Sorry, should have specified - I would like the same color for both rooms!

I'm a big color person but if this was my space I'd do a shade of white. Especially with the white table & woodwork. With Spring coming, I vision such a cheery kitchen with cut flowers on the table. lol.

I thought about white...they make white on white or cream look so good in the PB catalog! I'm just afraid it will look too blah in my boring house, like everything will just blend together... I don't know. Hmmm.
Here is a pic of the area where my table is. Previously, when my walls were cream, I hated how the white blinds, cream table, and cream walls all looked the same. But maybe I just need some curtains or something.

I'm not very familiar with SW colors, but I'll give you my two cents in general. The colors you mention sound like all varieties of beige, and when I look at your pics I see beige/tan in your counters, carpet, sofa, fireplace tile, coffee table, etc... Is what you want a monochromatic look? Based on your prior paint choices, I'd guess that you actually like color. I personally think an earthy pale green on the neutral side (sorry I don't know any SW colors to recommend!) would work well, but maybe the color of your sofa is different IRL than what I'm seeing on my monitor.

If you want to go truly neutral, I think I'd opt for a very pale sandy beige but I'd add more color elsewhere, in pillows and a throw, some more splashy artwork, etc.

Maybe a design seed can help...picking up on the cabinet color, here are some combos to look at:

sueb20, you're right-everything is very blah and neutral, sigh. I hate the tile around my fireplace, I would love to get rid of my giant couch, and change my counters and appliances, oh and paint my kitchen table black. Unfortunately, these are all things I don't have my husband's monetary approval to do. I def need some splashier artwork and that is on the to-do list. I do like some color on the walls, I guess I am just so tired of the bold colors I have now. I was thinking if I went back to a neutral color than I could add those pops of color in pillows, art, maybe change the curtains.
I like the idea of an earthy pale green. I def don't want it to look minty though.
Annie, thanks for the design seeds inspiration. I like the first, second, and third ones the best. Maybe I'll look at some greens...

Try SW Olive Drab.... lovely name, lol! I don't have my paint deck handy, but I think they still have it. Same strip as Pale Artichoke.

Nancy

Annie, love the Mineral/Autumn and Passionfruit design seeds.

Court1000, I'm a neutrals, monochrome person, esp. on walls. You don't need to be limited to SW or BM colors, as both stores ought to be able to match whatever you bring in, esp. if you have a chip or formula of what you like. I use Kelly Moore paint and they have successfully matched both SW and BM for me.

The beige in AnnieDeighnaugh's first two examples (Passionfruit and Autumn) look very similar and look good with your cabinets and couch. A soft grayed sage green goes really well with golden oak (what I used to have in my kitchen). Not so sure about with your sectional, but it's worth considering. You can accessorize with color to keep things from becoming too boring.

BM Grant Beige. I've painted nearly my whole interior in this color. A greenish beige. Not a "loud" color, but it has more presence than a plain beige. Looks great with white trim, orange toned wood and a large selection of other colors. If you google the name you will find many online photos.

I have SW Wool Skein in our kitchen and just painted our upstairs hallway with it. same color strip as Universal Khaki, I believe, but two shades lighter.
Good luck!!
Sarah

SW Kestrel white is an amazing color.

It is white, but saturated.
It goes with almond, white, off white, creamy beige, and gray.

See what it looks like in your space.
We used it in bathrooms with almond tub and tile, creamy white painted cabinets and creamy beige counters. It helps unify the spaces in an up to date way.

Your set up looks remarkably similar to my last house with the large windows along the back wall to the pony wall between the kitchen and family room. I am not sure what direction your house faces or how much light you get through those windows, but we had SW Ivoire in ours and really liked it. I'm normally one who embraces color, but like more of a neutral in the wide open spaces so can see why you are leaning that way. Ivoire had more life than your basic builders grade beige (where we lived we call it Johnson County Beige because I think it was the only paint sold to home builders in the county back when the houses were built). It looked a happy yellowish-beige in the sunlight, and a beige without being dreary beige in the shadows and at night.

