Good neutral colors?

[Tanya]

I could have sworn there was a thread on this, but I can't find it. We want to paint up our staircase and the landing/half bath upstairs. This is a converted attic that was done by the previous owners and they put in this "lovely" black (really, it looks like a very dark blue) carpet since it leads into a theatre room. We don't have art on the walls leading up the stairs like in the pic, but maybe we need to do something. There's not even a handrail--should we put one in?

We are getting ready to sell and are just trying to make it look nicer. They awful yellow cream looks bad now (plus, it's low quality paint), and I just want a slightly darker, warmer neutral to paint. The other caveat is that we will be doing the ceiling as well since there's some sloping walls that will look funny if we leave it the original color. Any suggestions that will go with the carpet? DH is rushing this and wants to get it done this weekend.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5da30b3127cce914f426862aa00000025138AatGzdo5YtW
Thanks!

[ignutzz]

What's underneath the carpet? Any chance you could rip it up and/or put down a runner ?

As for color, if the cream isn't working, maybe a very pale blue to try and pick up and accentuate the blue in the carpet? Going truely neutral a very pale ecru might work.

[Tanya]

Oops, I meant to post this in the Inside Your Home, don't know how that happened. Anyway, this carpet is brand new (since we never go up there, there's no wear) and runs throughout the entire upstairs, about 700 sq ft. So unfortunately ripping it out would be silly for us from a selling perspective. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, a pale ecru. I don't want to pick up on the blue, as the carpet is supposed to be black:). Any color name suggestions?

[ignutzz]

Hmmm, nope, I'm a bit addicted to bright colors so I've never looked at the whiter shades. I would check out the Behr, Glidden, RL, and BM websites. They all have great color preview systems.