Hi, guys sorry for taking so long to reply back! Thanks for all the great suggestions!! I was able to go to H&L and fondle yarns over the holidays as we went and stayed with my parents in another bigger town. I found several that were great. I don't have my list here but I will get it later and post the ones that I like the best. Thanks for all the suggestions they are awesome!! I really do love the homespun, that is one of the few specialty yarns our walmart carries and I made my children all scarves out of it last year but I knew that their would be no stitch definition, but I have actually considered it anyways just for the feel. One of the ones that was on the top of the list that I felt was the chenille yarn. Does anyone have any opinions on that? I don't know if it would be too heavy or not as this pattern is worked with three strands held together throughout. Anyways thanks guys for all the great responses!! Carly

Thanks to everyone for helping me figure this out! And cawaps -- I didn't know about the control+ trick ---. I was marveling over it and my kids just rolled their eyes at me. And Amy -- I googled Sarah Richardson marble backsplash and came up with one kitchen repeated in several sites, but not this kitchen -- thanks for finding those others. I really like this backsplash design. I didn't know that you could get the marble in such large tiles, but since people use it as flooring, guess it comes in many sizes. Thanks!!

These ideas are so great! I was getting a little frustrated trying to figure out the problem with the room, but you guys have made it exciting again! Thank you thank you all again! I think I have the rug for under the sofa nailed down to two options. I added a “customer photo” after each rug to show what it looks like in an actual living room. Any thoughts?

Don't worry, I'll be going out of my way to salvage as many pieces of tile I can. The local salvage place doesn't take used tile (only surplus unused tile), but I'll offer it up on Craigslist to a DIYer - I'm sure there are plenty of hipsters who would LOVE to get their hands on vintage subway tile.. Same with the colorful glazed tile on one of the bedroom fireplace hearths - tile is loose and many are broken, and with those tiles having not been made in probably a hundred years, I can't repair it without it looking like a janky patch job. They would be fantastic as accent pieces in a kitchen backsplash or in a mosaic art piece. Luckily in these parts, all the houses are old and folks love nabbing your cast-off materials for their own projects, so I'm not too worried about the tiles being lost to the landfill if we don't reuse them ourselves. Now I need to start researching and perusing materials. Definitely want to avoid the obviously contemporary pillowy/beveled tile. Luckily, those little hexagonal porcelain tiles are kinda back en vogue, so hopefully I can get my hands on some equally tiny non-beveled ones. Depending on the design, might do some black accents/patterns. As for my kitchen, they didn't do tile on the kitchen walls back then - all the cabinets (like the built in ones in butler pantries) were backed with beadboard, so I'll be doing beadboard for backsplash. Heh, if you want pics, I'll have to remember to dredge this thread up in a couple years. We're taking things slow with fixing this house up.