Ok gcsciencechick- thanks for that visual! I notice it but it's not offensive in any way, just looks like that's what goes! I think I could be too obsessive anout this! And my parents have the same cookie jar! Original from 1972 i think!

I have a plan, thanks Carol. I will do all that in the am so I have the am to let it dry and then rotate it all and then get the paint matching to see how it goes. And we're gutting the ensuite soon so not a big concern at this point, but I did read in your previous post as well how to do that!

I disagree with the lady at the BM store. Cabinets should be considered a pseudo permanent element and you should base your trim color choice on whatever looks best with the cabinets.

BM revere pewter and BM Ashley Gray are just wall colors and can be changed a lot easier than painting cabinets. Is wall color the only other criteria to consider in the rest of the house?

So I did have a designer come in and she said to match the trim to the cabs throughout the house. I can see that, totally.

Correct answer.

Different trim colors throughout a house is akin to wallpaper - it's a personal taste thing. And if you ever sell the house, I can guarantee buyers will appreciate one, consistent color throughout vs. the chaos of different trim color room to room.

As for the door, can you buy paint from the cabinet maker?

A painter matching cabinet color for trim paint is not such a big deal, but that door should be an exact match in color and finish to the cabinets, and I'd try to get a quart to make it happen.

That's a good point about the door to the pantry. I can get a quart of the exact cab colour...for $60. It will have glass in it. Should I consider a stained door?

And we did just paint the whole house, so it's not changing. The cabs are new too. This has been a 1.5 year insurance kitchen claim that has creeped to literally the whole house. I'm kinda tired! I really appreciate your reply as well Lori A.

I can get a quart of the exact cab colour...for $60.

Do it. Use it for the door PLUS the painter can use the actual paint to color match.

You don't necessarily need to eyeball a color from the fandeck if you have an actual, original color sample to work with.

Yeah, he could take a door to the store, etc. But buy the quart and have it matched.

Thanks Lori. We did have the actual cabinet door paint matched to do our fireplace mantle. It turned out way whiter and we weren't happy with that (that was at BM), which is why I just wanted to pick an actual colour from the deck, if that makes any sense! I just spoke with my dh, very smart idea about getting the actual colour for the pantry door. Can totally understand that. I have a plan!

Thanks all! You may be bombarded with a couple pics tomorrow!

Friendly Manitoba eh? DH was born and raised in Winnipeg. Now that I know you are Canadian, I know the Seashell colour you are speaking of (I think). It is a lovely colour. We looked seriously at Kitchencraft cabs and the Seashell colour, and I believe the sales guy said the cabs were made in Manitoba.

Funcolors (a.k.a. Lori) has given you good advice -- glad she posted. Good to hear you are doing the brown/beige/ cream cozy colours as they will go well with the Seashell colour. Love Lori's idea of getting one actual can of the Seashell colour for better colour matching.

I am not sure changing trim colour to one shade crisper in the baths is akin to chaos or changing wallpaper everywhere. Sometimes one trim colour does not go well everywhere and through the entire house. There are pros and cons to changing trim colour for a few rooms, and I was never suggesting you go to a drastically different colour from the trim colour that will be in most of your house. If you can make one trim colour work well through every room -- excellent. We were not able to do that though. I was glad to hear the Maria Killam (colour expert) approved of a slight change of tirm colour in rooms with doors, as it gave me piece of mind. Maria Killam examples of where this worked best was bathrooms and a slight change to one shade crisper, but still white. Hopefully some of this rambling makes sense.

BTW, when you asked about the door, I assumed you were asked about the kitchen entry door. If you were asking about a pantry door, I would go with a Seashell white.

Carol

Yes, friendly Manitoba! Just in a suburb right next to wpg. Neat that your dh was born here! The cabs are made here in Mb.

Your "rambling" makes perfect sense! I think we're all in the same boat and speak the same language.

Did you know Maria Killam that I quoted above is based in British Columbia (Canadians everywhere). Have you seen her blog -- lots of good info there.

Carol

Given you have worked on this project for a long period of time, have you already re-painted the trim in most of your house? If so what colour? Sorry to hear about the fire.

