Will the landlord allow you to paint the trim?

If you like the gray tones, Dorian Gray from Sherwinn Williams has been a GREAT one for me on projects! It's what I would call a Warm Gray. In fact, I am working with a client now in a very similar situation to yours. They bought a home with honey oak stain floors and kitchen cabinets, flagstone fireplace with a grayish mortar, dark multi-color slate backsplash, and the previous people had a peach tan paint on the walls. Now we've painted with various intensitites of the Dorian Gray (they can mix at 50%, 70%, and so on so that you get the same color in different shades). Their wood floors and cabinetry now look so much richer against this color palette! And since their taste is similar to yours, it was the perfect compromise. I know you said you lean towards cooler colors, but in order to work around the warm tones in the wood work and stone fireplace, this might do the trick! They got the gray tones just on a slightly "warmer" side so that it blends beautifully! And, your landlord will have an IMPROVEMENT to the home in the process!

@Samantha - I wish!! Unfortunately I'm stuck with the honey oak. I have thought about trying to covertly stain the river rock so it isn't quite so brown and gold but I'm scared to pieces about ruining it.

@Julie and sfroe, Thank you so much for the suggestions! I have spent the better part of two days living on the Sherwinn Williams site "painting" my pictures. I actually painted the entire family room black which was my favorite look so far but don't want to have it be too crazy coming off of a red kitchen with beige countertops and white appliances. That's alot of color going on. Liked Mega Greige to neutralize the house a bit. I'll have to go play with Dorian Gray...

Can you find a gray to compliment the gray grout? That might work.

Looking forward to seeing your freshly painted black family room!

@Samantha, that was my goal with playing with Greige. I'm gonna try to sample the Dorian Gray to see if that will play up the gray grout a bit. @chemayne, Black is my favorite color. It is so full of drama and makes any color you put with it even more vibrant. If not the family room, SOMETHING is going black or at least an accent wall or two. I'd love to go crazy and do my future white on white on white master bath. Either way I'll absolutely post pictures. Just found this site and already I'm hooked!

I've used this site for inspiration, but I didn't post anything until today. It's nice to have an outlet to bounce ideas! I've considered a black wall---lots of black in my house!

Curious @tllynn, what color did you end up with?

Stay with creams and reds.

I think you should paint with a color like this