Very do-able, and if I were doing subways [I'm not], I'd definetly go with a herringbone. I 'get' the running bond look, but I've seen it so much lately it doesn't have much impact anymore. But combining with the tin could be a little tough: tin tiles [I assume we are talking about the embossed ceiling tiles] are generally too large and the wrong size to integrate easily. So I'd do the herringbone with no accent all around the room, then switch to a more 'picture frame' look with subways, chair rail and mitered corners over the range. I'd choose the tin tile [or tiles or medallion] now, and have it glued to a flame proof MDF for mounting. Then I'd screw [using the pattern of the tile to camoflauge the screw heads] the assembly to the wall and have the tile laid to fit around it exactly. This will give you the option of unscrewing the tin tiles at some point down the road and replaceing it with a mosaic or other accent piece without disturbing the subway frame. Since the tin could be painted, you could change it to match your accent color as often as you please. If you wanted to get *really whacky*, you could even buy enough tin now for several different centers, paint/finish them differently, and change them out with the seasons. But choose the tin carefully: it needs to be interesting, but not so textured as to catch grease, and rigid enough to take a good scrubbing without squishing.

You need to be careful when making fixtures. If you are building a house, the fixtures may not pass electrical code. We have advised individuals the following: 1. Where you need to have a light, go to Home Depot, Lowe's or Habitat for Humanity and buy a new cheap fixture to hang there for the time being. It will be cheaper than time and parts to make a chandelier. Use that until you are ready to purchase what you really want. 2. Where you want to put a light but don't need to have it right away (i.e., ceiling fan, bedroom light, etc.) just have the electrician wire for the fixture and put a cap on it. If you need to have a light there to pass code, get a keyless or pull chain porcelain fixture with a bare bulb. 3. If you should have cathedral ceilings and need to hang a foyer light from 12' or more, you should look into a ceiling lift. Although expensive, you can have this put in and then put your own fixture up. The lift allows you to lower and raise a ceiling fixture so you won't need to have an electrician back with an extremely tall ladder or lift. You can lower the lift and wire the fixture yourself. If you are intent on making your own fixture, you can get wiring and ceiling plates probably by Googling it or going on eBay, but I would really seriously think about doing really cheap fixtures with UL listing before putting the time into making my own fixture and then not have it pass inspection.

Everyone's always going on about "moisture on the walls" and "moisture on the ceiling" in bathrooms - doesn't anyone use an exhaust fan??? In our previous house I took hour-long scalding-hot baths and DH took lengthy, steamy showers (he worked out a lot and would be very sore later) and we never had moisture on the walls or the ceilings or the spendy handprinted wallpaper borders because we used our fan religiously! It was an 8x8 room and the window and mirror didn't even fog in the slightest if you turned on the fan. We invested in a very quiet fan so we could run it during a bath/shower without feeling like we were under a jet engine, but it wasn't expensive as these things go. (If you don't need a light, an 80cfm Panasonic WhisperCeiling fan can be had under $100. We had to get up on a stepstool directly underneath our fan to hear it, and we only had 7.5' ceilings there!) We also did not use the "bathroom and kitchen paint" in our main bathroom - I got talked into it for the secondary bathroom and hated the shiny finish. What was the place you were looking at for the "faux tin"? Surfacing Solution has white styrene faux tin panels for $12 each delivered, no minimum order, and by my (admittedly bad and probably wrong LOL) math you only need 8 of them. That's $96. It's more than the $12 but installation looks extremely easy and you can even prefinish them before installing. They can go right over popcorn ceilings once you vacuum off any loose chunks. I ordered samples and while they looked kind of chintzy sitting on the kitchen counter, but when I taped the piece to the ceiling even unfinished it looked surprisingly good. We're considering doing tin ceiling for the entire first floor (because it's far cheaper than having the rather trashed ceilings all replastered or sheetrocked!) and will probably use this product because we're both cheap and lazy. :-) (Thanks to Les for recommending it.)

DH and I talked about a cherry kitchen in our future, but after he convinced me to completely replace our white cabinets so we could start fresh, I couldn't see that much brown. I've always been partial to white kitchens and when I went through kitchen photos, at least 80-90% of those I was drawn to were white. Sooo.... I would call our kitchen transitional I had never seen or heard of Christopher Peacock and white kitchens were not so popular, but I think the shaker and similar plainer front cabinets were, so going simpler seemed a popular choice. It was driven by hating the heavy moldings on our custom cabinets (wall trim used on cabinet doors). It made a statement, but that and the short counters meant every drip got caught on the paint and stained -- and there were lots of grooves to clean. DH is s slob in the kitchen. I had to have something very simple so the choice was desperation, not fashion. Our tile had to be patched in the reno and was done poorly, so we later replaced the floor. The dark wood was probably a popular choice then, but it fit our house. Risky -- did white marble counters in both the cooking and clean up zones before it was making every magazine cover. I am not a granite person, didn't like my mom's Corian and the cool recycled glass was uber expensive and didn't really go with our house. I saw a slab of marble with squiggles that reminded me of the stray marks on old ink drawings and thought of Da Vinci (my boys and I were into him) and I had to have it. End of story. Other not so safe choices -- I did three cabinet finishes (wall of tall blue storage surrounding my fridge and knotty cherry island and hutch in the breakfast room, did a 3 tile combo (from 2 different sources) for the inset in my backsplash, and mixed metal finishes on hardware, lighting and faucets. All of the above plus the fact that the layout was designed by me to maximize every inch of possible function for the way we wanted it to work and adding fridge drawers to our hutch made it right for us. I designed it to make me happy and with no consideration for resale or what others would think. My favorite design element -- the different cabinet finishes -- the wall of blue as a backdrop plus the knotty cherry -- and the custom leaded glass in the uppers of the hutch. But my favorite thing is how it functions. DH even said out loud last night (8 years later) how he loves the way we designed the kitchen. It just works for us. I'd say the marble and the three cabinet finishes were a bit of a ledge, maybe mixing metals -- no regrets. We didn't name our kitchen, but we had in mind a couple of things -- an old bakery or ice cream parlor and kind of the gentrified plantation/ranch style of the rest of our home. I also kept saying I wanted a workhorse, not a showplace. It needed to be almost understated and yet, at the same time, go big or go home. Probably doesn't make any sense, but no sissy stuff here. The sparkly bridge faucet, chandelier over the island -- beautiful, but didn't fit here.