What a nice space for a garden. I like the rock wall. What kind of light does this area get? Dappled sun and shade all year like in the photo, or either more sun or more shade during the growing season? What is your soil like? I find it difficult to tell how large the area is, so a ballpark estimate would help to tell what there is space for. I'd start with removing any non-garden plants growing here and then mulch (cardboard with cut-outs for the hosta with an organic mulch like chopped leaves or wood chips on top) and weed a lot the first year so that when you add plants your weeding and maintenance will be minimal. Since this area will be visible as folks go in and out of the door, having plants with year-round interest and/or some ornament such as sculpture or a birdbath will be important in making this area appealing. I think I would try to plant mostly lower growing items in the front part of the garden, or at least airy plants so that the stone wall is a visible feature. If some of these are evergreen/gold/red, they will provide interest in the winter. In the upper part behind the stone wall, if there is room I'd add background plants with year round interest such as a colored foliage evergreen, and /or variegated red-twigged dogwood, ones that would stand out well against the light walls. With any woody plants, check the ultimate size and be sure you have room to paint or do maintenance behind it if it isn't a plant like the dogwoods which don't mind being cut to the ground. If there is enough light, a pretty trellis with a clematis that gets cut back in the winter (type 3 pruning) would feature the clematis in the growing season and the trellis in the winter. I would probably put a row of low-growing or easily pruned evergreens such as one of the smaller boxwood varieties under the window to provide winter interest and then plant the rest of the area with perennials to give you more interest in the growing season. Particularly in a smaller garden such as this that is in such a prominent place, thinking about varying the foliage color and texture (as you are doing in thinking about adding coral bells) will help add interest to the garden when there aren't many blooms. In addition to the library as a resource, Pennsylvania has public gardens that might give you inspiration, both for plants and for design. Here is a link that might be useful: Pennsylvania public gardens

luckygal - Wow, so many great suggestions, I don't know where to begin! Thank you so much! I like the idea of marrying the colors with the fabrics, and carefully bringing in the secondary colors - I have a feeling it's going to take some trial and error to get the right balance of color, but that's part of the fun - right? The blue mason jars, fabric valance, and wood blinds all sound lovely! I'll play around with fabric prints and colors some more too. As for my style, as I look through my inspiration photos, it seems to be simple, clean traditional (lots of white kitchens), with some cottage and french country touches - nothing too fancy, fussy or rustic. I think modern traditional/cottage would be a good description. The rest of our new fixer upper house is a blank slate right now, so I think I need to be careful to keep the same feel in our fairly open first floor. Thank you again for your fantastic ideas! :) nosoccermom - That is a Very good point! My mockups were probably not very fair to H and I. I've added some "beadboard" to the mockups below. (Well, to the best of my ability!) Fun2BHere - So glad you like it! I'll definitely take a trip to the fabric store before committing to anything. And thanks for the ikat link! lavender_lass - You changed your vote! So, green walls/backsplash with tiny touches of blue - got it! :) I have so many different combinations of colors to try! (The key for me is going to be keeping it fun instead of stressing about it!) I'm 99% sure we're going to keep the butcherblock. :) Thanks again for your suggestions! andreadeg - You are too sweet! Thank you! :) I agree with you completely about the beadboard width. I think we definitely need a wide beadboard or v groove plank since our cabinets are so chunky. Do you think the width of the backsplash planks should match the cabinet stile and rail width exactly (3.5") or should be a touch bigger or smaller? That's a great idea to get the lighting installed and let things "brew" some more (I am itching to get the chandelier hung!). I think we'll definitely do that. Ah! Painting the inside of the glass cabinets! I love that! Thank you!!! The windows trim is Definitely getting painted, either Simply White to match the rest of the trim in the house, or Cloud White to match the cabinets. (The trim around the sink window will touch the cabinets, so I'm thinking maybe the kitchen trim should match the cabinets...what do you think?) Thanks again for your wonderful ideas and kind compliments! :) work_in_progress_08 - Thank you for your advice and vote! I too am a lover of soft colors. I'm strongly leaning towards keeping the kitchen palette light (with the exception of the black, of course). I think we will keep the butcherblock. The black counters are temporary (and budget driven), they are butcherblock that was stained black with india ink and sealed with poly. I want to eventually change them out with soapstone or granite. loribee - Thanks so much for your vote! teresa_nc7 - Thank you for your advice! I will be sure to visit the fabric store before making a final decision on the fabric. Where can I find examples of cottage geometric prints? That sounds intriguing! geokid - Thanks for your vote and that rug is very pretty! It might be a bit too saturated for the kitchen, but I'm going to keep it in mind for the den/living room. :) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * You are all so wonderful! Thank you again for your terrific ideas and advice! (I am so relieved and grateful to have your help to figure this out!) Some decisions made: 1) We are keeping the butcherblock! 2) I don't think I have the guts to go for the blue backsplash (my apologies to the G lovers!), so it will be green, or....perhaps even white (see below) 3) Green will stay as the main color, and I'll try my best to carefully weave in some blue (plus tiny touches of something in the red/pink family for a bit more warmth) 4) I think we need to go for a wider beadboard or v groove backsplash to balance out the chunky cabinets, instead of the traditional skinny beadboard. Backsplash width example: A great point was made that the white backsplash needed beadboard to get the true feel. I tried to add beadboard below ("try" being the key word!). We will be sure to try Both the green and white in real life before deciding. What do you think? Very rough Beadboard Mockups: If we go with "I" below, I think I'd like to have green beadboard for the butcherblock counter, and paint the back of the glass cabinet blue so the kitchen isn't too white: Thanks again, everyone!! :)

Thanks everyone, especially Les and Justgotabme for your suggestions and the mock-up. Visuals are so amazing! I never would have thought to do the one basket on its side, and it looks great! Les, I really like your suggestion of the platter on a stand, too. I'd been looking for something like that, as well, but haven't had any luck so far. If I can find something that would be a nice option. I had considered some ceramic urns or something along those lines, but getting a heavy pot nine feet and more up a ladder is a little daunting. The baskets are much lighter. :-) I hadn't really planned to keep _all_ of the baskets...but the mockup may change my mind. That really does look great. Thanks for putting the effort in, Justgotabme! Now (after the holiday weekend) I just need to find either a platter and/or some dried botanicals to play with. :-) I'll try to post pictures when I eventually get it put together, but it will probably be a couple of weeks anyway before I have time to gather the other pieces. Thanks again! Cheri

So... This room is still not done. We ordered the tile and it had issues so we had to send it back. Tried twice with different lot numbers and the tile had issues both tmes. So I had to go back to the drawing board which was extremely frustrating! I ended up selecting the tile below in 24x48 format. But I'm not sure how to lay it out. Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd bump this old thread and see if I can get some input. I don't know how to word this but if you are looking at the photo in the very first post, would you put the tile in portrait orientation (short edge faces fireplace) or landscape orientation (long edge face fireplace)? My intuition is portrait but the tile installer said most designers would go with landscape because it is a wide room. However, it's only a "wide" room if you count the two rooms as one. You can see in that first photo that this is really two rooms with a large opening in between; and if you consider this as two rooms then they are "tall" rooms rather than wide. Thoughts on orientation? Other question is whether I should lay this out in a grid pattern or staggered. With the original 24x24 tile it would have been a grid, but not so sure with 24x48. And not sure about grout. I usually hate to see grout lines but with such large tile there are fewer grout lines so it might be interesting to provide some contrast. Here is the tile from the manufacturer's brochure: