This one is growing warm. Now, without any special effort it photographed black, the Dracula Raven despite all different angles and lights never did, always a little brown. To the naked eye, both look the same. Does the different photographing characteristic imply that one is darker, more black? Nick

What a breathtaking picture. Now I know it is time to go back there....last time we drove through was in 1966. Thanks for sharing.

Paint samples are on the brick, and it's down to Revere Pewter and Balboa Mist. I much preferred the more gray beige over the more brown tones. (romy718, Revere Pewter is lovely in your room!) Practigal, the fireplace is purely decorative. It originally held a gas heater, so it's not deep enough to burn wood anyway; we capped the chimney when the brick mortar started to fall apart, and we capped the gas line to that part of the house when they detected a tiny leak, so we couldn't use it even if we wanted to. It is kind of weird to pick a paint without the context of other decor. I do have a rug that's going in the room, so I'm referring to it. The furniture that's going in that room now is the leftover reject material from the rest of the house. I want to put in some cozy Craftsman style seating--maybe a Morris chair and a rocker--but that will have to wait until the bank account recovers. So I'm just going to pick the best color I can for now. I can always repaint it later. The corbels arrived (I don't know if ArchitecturalDepot.com is always that fast, but they got it to me overnight when I paid for three-day shipping) and I'm working on finding stain to match the mantel. I'll get back this next week--we spent today moving stuff out of storage, and I've got boxes to put away. But it's so cool to see the progress. Oh, and my husband's reaction was a sort of bemused resignation. This isn't the first time I've jumped head-first into a project without consulting him. Sometimes this goes very well; other times it's a disaster. He asked me today if it was too soon to tease me about the bookcases (which I purchased from Ikea and assembled before we realized I had measured wrong and they wouldn't fit in the space--and that therefore required some pretty major engineering to make work). (I told him yes, it was too soon. Way too soon.) The fireplace looks to be not only a success but also one that doesn't require any effort on his part, and as he's teaching an accelerated summer chemistry course and has almost no spare time, that's a win!

I find it easier to find fabric I love and only then pick a paint color. If you find the perfect fabric or rug, you can repaint. It’s only a gallon or two of paint and a weekend to change paint. Even a custom paint is only $ 50.