Carol

Carol- we had a flood in the kitchen so we were to get our light maple floors replaced, along with the dining room as it was the same. From there were decided to get new cabs as well (paid extra on top of insurance), get the hardwood throughout the house (ripped out all the pinkish carpet) which our 2 inch honey oak baseboards didn't match so we've decided to totally redo all the millwork in the house. So it will all be new. We currently have zero baseboards and casings and doors in the house-I ripped everything out felt kinda good! We also replaced the carpet in 2 bedrooms, painted the whole house. It is seriously looking like a new house. I also redid our 4 year old ds room with a new bed and bedding etc.

I have been reading Maria killam's blog. It's amazing how some people are so talented with colour!

Oh, and we've also replaced our front foyer tile, fireplace hearth is done and surround is picked, mantle to be painted...this all creeped from a kitchen flood!

Sounds like almost as large a scope as our project. We gutted our existing house and have added on an addition. We have been stuck at the rough-in stage for a long time as DH is DIY a lot of the work. Living in a house without drywall, doors and much insulation is not fun. Our house looks like a barn, but at least it is bigger and winter is basically behind us this year. We do have part of our old kitchen and one functional bath.

Carol

Carol, that sounds exhausting! Good for you for making it through the winter like that! We are minimal diy, so we have to rely on others. Which kinda sucks. But is ok if the workers are good. Bad if they are not. Too many fights!

We have made it through 3 winters -- wish it was only one. DIY is very slow work!

3 winters Ont mom?? How are you not going crazy?? I hate white paint. Hate hate hate. This is Swiss Coffee

which I think is still too white. So I did paint some Old Prairie that I had that I was going to do the fireplace with as it seemed to go with the cabs, but I think it's such a dreary colour! I have it already so I'll try as I have some pieces of crown.

I don't think SW looks dreary, but the best choice is likely going to be to colour match the cabinets. If you take a cabinet door around to all other parts of your home, how do you like that for trim colour everywhere else? Is it working everywhere with your other hard finishes? If so, getting a near perfect colour match is best. It won't look 100% the same as there will be a different sheen. Find out who in town is best at colour matching. I would not just do General Paint just because your painter likes that brand, if you hear, for example, that BM does a great job of colour matching.

Have you tried asking the cabinet makers if they have based their colour on one of the main lines of paint colours (say SW, BM or other). Maybe they will give you the linking colour if there is one. Still get the can from them as suggested above by Lori.

Carol

Thanks again Carol. SW seems a bit white compared to the cabs but looks good in the rest of the house. The tone is right with the cabs though, I can see it's much creamier than white dove.

I don't trust colour matching, i have not had good luck in the past with one of the BM stores so I'm scared now! I did talk to Kitchen Craft and they don't have a colour, just can sell their own. If I want gallons it's $120/gallon! I can spring for a quart for the door.

Ok, here is my toe kick pretending to be a baseboard. Enough contrast from the tile to the base?

And here is it in the office with the new carpet. The lighting is poor right now. the.one to the left is the toe, the one to the right is SW.

Ok, DH does not like the idea of the cab colour everywhere, he thinks it's too dark. So I think we'll do the swiss coffee for trim. It's lighter but has the same undertone as the cabs without looking muddy. And I think we may paint the pantry door an accent colour like ashley grey, that we have in part of the kitchen. Thanks for all the help!

akl,

This is a touch decision. While I like the Swiss Coffee with the cabs and it looks fine with the other flooring, it is quite a creamy colour. Given it is not the same colour as the cabs anyway, are you sure the White Dove might not be better overall? Can you show us the White Dove beside the cabinet and other finishes? Either Swiss Coffee and White Dove will not match the cabs exactly. Would there be any benefit to using the lighter White Dove as it might look less like you tried to match the cabs vs Swiss Coffee. Maybe, White Dove would offer a contrast to the cabs? I am on a limb here and am no expert!

I know my comments above are probably not helping. I feel like in the online training I took with Maria Killam she may have spoken about what to do about trim if you cabs are very creamy like your Seashell. Tonight, I will spend some time looking at the online course to see if she does address a similar situation to yours. I agree with your DH that if the Seashell is creamier/darker than Swiss Coffee, it will likely be too dark in the rest of the house.

I still would vote to getting that online consult with the Color Coach I referenced earlier on. For $25.00 US you would get the piece of mind with this important decision.

Carol

Thanks Carol, I did take a look at the colour coach, I also put an email out to the designer that I had over last year. Here is white dove to the right and both the left ones are swiss coffee.

