Check out the Winter edition of Beautiful Kitchens, published by Better Homes and Gardens. Great article on neutrals. I had the hardest time finding this magazine, someone else had recommended it for this article but I finally found it at Barnes & Noble.

They have very specific colors listed, so it really helps.

If you go to the kitchens forum and do a search for creamy white cabinets, you'll get a slew of responses related to color choices and the what people have used. The choices are endless.

I think that when it comes to cooler vs warmer whites, it's really a matter of preference but most that I've see lean towards warmer tones which I prefer as well. Cooler whites seem more stark and cold. We used Behr's Pot of Creme for all our doors and trim. I love this color, it has a slight yellow base to it and works with both the cool and warm colors I've used throughout the house. We're very happy with it. However, as a side note, we've found that Behr paints don't cover well, especially this white so we've had to do at least 2 costs even when priming.

You dont mention the color of your walls. You need to pick the white according to what tone your walls are, whether cool or warm. Actually Behr has a good system in helping customers pick paint colors by the way their samples are organized. Once you choose your wall color you can see the whites that compliment that color. We used Behr colors in our home but not Behr paint.

I prefer to 'neutralize' (if you can call it that) cooler tones of wall colors w/ warmer tones of trim and cabintery but that's just my preference.

One thing I noticed w/ choosing an off-white is that sometimes (okay usually) I would end up so disappointed because I didn't acheive the 'richness' or 'depth' of off-white that I was trying to achieve. It just looked flat out white or boring to me. Then I took a lesson from Texashottie and decided to just go for it. I started picking so called off-whites that were actually colors that most people would say weren't off-white and too dark. That they were an actual color. Well, so far so good! Once my whole downstairs was painted my hallway looks off-white but better & richer.

I got the Beautiful Kitchens magazine and it confirmed my notions to go darker than what I'd ever anticipated I should do and the results are fantastic. I posted about the magazine awhile ago - worth every penny if you are looking for great neutral inspiration.

That was an excellent magazine in the first few pages with all the information on neutrals and grays. The kitchens were great too, although, most were too fancy for me. I was happy to get that recommendation from Ttodd.

Red

I actually have the magazine because I was thinking neutral. But true neutrals don't look great in our house, they turn gray due to the insufficient natural light.

So in an attempt to brighten up the place we went with light colors in the LR and KFR, BM gentle cream and 1/2 F&B cooking apple. I previously posted day-time photos but the colors didn't come out right on those. These photos were taken in the evening (pardon the mess from removing the old corner cupboards):

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

One paint coat only so far, so they might get a bit darker after the second coat.

I can't say I love that cooking apple, but DH and the kids do love it and really want to keep it. It is a very happy color without being irritating but the problem I have with it, it is so "clean" that I am afraid of glazed cream kitchen cabinets appearing dirty. It would look great with white but I don't want white.

I can totally relate to what ttodd said about very light off-white colors not being as rich as you hope.
In this case the kitchen is right next to our "formal" eating area so I do want to end up with a rich cream which looks great in the evening. However the kitchen has no windows where the cabinets are going (dead corner) so there isn't a lot of natural light during the day (which is also one of the reasons for going painted and not dark wood) so it can't be too dark either.

After looking at paint chips again, I am not even sure the dining cabinets and the kitchen have to be the same color, the lighting is very different.

Any ideas?