Renovator8, were you replying to me? We already have a plan, which I've posted and you've commented on :) Regardless, though, I'll chime in ... In most living rooms, it seems to me that either the TV or the fireplace is the focal point of a room. I don't want to have a beautiful fireplace and then have it be an afterthought, with the furniture arranged around the TV. (And with three little ones, the focus IS going to be on the TV! And as my youngest is not even 2, I want them to be close by, not in a different room, where I can't keep an eye on them.) I've seen some other arrangements, such as having the TV next to the fireplace, but I'm not really wild about those, either. (I am, however, desperately trying to convince my husband that we should get a smaller TV for above our fireplace, as our current monstrosity would look, frankly, ridiculous.)

If you do the vanity in a cabinet line, you can do a 24" sink base with a 21" drawer base to one side or the other, and 1" of filler against the wall. Or, there are several cabinet lines that offer 42" combo's with drawers. A simple and easy way to get a furniture look is to simply do baseboard molding instead of toekick. Or, do an attached arched valance as an extension of the frame downward. Either of those is cheaper than voiding the toekick and having cabinet feet attached in the field.

In my (more than 20 years) experience, polished nickel does not have any greater tendency to stain than any other metal used in faucet fixtures, if the fixtures are a higher grade manufacture. In general it is better to stick to one metal finish as much as possible however, the range hood is a "WOW" factor and can be treated as such....a stand alone piece that has a different metal finish.

Another New York Times article about the things we love, How Low Will Market for Antiques Actually Go? Just part of the article, Compared with the heyday of antiques collecting, prices for average pieces are now “80 percent off,” said Colin Stair, the owner of Stair Galleries auction house in Hudson, N.Y. “Your typical Georgian 18th century furniture, chests of drawers, tripod tables, Pembroke tables,” he noted, can all be had for a fraction of what they cost 15 to 20 years ago. In 2002, Mr. Stair sold a set of eight George III-style carved mahogany chairs for $8,000; in 2016, he sold a similar set of eight chairs for $350. In 2003, he dispatched a Regency breakfront bookcase for $9,500; in 2016, the sales price of an equivalent piece had plummeted to $1,300. ... Dealers, auctioneers and designers point to a number of reasons for the declining interest in antiques and rapid rise of contemporary design. More homes have open-concept, casual living spaces rather than formal dining rooms and studies, which reduces the need for stately mahogany dining tables, chairs and cabinets. “In these big rooms, a contemporary piece becomes a piece of sculpture,” said Christine Van Deusen, a New York designer who recently commissioned numerous custom creations from Maison Gerard, Cristina Grajales Gallery and Iliad for a client’s duplex penthouse on the Upper East Side. “Vintage and antiques are finite, but creativity is infinite, so I can do things that I could not do if I were only looking for things that were in existence.” Midpriced retailers like Restoration Hardware, West Elm and CB2 make it easy to buy tasteful furniture on the cheap, with little hunting required. And a new generation of homeowners may be rebelling against the preferences of their elders. “The 40-something crowd isn’t looking to put a highboy in their house,” said Ethan Merrill, the third-generation president of Merrill’s auctioneers and appraisers near Burlington, Vt. (and Todd Merrill’s brother). “They relate more to pop culture, fashion-oriented materials and rock ‘n’ roll.” ... Will other 18th and 19th century furniture pieces ever return to fashion? Many designers say that antiques will rise again but, after nearly two decades of decline, few are willing to predict when. “The pendulum is going to swing just like it does in politics,” said Mr. Hayes. “It always does. But I don’t see it coming anytime soon.” Jamie Drake, the New York interior designer, also views the current dismissal of antiques as a trend, “just as color trends have moved from neutrals to vibrants, back to neutrals, back to vibrants,” he said. In his own home, most of the furniture and art is contemporary and modern, “but I do still have some antiques,” he said. A home without them, he added, “would be like a sentence without punctuation.”