Oh, for heavens sake…do the white you love. A quality paint, made for washing, is all you need.

Hey, peanut butter and jelly shows on gray, too, but doesn’t look as good as it does on white...

If you really don't want the kid dirt to show, go with brown

You can wipe off handprints, and kids really only put their hands on the walls and trim for a limited time when they're very young. Use the paint color you want, and keep a little extra so you can touch up if needed.

Grey is yesterday's news.

And really dirty hands will get a light grey dirty too.

White goes with everything, and this way you can change your color palette whenever you want.

And no flat on the ceiling, that is just dead.

You want your light from the light fixtures to reflect off the ceiling and bounce around the room and brighten it all up.

If you getting everything all brand new, you can use even higher gloss finishes.

See, a gloss finish reveals everything.

Think of it as the sleek satin fabric of the paint world.

You know those shiny satin slip wedding dresses they make?

Well they are not those with lumps and bumps in the wrong places.

Similarly, high gloss paint shows every imperfection of the surface it covers.

But high glass paint is marvelous, it is like a lacquer, forever shiny, new, luxurious and with great depth of color even in a very light color giving it a depth you never knew it had.

And it's washable, hooray, hooray!

So if for example you are getting brand new cabinets and brand new moldings and trim, get higher gloss paint.

Do you really want to spend your time fussing at your kids?

(That being said, when mine was little, I kept a cannister of wipes in my car and when I picked her up from school, she couldn't even get in the car until she cleaned her hands. And that was pre-COVID :)

Check out the glorious gloss of this room, I swoon every time I see it.

This is a butler's pantry in a house designed by an architectural firm Archer & Buchanan in Pennsylvania, this is the Villanova Residence.

Villanova Residence - butler's pantry · More Info

I love Chantilly Lace. A nice crisp white but not stark looking.

If you buy Benjamin Moore paint, I like the Regal line and I have washed mine many, many times and it still looks great. Also their paint touches up like a dream so if you do have to paint over something that won't scrub off, it will match and look great.

Get what you want....kids aren't small very long. But if its like my house, some of the adults are worse than kids for putting hands on the wall when putting on or taking off shoes etc.

Buy good quality paint and you won't regret it.

Thanks for all the advice!