Oh , and the pic in my first post has white dove next to the cabs but not the other finishes ( best i can do right now with pics on my phone while at my ds swimming lessons!)

Hi,

I looked through the online course by Maria Killam. The only thing I could find that related to your project was the example of creamy yellow cabinets. In this case, Maria advised you could either do white or cream trim. She was not suggesting the owner paint the trim the same creamy yellow as the cabinets. However, these cabinets have more yellow than yours. So, no help I am afraid.

@akl: Are there any other trim colours you are considering aside from White Dove and Swiss Coffee? When you said you visited the Color Coach website, did you send her an online question? There is not that much info on her blog, but her advice is good and quick.

Funcolors/Lori: Given the OP's cabinets are darker than BM Swiss Coffee, would you still suggest she match the trim throughout the house to cabs? How dark cream do cabs have to go before you do not match trim to cabs?

Carol

I didn't catch that they were darker than - I thought I understood that BM Swiss Coffee "matched" the cabinets.

Whew. And some wonder why I come home with a headache and eyes crossed after a sales call. :)

Lori,

If you look at the photo posted with the carpet, 22 hours ago, you will see the OP has the cabinet toe kick on the left and a piece of crown painted in Swiss Coffee on the right. You can see the difference quite clearly. The cabinets are not a light cream.

Carol

I 'thought' that swiss coffee was a pretty close match and old prairie too dark and dreary. Old prairie is pretty bang on. Swiss coffee is whiter but still warm. White dove and cloud white are really white. I emailed the designer I used last year 'Lisa Clark Design' she's awesome (and local, found her on houzz!) and while I explained our situation she said we could go lighter than the cabs if the cab colour didn't go well throughout the rest of the house but to stay in the warm white area.

So there is swiss coffee, now I have dune white and moonlight white. And I am going to stick with BM paint as the general paint guy today was like, "it'll be close" well, after all this insanity I want exact!

Here's dune white, white ivory and the little strip at the bottom is moonlight white! Nightime though, so bad lighting! ivory looks the best with the cabs, but not in the rest of the house. Who would have thought this would be so hard??

Ok - once the cabinets start to read as more of a "color" than a "white" is when I start looking for trim colors that are more 'neutral and white' to work with the color of the cabinets as well as harmonize throughout the rest of the house.

If you can control color choices for the entire house, and you're wanting 'white' kitchen cabinets, then I like to keep the color decision down to just one - choose the color of white cabinets you like best, and piggyback all trim, door, bathroom fixture color choices off that one kitchen cabinet color choice.

If you can't control the color white so it's consistent throughout the house, I usually pull a chip of Cotton Balls. Cotton Balls is one of the 'whitest whites' in the BenM collection.

When I say whitest white, it means it has the least amount of chroma or colorfulness compared to other colors of white.

• There is no such thing as a "true" or "pure" white.
• Every single color of white paint belongs to a hue family.
• And you can find a color of white from every hue family in the spectrum.

However, what you can do is find white paint colors extremely low in chroma/colorfulness and they will often read as being more "neutral" compared to other colors and colors of white.

Give Cotton Balls a go and see if it make sense in context with everything going on.

Wow, I did not remember the KC Seashell looking so close to Old Prairie. It is darker with a hint of green which is different than I remember it. What about Simply White? Why not go with a contrast, like Maria's example of the creamy yellow cabs and white trim? I don't think White Dove goes well with Old Prairie (seems to make White Dove look a bit pink compared to cabs). I don't think I would like Dune White. Moonlight White offers less contrast, but looks okay with Old Prairie. Here is a picture of Old Prairie used as trim. Looks good with darker walls.

Funcolors, please come back to weigh in now that you know the cabs are pretty bang on to BM Old Prairie.

Edited: I see the Funcolors has already weighed in at the same time I did. What do you think of Simply white as a trim color for the OP?

Prairie White as Trim

Thank you Lori! I had cotton balls in my hand and put it back as it looked yellow, but that was at the store under those lights. I'll go tomorrow and pick up a little chip of those and see. Thank you! I do have simply white here and it looks, well, white! It's on the same strip as old prairie and moonlight white.

BRB. Lost my post....

Another interesting link showing 3 BM trim colours.

