Pretend your 90 year old grandmother who doesn't see so well is coming to visit. That's the amount of lights to leave on in the home for a showing. Add small lamps in unexpected places like a small one where your fruit bowl is in your kitchen and an uplight behind your chair next to the patio door. Turn them all on just before you leave the house for the showing. And I'd also eliminate the two small appliances in your kitchen corner, even if they needed to come back out for usage on a daily basis, you don't want them on the counter during showings. You also want to eliminate 90% of the stuff on top of the white cabinet in the den and (needless to say) the toys. A big basket that you can stuff everything in and stash in the car is a great timesaver on last minute tidying. You don't have to find a "home" for the remaining clutter. It goes with you in the car.

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.

Built ins tend to take over a room. You can't take them with you when you move. They tend to make a room lean more traditional than modern--which your wainscoting already does--and will surely be more expensive than a media cabinet. My main objection to built ins is the Hobby Lobby junk they end up being filled with. Now, if you have lots of books and a collection of fine Ming vases or McCoy pottery or pre-Columbian artifacts, go for it. I stole this built in from your ideabook. It actually looks pretty good in your space and gives you lots of storage.

match the sink shade of white..a nice clean white but not stark....just keep the walls fresh like that. enough other things going on and it all looks good..white or light walls will make that backsplash against the wood cabs pop. note below white w the teal/wood really amplifies the effect. If you want more color for the space look at 3rd pic and do it w window treatment/floor runner etc..