We have hooks and heavy 33x66 bath sheets and have not had any problems with them drying - I have found that they don't dry as well on bars because the towels have to be doubled over to fit on the bars if you don't have room for 36" bars. Double bars were even worse IME because there ended up being eight layers of thick fabric in a small area. Two towels on one double hook (Delta Victorian, not one I'd recommend) dry just fine. I live in coastal New Hampshire where it is downright malarial in the warm months and arid in the cold; towels are laundered once a week and we have no problems with funkiness. We do also have the issue of towels not being hung neatly on bars, and I think decorative towels are silly (I am pretty much a failure as a girly-girl!). :-) Here's a picture: One way to evaluate whether towels dry sufficiently on hooks where you live would be to get some of the cheap over-the-door hooks from somewhere like Walmart and give it a shot before installing anything permanent.

drkona, Your house looks great! I would look for a small chest or console to go on the wall directly in front of you when you come in the front door. Maybe with a mirror hung above it and a lamp and a picture of your kids on the chest. That would make a welcoming entrance. Ballard Designs has a lot of little chests/consoles. re: the closet - definitley use it. Install lower hooks or maybe consider having California Closets or someone come out to put some organizing stuff in there to maximize the space. I like what mclarke posted for that corner by the closet. You could also have someone (handyman, finish carpenter) come and build you a little bench and hooks for that space too. If you can train everyone to use that area, that would be great! Have fun!

I think it looks really nice. Good job, not easy being brave! White subway tiles - I would be afraid that white would make your lower cabs and white cabs seem like one big white wall. Maybe not, but its something that occurred to me and I'm not sure I'd like that. I was wondering about your counters, not the color so much but what IS the strip thing in it? What are your counters made of? If this is some sort of sandwiched in material that can't be painted then I would think you are "stuck" with the green right? I'm not personally (who cares!) a fan of the blue you are thinking about but it would technically look nice with the brown, I don't think it goes with the outside greenery though or the forest green stripe. If it were me, I would bring in the gold color from down the hall instead in a material that also has some forest green and maybe some rust, a plaid or floral for the window treatments. Then do some placemats, dishes, table runners, table top treatments, chair pads (not all of them!), with the forest green and maybe some more of the window treatment fabric to tie together. I think that would work better with the lush greenery you see outside. Frames - Several options. If you did the matting right with the black frames your pictures might appear to "float" on the wall. Which could be sort of cool, a slightly more modern look, personal taste in whether you like that or not. You could keep the black frame which essentially disappears, and mat with white, then a skinny black and then white - so the black mat then becomes the black frame, now highlighted. Or you could try to match frames to your lighting hardware (is that oil rubbed bronze?) but you might run into the same problem of it being too muted against the brown. Or, you have some stainless steel things, you could complete that by painting your wrought item wall hanger things and basket stainless steel with spray paint and go with silver frames. Really, you could quite a lot here. I think white frames would be a bit much for me but I think one or two large substantial wood painted white frames might work, just not a lot of little pictures in thin white frames. Even if you stopped now it looks nice. Keep everyone updated! P.S. If privacy is an issue with those windows, I really liked my solar shades, you can hide them with a valence. And they come in something similar to a goldish color.

I like all your pull choices, but I have to admit the first stands out to me. My island, which is not built in so technically a piece of furniture, has different knobs than my perimeter. If some pulls are more expensive, you could use those on the island, and simpler on the perimeter - if budget is a factor. Love the countertops. For cottage, think about subway tile (which I have) or you also might want to consider beadboard. Some say beadboard is harder to keep clean, but I honestly have never found my backsplash to get all that dirty - but I do not have a slide in range and it looks like you don't either - otherwise you would need to consider making sure there is something fire proof behind the range. I don't know what the floral mosaics are - could you post a pic? I love floral anything:) Just something to consider - being short, I am not overly fond of microwaves over the range. I moved my microwave down from a micro shelf that was equally high a few years ago. If you can conceive of ever doing the same, save enough leftover tile to fill in the space if you ever change over to a dedicated vent, or take the micro down, tile behind and then put it back up so the tile is there just in case. Beadboard would not be too hard to patch in if ever needed. For down the road - two decor items that I have used in my cottage kitchen decor are vintage china and floral / botanical art. My kitchen is not like yours - it is older cabinets, but there are pics in my "my pics" idea book.