It has to be your decision whether you keep it or let it go, but that is not what your original question was. You are buying new furniture, new coffee table, new wood flooring, and more than likely will be using an area rug. All these elements are going to change the look and style of your room entirely. The piano appears to be a nice, rich looking wood, and looks nice as is. The black painted pictures that folks have posted look great also. I would wait until everything else is done in the room before I made the decision. The fabrics you use, the finish on the table, etc may help you decide whether you want black or stain. This is not a criticism, just a fact - I notice you don't have grand architectural features such as a fireplace, built-in shelving, high-end trims, etc. I feel comfortable saying this because I DON'T EITHER (LOL). Something as simple as a piano can become a nice focal point - something to put a pretty lamp on or a unique piece of pottery or any type of pretty vignette. Or a spot to do some gorgeous Christmas decorating. I personally strugle with this issue, so I would probably embrace the piano, if it were in my home, and I had room for it. I sometimes envy the rooms that have a mantel or buffet or built-in or grandma's old secretary to be decorated. Hope this makes sense! Again, I do encourage you to wait before you make your decision and let the room tell you what to do. Tuesday

We just got some handmade pendants at home depot and we had to go through about 13 to select the 3x for our island! Some were crooked, the glass was weird, or cracked! The last time we opened them all up in the store. So to answer your question, YES it would bother me haha! Of course with yours being custom, and from so far away, maybe you could do a workaround and make some type of trim to go at the opening and even out the crookedness? I could see it being problematic getting replacements. Seeing how picky I was w/ the home depot ones, my husband was verrry glad that we didn't do custom hand blown pendants. Me too! But yours are really soooo pretty!! :-)

Nlpie, I'm a little late to this party but have my 2 cents to add. Also, want to echo others comments that you have a gorgeous house and cabinets. First, a good friend of mine had her cabinets painted by a top notch professional crew. They did a first class job, and the finish held up for years. I think that with some changes you can have a wonderful kitchen either staying with natural cabinets or going creamy off-white. I'm mainly struck by your your lack of artificial lighting. The pot lights aren't even on in the kitchen ceiling. If there are no under cabinet, or above cabinet lights, please add both. Rather than just changing the lighting above the island, what about adding two skylights if this is a single story house? There are both layers of artificial light and skylights in my kitchen. It all makes a huge difference. Along the same line, I would add 3 floating shelves on either side of the large wall clock. Have led lighting built into each self to shine down, with lighting to shine up from the top shelf. Then add fine art decorative glass vases on the shelves. Rather than the clock, replace with a large painting which will have fine art lighting. Both the counter and the back splash go well with the wood cabinets. However, the counter and tile do not look good together imho, too busy. I would go with the cream crackle tile bluebell has shown, whether the cabinets are painted or not. It's always fun coming up with ideas for others to spend $$$. I'm really looking forward to seeing you kitchen when it's completed.

Those are good pictures of the stone. The close up looks different than the picture slightly further away. In the close up the stone looks a little pink. Does it look like that in person? I'm still not feeling the white, but you could have something that's lighter than what you have now. Look at the mid to light tones in Benjamin Moore's Historical colors: Putnam Ivory, Shaker Beige, Litchfield Gray, Grant Beige, Manchester Tan, Stonington Gray. You will have to do some sampling to determine which undertone will work. Since you seem to have good sun only part of the day, look at your samples several times during the day, also from varying distances from the house. I know everyone hopes there is an easy way to do this, but there isn't. If you can find a color consultant locally that might be a way to get to the right color quicker. If you're paying to have this work done you don't want to shortcut the decision making process.