"Catawba" stone from western VA, black walnut timber for the mantel and ceiling beam, and a Jotul woodstove installed but not shown in this photo. The massive stone structure acts as a heat-sink when the woodstove is cranking, giving off the heat absorbed after the fire dies. The stone was cut on-site and the masons used a "lick-and-stick" minimal mortar technique. From Lighting Here's a shot from the other side... From Lighting Below is a link to Hearth.com with lots of other photos of fireplaces, though the stone sources are not listed. Here is a link that might be useful: Fireplace photo gallery

I like the look of a bench at the end of the bed, but since I consider making the bed to be an annoyance in general, I just think having a bench there would make it even more of a pain. We don't have a footboard because DH is too tall, so making the bed is easy when you just have to throw the quilt on -- if I had to be tucking it in front of a bench, I'd probably start off my day cranky! Just me and my own issues, LOL.

Thank you Sky and Allison for your quick replies! Our living room is used more often now that we have a tv in it (the family room with its HUGE tv is sometimes more overwhelming than I want it to be and our living room has "my" Direct tv dvr in it so I live here now lol). I don't have any pics yet; I couldnt find their "whole shebang" sets online. Jordans is a major furniture store in the boston area and the only one (of Jordans, Bernie and Phyls, and Bob's Discount Furniture) to offer returns/refunds within 7 days less delivery (and pickup) charges. Soooo...for $200 (delivery is $99 and if we return another $99) its worth it to me to accept it all and then return it if necessary. I guess I am just afraid of the glass being too cold or overly formal. But every wood set they showed us, it was just tooo informal. We ordered new carpet from Home Depot last week so we want to put off delivery of our furniture til at least then. I can't believe I convinced DH to even go looking; he told me afterwards that he knew we'd be buying something today lol. He knows me much too well!

Thanks for the pics! I'm hoping for something less like a giant rectangle and more like a piece of furniture. I'm not sure how else to describe it. Seems really hard to find pics of what I'm looking for, I've been scouring the net and so far not much.