Thank you all for the kind comments! I feel so much better. I like Magnaverde's advice, stargirl - I only wish I could follow it! ideefixe, we were thinking of having the side chairs away from the table, against another wall, most of the time. I love the idea of casters on the table - it will make the arrangement even more versatile. sossh, the room is long and narrow, something like 9' x 16' (I'm guessing, haven't measured lately. It has 3 very large paned windows and French doors, and it is reached through 2 large arches from the LR, on either side of the fireplace. It's somewhat awkward space; I think it was added on at some point. But it is very pleasant in there, with all the windows and a lot of green outside. I did think of the kids doing homework and art projects there. Jan, I will post photos when I have everything. We are planning bamboo blinds on the windows in there. newdawn, Our house is not a Dutch colonial, but it's funny that you mentioned the Father of the Bride house. I haven't seen that movie - is that the one where the mother of the bride learns that she is pregnant at the time of her daughter's wedding? If so, I've had that experience! I did remember once seeing a movie trailer with a house that looked like mine, and I did some research. I saw a photo of the FOB house, and there was a discussion about whether it was the same house used in Rumor Has It (with Shirley Maclaine and Jennifer Anniston). Apparently both houses are in Pasadena and are similar. I saw the RHI trailer on a plane and was shocked to see the house, which looks quite a bit like mine from the outside - almost the same porch. Mine is smaller, though, and less elegant, and the inside does not look the same (unfortunately!). kswl, I'm glad to hear that you've seen this set in person. The chairs look quite nice. I was hoping to order cushions for them in fabric matching the bench, but they do not do custom cushions, so I will have to have them made somewhere else. A link to the secional is below; you can click on the fabrics and the photo will change (I ordered Grand Ticking Green). The sectional is in 3 pieces; I actually ordered one of the side benches longer to fit my space. Here is a link that might be useful: Ballard upholstered sectional

