Look at Dulux White Duck. If its full of natural light then a white white would be too bright. Natural White may be still too bright. White Duck is greyer again. An interior designer suggested White Duck over Natural White to a client due to the house being filled with natural light.

I still don't mind the odd painted feature wall it's cheaper that great art and can make a simple bed head and I'am not a slave to fashion. Your plain wall colours will look wonderful if you furnish the room correctly, adding any timber also helps. some photos for you cheers

We've just installed roller blinds. We're on acreage so privacy is not an issue. However, we did put block-out blinds in the bedrooms (for sleep purposes) and sunscreen mesh fabric blinds in all other rooms. Re the latter, you can see through them whilst still retaining privacy. They stop 85% of the sun's heat and up to 99% UV. We moved to the northern rivers area of NSW earlier this year so we'll see how we fare in the summer. I suspect the see-through blinds will be down most of the time but because they're almost transparent they don't block the light.

Have you worked out how you will stop the hot summer sun coming into the kitchen? I have lived in a couple of houses with west facing kitchens, and the hot afternoon sun in summer makes life difficult when trying to cook dinner.