The first and least expensive thing you need to do to lighten up the kitchen is to repaint it going a shade or two lighter of the same color paint. It looks like you've painted the greatroom and kitchen with the same paint but because the kitchen doesn't get a much light as the great room, using a lighter shade in the darker room will help fool the eye into thinking the rooms are more equally lighted. Next, and this may be a totally crazy idea but... It looks like you've got tons of natural light in the adjoining great room so I was wondering what you could do to borrow some of that light. Your arches and columns, combined with the dark wood (especially the dark ceiling beams) in your kitchen, plus the dark metal scrollwork on your lighting fixtures AND the fact that you have steps going up from the great room into the kitchen put me very much in mind of the "gothic cathedrals" in Europe. And that led to this idea. How about adding a "rose window" effect above the central archway leading between great room and kitchen to let more light into the kitchen. Attached is a link to an image of a rose window over an arched opening leading from the nave to the high alter of a cathedral that will give you a better idea of what is inspiring my idea. Basically, I think this would mean cutting a large round hole (like a round window) in the wall above the central archway and then inserting metal scrollwork to give the impression of a rose window. This would doubtless require a bit of reframing but it would cost a lot less than trying to add additional windows on the exterior kitchen wall. And, extra light from your greatroom would pass through the hole into your kitchen. Then, to make the rose window look like it was part of the original plan, you could find (or have made) some similar but smaller pieces of gothic scrollwork to hang over the archways leading to your front door and over the niche on the wall opposite the kitchen. Add a metal scrollwork quadrifoil design to the front of your hood (that smaller 4-leaf clover shaped window you see at the very back on the inspiration picture is a quadrifoil) and your stove very subtly become the "high alter" of your home. LOL! I'm also thinking that if you eventually find the western sun creates too much glare, you could hang stained glass in the kitchen windows instead of curtaining or shading them - which of course would add to the gothic cathedral impression. Anyway, I know its a crazy idea but sometimes you it helps to think outside the box. Here is a link that might be useful:

I also want to simplify the seasonal decorating, but I love the chance to make the house look different -- glitzy and colorful instead of soothing and streamlined. I enjoy doing the deck the halls thing, but what bothers me is putting it all away. There's just two of us in a 1700 square foot house. Indoors I set up a 4-foot fake tree, and a 12-inch ceramic tree a favorite aunt made 40 years ago. I put away mugs and bring out Christmas mugs and glasses. I have a couple sets of placemats, some ornaments I place in glass bowls on the mantle, and a fake wreath on the door. I've switched to nets of lights on a few shrubs out front. They are easier than strings, go on fast, and don't tangle. I store the extension cord and timer with the lights. I used to do more. Real wreaths around the house inside, candles, homemade garlands, stockings, framed favorite cards that replaced other hanging art, pointsettias, centerpieces, and even Santa rubber ducks in the bathrooms! I dreaded those first weeks of January. Besides trimming down the trimmings, I found that storage is key to sanity. I have two large storage bins, one marked Gift Wrapping, for sale stuff I buy after Christmas and leftover ribbons, etc., and another box marked Tree Trimming. Ornaments get wrapped in tissue and set there. I also use 5-gallon plastic tubs. They stack and are easily labelled -- Christmas kitchen, Ceramic tree, Outdoor lights. One thing I've learned to do to fine tune our Christmas celebrating is to make a list of suggestions to myself after the holidays, suggestions that I'll read around Thanksgiving time next year. This has been a big help to someone who wants to get carried away with cooking and decorating, forgetting from year to year how long everything takes.

My 2 cents...if it were my room I'd go with the lighter color you posted in the first set of pix. Stay with the red WT, and the original gold leather. Love the lantern chandy. I'd do the ceiling in the gold in your last photo. I am not loving the greenish chairs in that room. It seems like yet another color competing with the vibrant colors of the rug. Alternatively, if you go with the last color you posted, stay with the red drapes. They really work great. I did a faux stucco finish in my kitchen, and I love it so much that I did it in the master bath, too. I used joint compound (used for sheetrock seams) and spread it on thinly. Then went over it with a damp sponge, pushed it in, then pulled off, leaving spikes. Then knocked that down with a trowel. Once it dried (waited a couple days) I painted it an ivory color then went over that with an antique glaze. I find it quite easy to clean, the glaze acted like a sealer. I can't photograph it well, so no pic, but if you really wanted one I'd try to do it again.

A floor plan will really help. It will let us see what lights you can see from where. Is your faucet and your hardware both chrome? and your door handles the dark finish. I can't tell if it is antique brass or not? What is your DR chandy - is it brass? You need to figure out, if you are following the article that you posted what category each of the above elements fall into. (the faucet, hardware, etc.) My feeling is that you have already mixed your metals. For example - in the kitchen you have chrome hardware/faucet (step 1). Step 2 would indicate picking a matching metal which you did with the island light and either of the window lights. (I prefer A2 as it adds another element - the white glass shade - into the mix while retaining the metal. Where I am bogging down is in the transition areas between the rooms which is why a floorplan would be helpful. For the foyer/LR I would pick H2 and J1 but that is subject to change depending on the floorplan and how the rooms are connected. Edited to add: Don't forget, unlike a bathroom, a kitchen comes with other metals. What are your appliances, pots/pans, cutlery. What are your plans for your stools - any metal there? In your foyer, LR and GR - does any of the furniture have any metal in them and if so - what type. Are any of your accessories metal. How about your backsplash. This thought and question was triggered while I was just in my kitchen and happened to notice my copper backsplash which is behind and underneath my stainless steel range and vent. My hardware and faucets are brushed nickel while my lights in the eating area and family room are aged bronze. My pendants are a mix of the two and act as a transition. I treated each `area of the house as a separate area. Kitchen/eating area/family room is one area while the DR and LR was treated as a separate area. Because the Kitchen/eating area/family room had a mix of metals I felt comfortable using either of those 2 metals in other rooms. The copper backsplash was my jumping off point for using copper in a variety of accessories throughout the house.. So, 3 metals throughout the house. This post was edited by blfenton on Wed, Nov 5, 14 at 18:30