Hi Jo. The light will differ in each room so would go for different shades according to the light in each room. Maybe also consider darker accent ŵalls for alcoves and in the dining room? You could even do the woodwork and coving a shade or 2 darker than the walls. I'd go for a soft chalky white on the ceiling. Have a look at farrow and ball for matching colours or little Greenes shades come in light, mid and dark

Hello Dub M, Well it also depends on what else colour wise you're choosing for your scheme.. Whether you want bold and dramatic or whether you want something lighter in feel... Using them sparingly with a lot of plain in between or perhaps as boarders can then lend themselves to accent rather than statement... All depends on what you want from them as they're versatile! For pale schemes.. Think of colours such as creams, wheat and pale sun hued creams with hints of yellow.. Light and earthy tones on the cream, wheat, canvas, hessian colours perhaps beige and pale mustards, or pale golden creams and burnt siena with hints of brown,ochres .. For bold consider dark almost purple blues and hints of mauve.. Also Charcoal and greys with black and brown hues... For a warm but dramatic look.. The colours are chalky and have depth... Include wood work and again wall covering is versatile in that it could be half height or whole height.. Put tiles and colours together to see what you like.. Paint onto squares of paper no less than A4 and place them where you might want to use them.. Look throughout the day to see how they react and interact with their space and the changing light.. From one colour you can begin to mix it to blend and become another.. In this way you can see colours interact with each other. Use versions of them by working with lighter and or darker varieties of the chosen colour.. Here's a doodle to show the colours blue and others I'm suggesting so you can see the blue is still quite dominant. I rather like blue and elements of yellows, old golds and creams.. Look at the tiles themselves too for inspiration... : ))

Thank you all for your suggestions! Lots to consider... Special thanks to Celerygirl and Carolina for the mock-ups. I have to say, that creme rug changes the whole feel of the room... AS, Colourhappy and Celerygirl, I have some 3 different greys left from other jobs; I think I'm going to paint some lining paper and put it against the fireplace, units, windows, etc and see what it looks like. I'm also thinking of the smokey purple we have in the bedroom, that could be an alternative. Also, I'll have to buy some of that hue Jonathan suggested (it's quite intriguing). Jen P and Carolina, maybe I could keep the beige and change the accessories... I ordered a new frame with a proper mount for Chris Ofili's painting and might put it back above the fireplace. Najeebah, I know I need to cull the accessories, we have too many all over the house and I don't know where to place them any more. But I love most of them and find it hard to think about letting some go... Hubby almost sank in the middle of the Bristol channel today and had to abandon the race, so I thought bringing up wall colours tonight would not help my cause. See, I can be sensible... and he says I'm not sympathetic to his sailing problems... :)) Thank you so much for your help again, I'll let you know the next step as soon as we decide what to do. Good night all!

So we have decided on Wimborne White on all walls. We plan to add 2 or 3 very large pictures on the radiator wall. If we still feel this is plain we can repaint either this wall or the one with the shelves. Header13 we really like blue and have used it in our south facing bedroom. Carolina I'm afraid to say no. Picking the floor seems to be by far the hardest decision. We really cant decide on light vs (warm) medium grey. We have so many samples and I think it is just making it worse. We feel light should help keep the room bright but could make it all too plain and samey? Darker may give better contrast and more interesting? Lighting in the kitchen is currently really poor (we took the lights down for plastering as they are being replaced) but here is some pictures showing examples of flooring shades we are considering. Most of the colours seem to be falling in these two camps. White oak vs a grey/smoke oak.