Rnmomof2, in lieu of graph paper, I did a mockup in my photo program because I don't have a drawing program... and if I did it right I can get that long left side panel out of two pieces, totalling about three yards, maybe 4 to be safe. That means that panel on the left would require a whopping 6+ yards! I should double-check that on paper, though. At work we used to have huge rolls of graph paper on vellum, which would have been perfect. But in the real world those are very hard to find and cost a ridiculous amount. But I do have big plain paper and a ruler. I'll just have to figure out a scale. If I did it right, that would mean one diagonal seam in each of the sides of that panel and the entire panel would take six yards. There would be a lot of "waste" on that and I'm hoping I could get out at least some of those upper pointies out of that. Clt3 -- Thanks about the needle! You're right, the ideal and easy solution would be to find fabric that was printed with diagonal stripes. I looked on both eBay and Fabric Guru sites tonight, plus just tried to Google it. Does anyone have any other suggestions for good places to look online? Sherrmann, thanks for letting me know you appreciate that treatment like I do. I agree, it's stunning. I'm going with you and Sippi on that the panel is a rectangle. Good point about puddling -- I can just see the vacuum sucking those babies up! I found a double rod that is long enough here: http://www5.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?GrpTyp=SIZ&ItemID=117adfc&RefPage=ProductsHOM&CmCatId=25437:28415:50246&cmOrigID=104f2d9&cmPosID=1 Your tip about sewing natural fabrics prompted me to look up sewing on the bias and the fabrics I found recommended were "cotton, linen, silk broadcloth, and wool challis." EBay does have some striped linens. They won't shine, but I think it could still be pretty. I'm thinking about it. The article I read said stay away from "most rayons (stretches like crazy), silkies and polyester (slippery and hard to handle), twills (lose definition), and fabrics that are heavy or stiff, like duck or poplin. Silks and sheers like crepe de chine, charmeuse, and georgette are beautiful on the bias, but these hard-to-handle fabrics aren't a good place to begin. Move up to silky fabrics once you've conquered the stable ones." No particular fabric in mind yet. I've determined that it must be a symmetrical stripe -- otherwise if you turn it the other direction your stripes can't match up. I'm a little tight on color selection to go with my furniture, too. My couch and chair should return from the upholsterer in a couple of days (we held off today because of incessant heavy rain) and then I'll get a better feel for if I have to re-cover another piece (I can do that one myself), and if I want to use what I've already got or find something else... and I'm a bit limited there too, as it needs to warm the wood, not chill it. Anyway, that's why no I haven't zeroed in on a fabric yet. I wish you lived nearby too! Are you in the Seattle area? Daisyadair, thanks for the link. It won't help me on yardage, because of the bias, but I did determine from reading it that 5 pointies is a good ballpark for what would look good in the valance. Now I have to see if I can make that work out aesthetically. Sippi, you're right, it would not be hard to just make the valance parts, and it would be much easier to cop out on the panels, and cheaper too. But I personally think the charm is in the entire look of it, not particularly in the valances. I have a favorite site for valance patterns and I think some of those are much prettier. (Southern Living) So depending on what I find out are the yardage requirements, this is still an option... another treatment entirely. I'll be looking those over again before I make a final decision. That's an interesting theory about seaming the two 54" pieces together -- but don't I end up with an extra seam in the panels that way? I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else, but here is what I made in my photo program. I left a wee bit of the red corners (the red being the 1/2 of the entire panel shape including seam allowances) sticking out just so I could see where they were, then added the dotted lines, and here's what I came up with: The blue edged white squares represent the yardage (54" square, IOW 1 yard). The arrows show which direction the fabric could be longer and also indicate the direction of the stripes. The 1/2 yard was just a visual guess -- seems it would be less on the lower piece and more on the higher piece. Naturally, when I'm done ballparking the entire yardage I'll add some just to be safe. I've tackled a lot of tough sewing projects too, and I think this is doable. But the burning question is how bad would that diagonal seam look in the panel? In its defense, it does travel the same way as the stripes, which might make it harder for the eye to pick up... but it's easy to imagine hitting it with an iron and having it define itself. If it wouldn't look good, the only answers are either hold out for a piece of fabric printed on the diagonal that is the right color and pattern (good luck!) or give it up, at least somewhat smug that I've mostly figured it out. lol! I did see one piece on eBay that was tons of yardage and 54" wide, but the color was wrong for my living room unless I change the color of my fainting couch to something I haven't yet found. I'm hemmed in by two things: 1.) The couch and chair are about to return from the upholsterer all rebuilt and covered in deep tomato red mohair velvet, and 2.) the fainting couch wood sings with warm earth tones, but dies with blues and greens or grey tones on it. Bringing a room together sure is a bear in the planning stages, isn't it? Again, thanks everyone! If I build these I will for sure post a picture here for you all to see. At this point my next plan is to mock this out on paper, and try to get the remainer of it included so I can make an educated guestimate at the amount of yardage I need. But I'm still interested in everyone's opinion on if that seam could be pulled off in each half of the panel without looking crummy. I'd hate to go to all that expense and work and then have a bad result. What do you think? I'm thinking it might depend on the type of fabric I use, but I don't know which type would be better or worse. If nothing else, if I cop out and do a different valance and plain panels, I'll be appreciating how easy it is compared to this! :-)

Thanks bmorepanic. Exactly right, there is a spectrum of styles that would work which creates too many options. In the end, it's hard not to let price be the deciding factor. Why pay $25+ a sq/ft if it's no more inspiring than $7 a sq/ft really? The issue of where to start and stop the tile is another thing we can't resolve, especially because of that angled corner. Oh well, any strong opinions are welcomed because we're about ready to toss up our arms in defeat.

James , then you must have the same Lady Lucille that I have. Unregistered and sold by All American .....none of their Lady series are registered daylilies and thus the confusion as they name their daylilies whatever they want and do not recognize the difficulty this presents when they name a daylily the same name as an already registered daylily . What really frustrates me is that I wasted the money on an unregistered daylily that was misrepresented . After I planted it and it bloomed and looked nothing like the registered version I was wanting, I contacted the seller and that was when they fessed up to it being the wrong plant. Not a great business practice in my mind. Here is the picture of the registered version of Lady Lucille by Warrell borrowed from the AHS database . It looks nothing like the one that was sold to me .