Carol

3 BM trim colours

I did read that Carol. I think I've read every Google search on every colour i have in my house right now, and more. Going nuts! I really appreciate everyone's help trying to save me from madness ( might be too late!)

Being on the same strip doesn't mean anything, unfortunately.

If you want to kind of reset how you're looking at looking at the situation, grab a chip of each of the 12 whites on the list above.

Line them up in the same order starting with Cotton Balls and ending with Swiss Coffee. You'll see a progression of most white to least white. It will be a range of whites.

When compared to your cabinet color and the other stuff throughout the rest of the house, it may bring some order to how you're thinking about all the different options and help you find your way to what you want.

Thank you Lori! Off to the BM store that's open Sundays tomorrow then! Then it'll be narrowed down to 12..... I think I get what you're saying. Excited I'm on a path! Thank you so much Ont mom and Lori A!

Sounds like a good plan. As stated earlier, be sure to paint yourself large size samples. The price of 4 or 5 tester cans won't break the bank, but will lead you to a wiser decision. It is too hard to see differences with those small paint chips.

I think you will like the contrast of a crisp off-white with those cabinets. I also imagine the crisper off-white will work better within your other rooms.

Let us know what you decide.

Carol

I don't think you have told us what you are using for a counter. That might impact the decision a bit.

Carol

For what it's worth, here are a few shots of BM White Dove that we have throughout our house. I think it's beautiful , soft and goes with everything.

Our counter is cambria canturbury quartz. It's staying!

Judiegal- looks beautiful!

Ok, here are some samples. Which are least offensive with the cabs? Then I'll move in to the rest of the house! I think I can rule out the 3 top left. In order from left to right, top then bottom. I could not get the other colours easily, no swatches as they are US or older.

Chantiliy lace

Decorators white

Alabaster

Simply white

Cotton balls

Bottom row: swiss coffee, dove white, cloud white

Can you possibly zoom in and take another picture earlier in the day? What colours are on the crown on the bottom.

Carol

Thanks Carol. It's cloudy today. I'll try tomorrow but I leave at 7 am so don't inow if there's enough light. I pretty sure I'm leaning towards white dove. The bottom crown is the toe kick of the cabinet. White dove seems to look good everywhere else in the house and is not offensive when I look down the hall and see the cabs and the trim. Angie

White Dove looks good in the picture above. The other White Dove looked a bit pink to me against your cabs (I am referring to the second photo you posted in your original post). Do you recall what time of day you took the original picture (2nd photo in your opening post)? Late afternoon can cast colours that I don't see at other times of day. I do like White Dove with your pretty counters, floor and couch. Lots of warmth there. How does White Dove look in the baths?

@ Lori (Funcolors) -- What do you think of White Dove for the OP?

I have a large sample of White Dove here, and a small chip of Old Praire (I have the BM deck). They do look good together. It looks like enough contrast . It does not look like you were trying to match the cab colour, but missed (I think Swiss Coffee might have looked like a miss).

Hopefully we will hear back from Lori. I am curious if she still recommends a crisper white like Cotton Balls, expecially after seeing the warmth in the counter and floor.

I have found this post educational and am always glad to hear what Lori has to say on colours.

Carol

Carol, I haven't seen pink in white dove irl. I so do not remember what time I took the photo, but I just looked at my phone and it was 7:42 am so early am light with lots of the kitchen lights on. And we're gutting the ensuite soon and changing the other bathroom one day too. This one will also probably br changed! Thank, Angie

The artificial lights may have cast a pink tone to the photo (but not in real life). Your cabinets look great. I am sure the trim will look wonderful too.

Carol

Just a couple more pics! We might paint our bedroom revere pewter. I want our headboard to pop and it's not with such a dark colour, even though I really like it. Thank you so much Carol! I appreciate you helping to revive this and help me be more confident in our choice. Thanks too @Lori A! Now that the trim does NOT be the exact same I'm more comfortable. :)

I love the blue in the bedroom. Perhaps there is a plug in light you could put behind your headboard to sort of back light your headboard (gives it a soft glow). Usually these are hardwired in, but you might be able to get that effect with a plug in up light.

The fireplace looks nice too. You will be glad when these decisions are behind you.

Carol

Hey, that looks pretty good from here! White Dove is a very pretty color and I'm sure once it's all painted it will even out and flow nicely.