breezygirl, thanks for your input - it really does look yellow green in this room, no matter what time of day. I don't think I'll be using it, too bad I stupidly bought an entire gallon already! I did pick up a bunch of samples of whites from BM and Behr (while I was at HD to pick up the sample tile) to study over the next week or so, and thankfully I have not done all the work of cabinet painting - I'm just out $45 for the gallon of White Dove, better to cut my losses now and repaint the ceiling when I do the cabinets rather than go to all that work and not be happy. The subway tile is a soft white but not as yellow-green as the White Dove, and looks GREAT with the James River Gray and the appliances etc. I'll be taking pics throughout the project to document, I'll either be really happy at the end or I'll have filled my kitchen with a lumpy mass of concrete! To me, this is great fun although there is often a point about halfway through when I just wonder why I'm doing it, don't think it will ever come out right... but when it ends up well in the end the feeling of accomplishment is worth it. It's actually the second time I have made a major mistake purchasing white paint. At least this time it was only 1 gallon. When I was painting and doing flooring in the whole house (had less than 14 days to finish everything and move in as we only had a short term apartment after selling our condo) I bought *4 gallons* of Super White for the ceilings for some silly reason - having chosen Mascarpone for the walls (I thought I had to do "plain" white on the ceilings. Partway through the first gallon I realized it looked terrible. I just hated the idea of wasting that much money on the paint, but could not stand the idea of finishing the job that I would hate. So I bought more Mascarpone and did ceilings the same color (which looks great) and tried to sell the Super White unopened cans on Craigslists to no avail. Ace wouldn't let me return them even for a store credit or restock fee :( I ended up donating it. I thought I learned my lesson but I was so sure that White Dove looked lovely in everyone else's photos and was such a universal favorite (and who could not like the name) that I would love it too. Lesson learned - test the color in your own space even if it's "just" white! On the other hand, they do not have test sizes for the whites in my paint store and a quart is $17 vs $45 for the gallon - so it's better just to buy the gallon.

For the people who understand hue, color, value, etc. What is in the green or blue that doesn't change colors? Do they have more cooler colors? There's nothing *in* the green and blue. Rather it's a matter of their being less toned. They likely have a very simple mix of colorants - just one or two - in the can. Which is why they look pastel. Which is also why they seem to not change much from the chip -- they are simple colors and it is easy to see what hue family they belong to, blue and green. Near neutral paint colors are colors that have been toned down so far they look "gray". These colors are not so simple. They are complex and it is not easy to see what hue family they come from. Every color comes from a hue family. And that is where the hue bias, like green, purple, and blue comes from. For example, the gray you think *turned purple* has always been purple you just didn't see it. Probably because you didn't know to look for the hue bias. It is also the hue family that gives direction as far as color temperature. Near neutral paint colors from the yellow-red hue family will be warmer than the paint colors from the blue hue family. Paint chips are arranged by hue family at every paint store. Paying attention to what hue family section of the display you are pulling chips can help; even with those super toned down colors that look gray. Sometimes the store will pull the near neutral colors out into a separate side display. Which makes it harder for people to identify hue bias and temperature in paint chips. This post was edited by funcolors on Mon, Feb 4, 13 at 18:24

If I were building a custom home, the first thing I'd do would be to hire a good color consultant. You're dealing with two tricky colors there, both the combo and the colors, themselves. So much depends on the light orientation. In some people's homes, Kilim is the perfect neutral, but in other's it can lean pink or green. Now, I happen to have Ivoire in a good portion of my own home. Love it, but in lower light settings it can read pretty yellow (very subtle yellow, but yellow all the same). If you just paint a bit on the wall it will seem beige, but IRL, when on all four walls, the yellow magnifies. The other part of your question, about mixing beige and creamy yellow, just screams for a pro's advice. That is one of the toughest combos to do correctly. For the record, I have seen Ivoire used in the kitchen setting you describe. It looked lovely.

In your shoes, I would fix the lighting, replace with dark hardware (and fixtures if you can manage it), and I would color match wall paint to the cabinets. The kitchen isn't bad, but I think it has a hint of "a try and a miss." Color matching the wall paint will make it feel more intentional. Nothing can make the cabinets white, so I would embrace them and try to achieve something a little different.