The thing about using just a colored island is that island can be repainted later. If you want to go spring lilac or sunshine yellow or red lipstick, it's not nearly as much work, and it still makes a huge instant change. It's like having a nice white summer dress that you can dress up with whatever color cotton cardigan that you feel in the mood for by just digging it out of the closet. Add in different knobs and pulls (be sure to use a standard size like 3") and a new wall color, and those small changes give a completely different look to that basic white. So when styles change, you have the ability to change a bit with them without ripping out everything. That's the beauty of paint! And butcher block will never be out of style, because it's a functional choice. If the kitchen has super model bones as in the best most functional layout, whatever clothes it puts on will look fabulous, no matter what style those clothes might be.

I'm doing something similar with a collection of old maps, postcards, and the original deed for our house. The best inspiration photo I found for my project was this one from PB (linked below). I already had a bunch of frames and some of my frames were similar to those pictured so I chose this as my model. I liked that it was balanced and somewhat symmetrical but there were a few elements that were not symmetrical, so it was interesting. That would give me the opportunity to incorporate some of the odd shaped things I'd collected. I also liked that it incorporated some artifacts and layered the frames so some were in front of others. This might be a little more contemporary than you are looking for but I thought this was a helpful example of how to mix different frame styles and make it work. I stuck to the general shape, color, and arrangement of the frames in the picture. But one of my frames is old barn wood, another is leather, and quite a few are in $2 frames from the craft store. I cut my own mats. If you don't have a mat cutter and anticipate doing a lot of framing, it might be worth it to buy one. (Check eBay.) Framing adds up fast. One tip, lay it all out with paper taped to the wall first. Or keep the smiling girl inserts from the frames and use those to get the spacing right. Also there is a good article in last month's Martha Stewart Living on designing and arranging gallery walls. Here is a link that might be useful: Example of gallery wall

Thanks Cameron. I've admired punamystike's ceiling photos in other threads too, but I'm going for a little more understated look. Doesn't look like there's much interest in ceiling treatments on this forum, so I'll wing it on my own and see how it turns out.

Which door would you keep dark? Which option is best: 1. Shutters black Siding gray Garage door gray Front door white Front door trim gray 2. Shutters black Siding gray Garage door white Front door white Front door trim gray 3. Shutters black Siding gray Garage door white Front door black Front door trim white 4. Shutters black Siding gray Garage door gray Front door black Front door trim gray