LOL - it's only "color-coordinated" because I went out and bought a huge bag of 240 of those red solo cups at Costco for transplanting. It was super-cheap, and I plan to reuse them until they fall apart. All the other cups (purple, yellow, and white styrofoam) I just found in my cupboards, desparate for anything to use. The "trays" are old box lids, covered in plastic garbage bags to make them waterproof (I buy the garbage bags at costco too, they're my kitchen bags, and a box lasts me a really long time). The lower shelves (on the ground) are a mess of pots and gallon milk jugs holding water. I also have that heater, two bags of potting soil, and two 10 inch pots with dahlia tubers started in them littering up the floor (not enough light on the center shelves for the dahlias, I didn't think). Needless to say, there's not much room to actually "move" in there, but enough room for me to do what I need to (water and pot things up), if I'm careful. ;-) Once it's too hot for you to keep stuff inside, you can clean everything out, and then have a chance to get organized for next year, right? I'm trying to figure out how to turn this one into a really big dehydrator this summer...

Ah, the memory of a superb meal - time for a nap to digest. Delightful series! Claire

We did a lot of neutral with it. He has bamboo floors, and most of his furniture is dark brown leather or wood. We added pops of red all over (pillows, blankets, rugs, some draperies) and it feels very masculine and has a slight nautical style to it. I think your ideas are spot on with how I would use the color in my own bedroom. I'm picturing what you're describing as something very light and clean, with a kind of soft feeling to it. I'm totally into the vintage looking rugs right now. Here's one that I've used recently that has the blue/gray and vintage thing going on: https://www.ethanallen.com/en_US/shop-rugs-traditional-patterned/suzain-rug%2C-blue%2Fgray/041522.html#start=1

Thank you all; you said: “remove the mantle” (HIwEase); “take the surround and end it from wall to wall run it up to the ceiling with different tiling” (Claire Larece); “painted the same as the wall color(…) 3 inch or so wide black metal frame around the firebox” (lefty47); “something that goes wall corner to corner” (beesneeds); “Remove the current fireplace surround, fur out the wall, and tile with large format tiles” (groveraxle). We did it, TY !! ... Now will you please help me out switching art between living room and family room? <new thread? this one is 100+ long>