@Jessica You know what is so great about you is your responsiveness in this thread and willness to consider a variety of options! I've only been a part of the Houzz forum for about a year researching my own leak-induced 4-room remodel and probably won't remain long once it is done, but in this short time I've seen so many threads where someone presented a design dilemma and then didn't respond or went and posted a whole bunch of new threads asking the same questions they'd already asked somewhere else and already gotten responses to which they hadn't regarded. You've been the rare person to offer such nice interaction, and I know that everyone including myself appreciates that.
The following list will be an attempt at summarizing your story thus far with a few new suggestions. Though I'm not a color expert, I do have an accredited bachelor's degree in design, housing, and merchandising with a moderate familiarity of color theory, so please take my advice as merely rough guidelines and go with your gut feeling when making your final selections.
OK, I'm reading between the lines and hearing perhaps the following thought sequence from you; my suggestions will be in italics following each point:
This remodel included wall removal, and you're new to the fact that the living, dining, and kitchen areas are so visible to each other now and are eager to have a color scheme that flows throughout the three rooms. The living room is semi-separated by an archway, so you can get away with different wall colors as long as they coordinate. We'll try to guide you toward a few possibilities, but putting antique white with cream tones up against that much expanse of pure white cabinetry isn't recommended.
You love the Casa Blanca antique white in the living room, and the pure white trim throughout the house isn't a matching problem for you. White and off white can work fine together in some instances depending on the undertones. White with cream is trickier, but you should leave these two colors in your house as they are for now for sanity's sake. Color expert Maria Killam has written about combining white/off white/cream in several posts on her blog. Check out this article to learn more.
You originally picked yellow walls for the kitchen, a warm tone that coordinated with the antique white in the living room. So, your heart instinct was to go with a warm, sunny color. At present, you're considering going back to antique white because you want to get back some of that warmth.
The kitchen countertop which you describe as blue/gray clashed with the yellow walls, so you then decided to change the walls. It's hard from your photos to see much blue as it looks mostly gray. Is this quartz? If so, do you have a brand and color name for it that we can look up? Countertop is permanent, so our suggestions will need to avoid alienating this part of the kitchen.
So, a Sherwin Williams color consultant came to your house and suggested Rain blue walls, which you say you like. You based a backsplash choice on trying to tie together the countertop with the blue paint, but you disliked the final effect, and I'm not sure the entire problem was the color contrast and shine of the tile. It may be because your original vision for the kitchen was yellow, a different tonal direction.
Even with the backsplash removed, you're still concerned that the blue walls are clashing with the antique white walls in the living room. You want more warmth to the kitchen color scheme and wonder if you can achieve this by adding more antique white color to the kitchen/dining space along with a pure white soffit. If this is the case, please don't get pure white backsplash tile or paint any of the walls or soffit pure white! You need a color, some sort of color to warm things up in the area if that's your goal. Many knowledgeable people have already commented in this thread and recommended white backsplash tile, but remember that cool-toned kitchens are more common in current design trends than warm ones so white tile is a common direction to take, and they are also assuming you planned to keep the blue walls. If you want warmth, absolutely stay away from putting more white in your kitchen at this point, including tile and any extra white wall paint. The antique white isn't going to work in that area, either, see next point.
You're optimistic that antique white will help tie together all the rooms, but because of your Dove white cabinetry (which I've been referring to as "pure white" to simplify terms though it doubtless leans toward some undertone other than strictly white, which is hard for us to determine on a computer screen), you aren't so sure about putting the antique white up next to the cabinets. Yes, please don't paint the dining room or soffit either antique white or pure white. This will lead to a mishmash of whites that clash with each other.
All the changes and now the backsplash demolition have left you exhausted this holiday season. Keep up the good work! Most of this remodel is behind you, and you're going to love it when it is done. Please post some more information about your countertop if you can, and let the Houzz community suggest some subtle colors you might be able to incorporate that would tie everything together. If you're set on removing blue walls, hold off on the white tile for now. I can see your liking a pale tint of some color in the kitchen area. The antique white can extend to the underside of the living room archway.
Q
I love how this is sleek and not slouch looking:)
Q