The Ultimate Challenge: Perfect Paint To Compliment Oak Cabinets & White Trim

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most creative person in the world, but I’m pretty darn good at researching and finding inspiration to make my home feel like it was professionally designed. The only problem now is trying to find inspiration for the wall colors in my kitchen and dining room. I am planning on painting all the trim and windows white like the rest of the house but we are leaving the oak cabinets as is. For some reason there must me an unwritten rule that all home blogs need to feature painted cabinets. Don’t get me wrong I love the look of painted cabinets but due to budget constraints and Ryan’s strong determination to hold onto one of the last pieces of wood grain in the house I’m going to embrace the oak cabinets.

In these pictures you can see the bare kitchen and dining room before we moved in. My plan is to have white wainscoting up to where the border is and above that be our color. Initially we were leaning towards a light yellow but, again, no inspirational photo to get the creative juices flowing. Plus, our master bedroom is a muted light yellow and I would like to do something different room to room to give a unique feel.

This Sherwin Williams Grasslands

This is Sherwin Williams Whole Wheat

Earth tones are always a safe bet you just need to be careful not to do too much tan or there isn’t any personality.

I wasn’t thinking at all about going with a green tone but it actually goes really nice with the oak cabinets. I think that it takes away the orangeyness (I think I just made that word up) that maybe a yellow or a different warm color would bring out.

What do you think? Do these compliment the oak cabinets? Or should I continue on my search for yellow inspiration? We're hoping to start on the installation of the dishwasher this weekend so the pressure is on to make some decisions!