Thanks so much everyone for the great responses. bobo - I wish I had pictures! The great room is chock full of items we're storing due to the remodel, so that won't help, but the existing chandy is over a very nice mahogany pool table. The layout of the front entry is loosely based on my inspiration photo below (which is more country, I know, but it's what I love). Our entry will be wider, and will have double front doors almost exactly like the pic posted below except they will also have a 10' wide custom transom above the doors and sidelights, and will be stained a deep, warm brown. These doors are very rustic, but fit the exterior of the house perfectly. I plan on using a hutch, grandfather clock, etc., in the space (and maybe even the stacked oval boxes, if I can get away with it). The floors will either be wood as in the pic or similar to the stone in our kitchen, also shown below. The arch between the entry and great room may have pillars and a beam in the same stain as the front door. Uxorial - I really like your chandelier and love your log home! Auntjen - your antler chandelier is obviously very special, since your father made it for you. I'd love to see it. kitchendetective - Arte de Mexico has a store very close by and they do have wonderful items. Their furniture is beautiful although perhaps a bit more rustic than the style I'm looking for (I'm more of a country farm table and hutch person), I did notice they had great lighting choices. It's been awhile so I'll have to visit the store again. littledog and okmoreh - you said exactly what I meant to say! I want my home to be decorated in the style my dh and I find appealing - elegant rustic meets early American country (he's the rustic and I'm the country!) but don't necessarily want to decorate in objects that labeled a definitive style. It's easy to cross the line and get "campy" with rustic decorating - which can be fun but not the look I'm aiming for :) I do find antler chandeliers done right to be beautiful pieces of sculpture, so hopefully I'm on the right track! To those of you who commented on Premier's statement - I wasn't offended in the slightest as reading his/her comments on other posts over the last few months caused me to immediately disregard his/her post on this thread! Inspiration photo for furniture layout Entry doors Possible flooring

Realize this is probably obvious, but just in case.... however the herbicide is applied, you should cut through any rhizomes, stolons, or other connections between the invaders and the keepers. Doubt drops applied to the invading phlox would outright kill a connected "parent", but might weaken it. and then you yank the dead vine off the ground? ...... I wonder if it would work for elm seedlings. @vossner, Usually there is just a few inches of vine to snip off after it's dead. Included the longer section with leaves in the photos mainly to show the effect. I may be over cautious, but try to treat anything killed with herbicide like diseased vegetation - goes into the trash rather than the compost pile; another reason I prefer to apply as close to the root as possible. While the tubes should work on any plant with a small flexible stem, probably overkill for anything that can be terminated as Roselee describes. We do the same with well-rooted redbuds, hackberries, privets, oaks, etc using a small foam brush instead of a dropper.... though like the dropper idea for getting into tighter spaces without accidentally brushing herbicide onto the adjacent plants as I'm prone to do. The tubes are good for delivering higher doses to large persistent root systems (campsis radicans, honeyvine,...) or other plants that continue to sprout after other methods of application.

I don't think so, but I might look at the armoire when picking the paint -- not necessarily to match but to make sure they flow together. I am going to have blue in every room on the first floor -- and I guess I did before but we reordered things so I feel like there will be more blue. My entire downstairs is blues and browns and the upstairs has been back and browns -- I'm just trading places with the colors now with the biggest change being changing out a brown leather sectional with caramel and navy walls or lighter and dark greige/bronze walls and a deep blue leather sectional (arriving next week!). If you are a blue person, it is not to much to have it in every room. It can provide continuity and help the flor f room to room. You probably don't want it to be the dominant color in every room, but in the mix. You are working with sofIer and medium tones and using them differently in the differnt rooms. I don't think you are going to overdo it.

they often need 2 or 3 years to really put down roots, some nurseries recommend to plant them in spring as they tend to suffer after fall panting. plus, they do spread, so are definitely not the right plant for small/ narrow borders (4-5 feet or less), so don`t blame it on the plant but make sure that you can provide enough space (just like for a Great Dane...) we have mild climate (7-ish) and they are wintergreen for me, stopping shortly when it freezes, and after 5 years+ mine are almost 4 feet wide (one plant) I just pull up emerging shoots when they start crowding nice Hostas, and find them quite easy to regulate, there are far worse spreaders. But they do need some space, so yes, if your border is rather smallish, be brave, shovel prune them and jump at the opportunity to research for something new to fill he gap ;-) otherwise, (in heavy soil), they last long and are really workhorses, not fussy, and such a great show in early fall