I don't think I'm conflicting? I do want to add sources of light, I just don't want to waste electricity for the hell of it - I'm a housewife and it's just me most days, so to go from trying to save energy (and my electric bill) to adding in all sorts of lighting and keeping them on all day would be a big change for me b/c I'm used to using the natural light I have during the day - which in MOST rooms is enough, it's the lack of windows/outside views that bothers me most and that feeling of being closed in because of the lack of windows visually. But I DO want to add in some other types of lighting - I said I would be shopping for lamps :) I thought it was a good suggestion and lamps can also serve as accessories. Right now I have a very large mirror above my dining room table reflecting the light from my patios doors. I also have a mirror above my chair and a half upstairs reflecting the light from a window. I also have a mirror in my bedroom. I'm not sure how many mirrors is too many in a home? Also I didn't say that I don't want to add in lighter things - I'm just not going to re-paint or buy new furniture when I just painted and bought my furniture less than a year ago. My foyer, loft/family room and office are painted BM Manchester Tan and I don't think that color is too dark. The darkest color in my home is my living room which is Nantucket Gray - but I think it's cozy. And now that I think of it my master bedroom furniture is white. So I DO have a mix of dark and light colored things in my home. I just tend to lean toward dark when it comes to certain things - light fixtures, door knobs, counters for example. I think maybe I am using the wrong words or maybe I am just being confusing (I can easily be confusing! LOL) My house isn't super dark during the day - but I don't have a lot of windows and to me, just visually, the lack of windows and lots of wall make the house feel closed in. So I am trying to see what tricks there are to make it feel less closed in. I use the word bright but maybe I don't mean bright? Maybe it's just townhouse living and I need to get over it? LOL Skylights are a good suggestion - I have one in my master bath and it lets in a TON of light. Maybe that is something to think about for the second floor and for the upstairs bathroom. Sorry about the confusion I am causing. I think I have managed to confuse myself now!

I am happy this was brought back up because I did not see Blue Velvet Elvis' post until now and it is really very true, that the best houses one can visit, are neither impeccably or immaculately furnished or clean, but clean and furnished comfortably and the homeowner does not seem to worry about someone breaking something, the homeowner is more than willing to have children visit and enjoys them. I wanted to share this story since it seems relevant to the conversation and the time of year. When our #2 was in graduate school, he came home at Christmas, per schedule, looked in the family room and found a "new Christmas tree" there. It was not the usual tree we had with the homemade ornaments, the collected ornaments, ornaments from my mother and grandmother, but a real "florist looking" tree complete with birds, bird nests, berries, moss and beautiful flowers from the wild on each bough. He instantaneously asked me what was I doing and what was I thinking, that this is not home, stating he did not care to come to this place where a florist tree sat in what used to be our family room, he wanted "our tree" back. He wanted a real tree with the smell of Christmas, all the ornaments from 60 years, to see what he did, what my grandmother had. He was furious and told me this was the coldest our family room had ever looked. I was so very hurt because I had spent a whole spring, summer and fall ordering, buying and gathering the decor for the tree. I was so hurt it brought tears to my eyes and I had to get into the car and drive around for a while. When I returned, my DH and I put that tree in the formal living room and went out, bought a "real tree" and put our kids' decorations on it. Our #2 son said, "I feel like I am home now. I didn't feel that way when I walked in and saw that faux tree and faux ornaments that have nothing to do with our family. Of course, #3 son was in agreement with him even before the "bird and bough" tree went up. For several years I had done more than one tree and some years, do as many as 5, but it made me realize what a mistake I had made in trying to please lesser people when the important people in my life were my family. Just last year, #3 son came in and said to his wife (whose mother has florist decorate her whole house), "No matter what we spend on decorating at Christmas, it just does not seem like Christmas until I get to mother's and see her tree. She takes every lemon in the house, throws it together and makes lemonade." So in our quest to get the "decorator look," are we forgetting the most important visitors, our own family, who want comfort, who want a collected look and who want familiarity? No doubt in a few more years, all these ornaments, even the newer ones will belong to my children and I hope my grandchildren on their trips home from college can remark on how their mothers have decorated for Christmas, how they love it and it reminds them of a time when they went to their grandmother's home for Christmas, a time when their greatest expectation was what the packages contained and their most awful worry was whether or not they would be forced to eat the broccoli.

There are 3 ways that I can think of; dipping, molding or rolling. Dipping or molding candles requires you to melt the wax. Rolling requires you to get beeswax sheets and roll them around wicks. This is the method I use, as it is the least messy and calls for minimal equipment.

I'd go mostly mid century, with some California Modern mixed in. Lots of white, with texture achieved through textiles, pottery, and some plants. Keep the wood. Paint the fireplace white. Change the front door, it's all wrong for this house. Check out the Blanco Bungalow on Instagram for ideas.