using it now on my exterior trim and will use it on all my interior trim as well. It's a nice, bright warm white. Regarding the sheen, BM paints (IMHO) seem to be shinier than other paints I've used. The "low luster" exterior that I'm using now actually has quite a bit of luster! I used the exterior "soft gloss/satin" on my front door and it actually looks more like a semi-gloss to me ... it's quite shiny. Personally, I would not want semi-gloss on my cabinets and would want something less shiny and reflective. While I might go with the painter's suggestion regarding the brand of paint to use (maybe he has better results with one over the other), I would want to choose the finish myself after looking at the different sheen levels on actual wood. samples. They had those at my BM dealer and they actually painted a couple of wood samples for me to bring home.

White next to cream is a classic look and will be fine. However, if you don't like it, just take a cabinet door and have them color match it for your trim.

We are thinking about having the beams and post painted to look like wood. it will all be wrapped in hardy which we chose for the easy maintenace. My husband has been researching techniques how to get the wood look. We’ll go ahead n paint all the trim white similar to what we already have with white gutters and keep the white trim on the windows. He’s also researching stsining the brick instead of painting. Do you think a gray color would look good? SW light french gray or go darker? Thank you!