Help me choose a paint color, please!

[ShelbyMay]

Are any of you good at choosing complementary paint colors? I have been struggling for a while now to choose a paint color for our living room. It's a fairly open floorplan, and the adjoining kitchen is painted Sherwin Williams Bamboo Shoot. It looks a lot like this: http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_6165.jpg

I like a palette of mostly cool colors and neutrals (blue, green, cream, tan), so I think maybe a light blue/gray for the living room...? I don't know how to choose one with the right undertones. Undertones confuse me!

I'd love suggestions, and photos would be extra great!

[ShelbyMay]

The current living room wall color looks like this (and our furniture is very similar to this sofa, too):

http://4.bp./-7bNkgE_yVG...0/DSC_0184.JPG

[ShelbyMay]

The current living room wall color looks like this (and our furniture is very similar to this sofa, too):

http://4.bp./-7bNkgE_yVGU/T6g25m9one...0/DSC_0184.JPG

ETA: I don't know why that link is not working. Here is is for copying and pasting (minus the space):

http:// 4.bp./-7bNkgE_yVGU/T6g25m9oneI/AAAAAAAAH2k/m9Gy9e9KQSQ/s1600/DSC_0184.JPG

[MrsBeckyLP]

My mom and dad bought a 1976 house on a lake last fall, and it has never been updated, though everything is in great condition. We're talking green and gold shag carpet (with red, white and blue in one room -- 1976 was the bicentennial, after all), yellow tub and toilet, wood paneling, etc. They have been updating it over winter to make it more livable, and they are now to the point of painting the paneling in the hallway and living area. (They plan on putting up drywall in a few years when they do a major renovation to make it their forever home.) My mom SUCKS at picking out paint colors, so I have been pinning things for her, and I really like Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter. However, they have dark brown microfiber sofas, and I don't know how gray walls would look with dark brown furniture. Thoughts? Does she have to stick with something in the beige/tan family?

She showed me a swatch today of some light shade of tan with yellow undertones, and I told her flat out she was not allowed to buy paint without me this time. She is always afraid of going too dark, so she always ends up too light.

[skyblu]

Revere Pewter is a "greige" color. I am thinking of using it or edgecomb gray for our whole house. I don't have dark brown furniture but our carpet has beige undertones and Revere Pewter went well with it. Take a swatch and place it next to the couches to see if it looks too gray. A cool gray with blue undertones clashes with chocolate brown, but a warm gray or greige with red or yellow undertones would work well.

I think with the OP's green kitchen and brown cabinets, I'd do a sand-colored living room.

[MrsBeckyLP]

Thanks, skyblu! Good info. I think I will tell her to pick up swatches and even a sample of Revere Pewter to see how it works. I really hope I can convince her to use a gray color, because I feel like it's just so much more modern, and the purpose of their fixes now is to modernize.

[Ummm]

We have Revere Pewter in our kitchen/dining room, and we have orangy wood cabinets, and our dining table is brown, and it looks great I think

It is pretty light though, and you can tell it's not white in our north-facing room. It'd prob look lighter in a room with more natural light.

[looch]

I am doing BM's sea salt in our living areas. Decorator white for trim and ceiling, really makes it pop.