Here are a couple of pictures from different angles so you can get a feel for how it looks in direct vs not direct sunlight.

I was also going to suggest a warm white with colorful accessories and some black.

Or something like SW Rainwashed, Sea Salt, BM Healing Aloe, or RH Silver Sage.

Our walk-out basement, west-facing with a lot of windows, was painted in similar colors: Audubon Russet, and a yellow similar to Blonde. I loved it (and love your Red Cent!) but when I got the itch to repaint, did Palladian Blue. It's beautiful in the light and serves as a real neutral, so I think the Silver Sage and Sea Salt are good suggestions. Natural Linen (BM) looks good with oak, as does White Sand. And I love green!

Thank you all so much for the recommendations and ideas.
chispa, would you say Grant Beige has a slight green undertone to it at all? I do like this color and might pick up a sample.
I've also looked at Wool Skein and that's a contender...

kellienoelle, it's funny that you should mention Ivoire, because that's what I have in my foyer, upstairs hallway and MB...here are a few pics. I was just kind of getting tired of all the yellow/gold colors in my downstairs. Blonde, Ivoire, and Hopsack are the colors I have now.
{{!gwi}}>

{{!gwi}}>

From foyer looking into FR
{{!gwi}}>

Chispa, I see where you say Grant Beige is a greenish beige, so you can disregard my question!
nosoccermom, I love the pics of that kitchen. It looks so clean, fresh, and light. That's more of the look I'm trying to achieve.
You all have been helpful and now I feel like I'm leaning toward a lighter, linen-like color. I'm going to look at Grant Beige, Wool Skein, and maybe a few others... Hoping this will give me flexibility in decorating. I would love to pull some blue and maybe green accents into these rooms! And if the stars align and my husband says I can get granite later this year, then I'll have a nice neutral color to match it with.

Here's Grant Beige:

I really like BM Cream Fleece (unless that's like the cream you had)

Court, the BM Grant beige has worked out great for me. I just walked around my house looking at all the colors I have in furniture/art and the GB looks good with pretty much everything. The first time I painted most of my downstairs I used more of a yellow beige and it just wasn't right. I repainted a few weeks later with the GB.

Start with a painted poster board to move around the house, but before you pull the trigger, make sure you do a big enough swatch on a wall to get a feel for the color. I went through so many quart testers!!

I just painted our bedroom with sw ancient marble, which is a soft greenish beigey color. I tried so many samples, and I'm happy with it.

I was thinking that sw jubilee would look good in your space....before I painted my cabinets white, that was the color I was going to paint my kitchen (I had off white counters then too).

Given the color of your cabinets, your countertops (all of which I once had), I would opt for Sawdust by SW or Dry Sage by Benjamin Moore. You need a neutral green to calm down the color of your cabinets but to unite the countertop and appliance colors.

An earthy green would look great in your space. Dried Basil by Benjamin Moore would be nice as well as Nantucket Gray which actually reads as green. My ds is painting his new home in the Nantucket for kitchen and family room. Cabinets are the same color as yours and the combination is very soothing.

My daughter just moved into a home with many of the same color tones you have in your kitchen, color of cabs, same color appliances and countertops. She painted the kitchen SW Favorite Tan, looks great, pulled everything together and easy color to accessorize.

This post was edited by CarolT924 on Thu, Jan 9, 14 at 22:00

Don't know if this will help you any. My daughter and SIL painted their Kitchen BM Woodstock Tan and their adjoining Family Room is a step lighter because it doesn't have as much light coming into the room. It's funny...because of the lack of light, the lighter color looks almost the same in their FR as it does in the Kitchen.

This photo is before they changed the appliances to SS, but it goes well with the white appliance and the white trim and maple cabinets..

