I don't care for furniture at an angle. Maybe I've just never seen it done well. We have a large amount of square footage, but the rooms aren't large. White, white, and off-white is popular here. It always looks to me like the people just didn't know what to do and left it. The biggest reason is most people think it brightens up a room during the winter. I always think they look rather stark and their artwork isn't always shown to it's best. My mom had the pottery barn look in the early sixties, when everyone else was going with the brown, gold and green trinity. Her walls were painted a soft sage with a silvery base tone. Crisp white cafe' curtains and white wool carpeting. It was a very pretty house and those color walls were in the bedrooms and bathroom, too. She loved that house. I like color in my house and in our former home the kids rooms were all kid colors (pink, blue and yellow) our playroom was yellow and we did the office in a burgandy and our living room was a deep eggplant. I wanted colors in this house, but it has those type of walls where there aren't good stopping and starting points. I ended up putting the colors on the ceilings. I have 8 foot in most rooms, 10 in the entry and several tall stairwells. Our living room is 11 x 14 and only has one window. I knew my eggplant wouldn't work well, so I mixed it half with a glaze and put it on the ceiling. I really like the effect. One thing I've learned with colors (ranging from whites to everything else) is that you need either a warm or cool base depending upon what else is in the house. If your woodwork is a mahogany color, it will need a base with red tones. If it's a light oak or maple it may need a base with yellow tones. You can get any color in a warm or cool base, so it's not like you can't have blue if you have a warm base, you just have to match it to the right type. My current house has cream walls in a warm base. If you put it next to a stark cold white it almost has a peach tint. Get it away from the cool base and it returns to cream. Using that as my guide I have the purple living room, a peach dining room ceiling, sage green kitchen, blue sewing room, gold hallways, a jadite green in the entry, a pink in a couple of niche areas, navy blue and grey in another area. All of the colors were tinted with a warm base and the eye doesn't read conflicting colors. When you walk into my front door you see four different ceilings and since they are all separate they are four different colors. They all look good together. Since I've carried the theme of the colors only on the ceiling in most of the house you don't get the feeling of "too much" even though there are 17 colors, total. If you have painted woodwork you can take the cue from your wood furniture and then just repaint the woodwork. Warm or cool, red or yellow. I've found Benjamin Moore paint to have a really good color system. Each is marked W or C for the base and you can figure out what type of warm. They also have a paint finish called Pearl. It's pricy, but it's almost like pudding and goes on in one coat, I kid you not. I just painted my bedroom a deep, deep sage and we covered white in one coat. When I used Ralph Lauren on another project it took three coats to cover in a deep color. Since we have pickeled oak cabinets in the kitchen and red oak laminate as well as terra cotta tiles in the halls, it was easy to work with the warm bases here. My cabinets have actually taken on a peachy hue since the painting has been done and I picked up on that with tan, peach and sage green 12" vinyl tiles in the kitchen. Pick a room and get brave. Don't feel like you have to go with the trendy deep colors if you prefer light colors. I love pastels, so I always have some even though I'm still having my affair with the eggplant. Just match those bases to wood and fabric and I think you'll be happy with the results. Gloria

Thanks guys - I'm quite humbled by your lovely words of my attempts to cobble things together and create something out of almost nothing! Would def. like to check out the Laura Spencer show. Will have to google that. I have the White Room Challenge DVR'd. Will watch it tomorrow during DD nap. There was another new show that was to be on HGTV and I had it set up to record but they aired an episode of HH International instead. Was kind of bummed but didn't dwell. Hooked On Houses is a fun blog to visit!

On another note, I did read a blog post that interviewed a recipient of one of their remodels. It sounded like a pretty positive experience overall. They mentioned that they were surprised and impressed with the quality of the renovations and that they do the entire house but only stage a few rooms, the ones we see. That they were gifted a few items that Joanne did especially for them but that they do have to buy most of the other staging stuff if they want to keep it. They also said that Chip is pretty much how he appears on air while Joanne is pretty quiet but you can see she is always thinking about the reno and design. They did not become best friends with them, lol. I suspect they are pretty busy people now with all they have going on with there little Wacko empire. Despite some of the many flaws, it is a big hit for the network. I tweeted a plea to bring the Sarah's Cottage Rental to the US. I think I'll post it on their Facebook too. I suggest you all do the same, I do think they might just consider it if they know there is an audience here that is tired of shiplap!

I finally watched it yesterday....liked some things, didn't like others. I actually liked the orange and thought it was a nice departure from the typical blue, aqua, pale greens that are typical beach house colors. All the "stuff"...yes, too much, especially for a beach rental. Would he even know if someone walked off with some of it? I didnt mind the bench seating in the DR....it is supposed to be casual and I think of kids sitting there mostly...but agree, not conducive to a leisurely meal or sipping wine. DH has often taken calls while on vacation, so the desk in the BR did not bother me...I guess if you have to work...a glimpse of the beach wouldnt be bad. And that is what it was...a glimpse. For that $$, I would want a house right on the beach and not have to look out onto rooftops with the beach behind them. Anyplace on that first level to stow all the beach gear....boogie boards, towels, chairs, etc.? Lugging groceries, etc... up to the second floor....uh, no. Liked the all white color scheme...but those dark floors will show every speck...not a good thing, especially in a rental. Didn't really show the kitchen at all...why was that skipped over? All the white tile and grout....super hard to keep up. From what I could tell..the pool almost looked too small to be worth all the trouble. Was really surprised he wanted the landscaping all lined up like an English estate....especially at a casual beach house! A natural landscape can be orderly too. Cracks me up that he will rent it out...he definitely seems like the type that would not want strangers sleeping in his house.