Good question! Wall is somewhere between super-light brown and off-white - you wouldn't know it wasn't white without white next to it. The bookcase does look remarkably like that pic, though feels darker/redder in person (or perhaps my version of it simply is) - picked it up on clearance scratch/dent sale and love the heck out of it.

I agree with green - definitely the most complimentary. Thought about expanding on it with (maybe) some red, orange or yellow. Also considered the possibility that the gray would 'play off of' the steel in some sense, but am not sure. I'm really terrible at picking colors for some reason, despite having gone to design school :/

My plan is to do a combination of boxes and magazine files and letter trays so maybe not go all one color. Since I'm likely to end up with 6 to 10 or maybe more items (on the bookcase and my also-walnut desk), I'm tempted to branch out, with green as the base (most common) but a few other highlights. Though maybe all the same would be OK too - I just like some of the effects of mixing a few colors together (of course, theirs notably don't mix cools with warms, for instance)

Thanks so much for your first response - I completely agree. If you're game to give me more feedback, I'm all ears and very grateful in advance :)