Decisions: Living Room Wall Color

When we moved into our house each room in the house painted a different color.  It was pretty, too bold and country classic for me.  In the last two years we've slowly painted each room gray, white, taupe and cream.  I know, totally boring, but it maximizes the limited natural light we get in our north-facing house.

The one room we haven't touched is the living room.  It's painted a pretty marigold yellow - something I would never choose myself, but Abe and I have always loved it.  That is, until recently.  The color is super cozy, but absorbs the light and blends in too much with our honey maple wood floors and trim.  Everything feels so yellow.  But the clincher was the new couch fabric, which ended up being a very light gray (oopsie, always see a sample before you buy!)

This photo shows the old couch fabric. It was a great color, but the material was no match for a yellow Lab puppy.

In conclusion, I've made my case for painting the walls a new color and finally got Abe to agree to a change.  The big question is:  What color? and the follow up to that is:  How do I feel about accent walls?

In my head I'm picturing maybe a grayish purple or a grayish light green.  Abe is against painting the walls just plain gray, which would be my preference.

Benjamin Moore has a great website for browsing colors.  These four are my "safe" choices. I'm sure they'll look nice, but I feel like they might make me bored.

 

These totally negate my wish for a brighter room, but I feel like it would really make the wood in the room pop while camoflaging the black tv and black frame of the couch. My gut says it might look awesome, but I have a feeling it'll be tough to get Abe to buy in to this choice.