Your color dilemma reminds me a bit of my situation too. At my former house I had all warms and golds and earthtones, some very saturated. Loved it. Now I moved to new place and color scheme is giving me a hard time. My cabinets are warm like yours, but everything else is cool -- furniture, counter, walls. I am trying to work with greens and blue's because I know that makes color sense, but the cabinets and my deep preferences keep making me gravitate back to my earthtones. When I go shopping, I am always drawn to the warm saturated earthtones.

So one thing to consider as you progress is the types of colors that speak to you and will make you happier. Probably best to work within our natural tendencies. I am trying to embrace white and cream as the "balancer", but it is difficult.

Your sofa looks taupe in some shots and creamy in others. I think that makes a huge difference as to the wall colors in that space. Can you handle white or cream in most of the areas and find a section or wall to splash on some serious color? The dining area is a good candidate for that and you can skip curtains if it is colorful enough.

I second on SW Ivoire. It seems to be my go to color when I can't decide and I've never been disappointed. Try a sample and see how it looks. It goes well with white, greens and different wood tones.

I love SW Naturel. It goes great with my maple cabinets, and is a warm neutral with a greenish tint. I really love the way it looks in my kitchen and breakfast area. It looks equally nice morning, noon, and night. I probably tried 14 different paints. Naturel was one of the first paints I tried and no matter what other colors I tried I kept going back to Naturel. I also love Kestrel White, Wool Skein, Avenue Tan, and Grecian Ivory.

I think a soft green would be nice in the kitchen with your cabinets and countertops. Maybe something similar to Behr Caraway, or SW Svelte Sage. (They do not look the same on the websites as the chips IRL. They really look similiar to real dried basil.) Then I would do the living rooom in the ivoire. That way you wouldn't have the couch compete for the color, just get some artwork and rug with the some greens and hints of rusts to give the living room some spark.

I second the BM grant beige. I have it in my house/great room and love it. It has a different look depending on the time of day and lighting. I would not use a yellow toned paint as I don't think it is best choice with taupe sofa.

Thank you all so much for your recommendations. I have sampled about 4 colors now. I have primer up on most of my walls to give me that 'clean slate'. Relaxed khaki was too dark. I tried SW natural choice as a soft white, but I just don't think I can do white/cream. It's just a bit too light for me. Plus, the natural choice was giving off a weird green hue next to my cream appliances. I looked at Kestrel White but I felt it had a bit of a pink undertone. Grant Beige looked a bit too dark on the swatch. Just for kicks, even though I am trying to get away from the golds, I tried Ivoire and just as I suspected, on my western-facing wall, it looks way too psychedelic yellow. While I would like to try a green and feel that it would look good in my kitchen, I just don't have it in me to try to find something that won't clash with my couch. I know it shows up more brownish-taupe in these pics, but IRL it looks more green.
SO I am down to Wool Skein and BM Manchester Tan. Hopefully I'll make a decision between those two in the next day or so!

Grant Beige is "lighter" than Manchester Tan. Don't be fooled by small swatches, once up most of the colors will look much lighter. If you've narrowed down to a few colors, then I would get a quart of each and paint a large section of wall. Well worth the time.

My first thought was a pale blue, or a light sage green (sorry, I don't have color name suggestions, just ideas). Our bedroom is sage green, and it is very soothing.

BTW, my bathroom is the color of your kitchen, and I love it! But I don't spend as much time in the bath as in the kitchen.

Fwiw, I'm not a fan of BM Manchester Tan. The builder used it here throughout and it has undertones that bug me. Sometimes I see green. Sometimes grey. And it's a hair too light to make a pleasing contrast with the white trim (BM China White) IMO. It's not bad enough that I will repaint, but I wouldn't have picked it.

While I was at a BM store they had the little discontinued 2oz samples on sale so I picked up a few colors out of curiousity. Affinity Hush was my pick for a replacement for Manch Tan if I ever decided to repaint. I did a sample board and liked it. A speck darker than Manchester Tan, seemed clean. Although sometimes that changes when you do a whole wall. :-(

If the sofa is the primary item to complement, how about bringing a cushion to the paint store and working with their staff. Sometimes they are really good knowing what will work.