I went with Black Walnut Homeowner DIY pieces from Craft Art. I got samples of Black Walnut, White Oak, and American Cherry. The American cherry was a yellow/red, white oak was medium brown with honey blonde graining, and the black walnut sample was a definite medium to dark brown and I could see part of a dark filled knot. And definitely do the homeowner version. It has any knots filled and comes with one coat of oil already on it. After I bit the bullet and bought it, I was really pleased with the look and color of the Black Walnut that I finally settled on. It was a true walnut and was a warm to dark brown. I didn't need to (or even want to) stain it to get a really nice deep color we were going for. I did go ahead and get the "waterlox sealer/finish" and the "waterlox satin finish" that they recommended in their instructions - and you do need both if you want to make it waterproof and fully sealed. Seriously, their instructions were really helpful - even to someone like me who sort of knows what I'm doing (aka over confident when I shouldn't be, haha I am man enough to admit it). They were written like a... recipe? Had a breakdown of items you need, time frame it takes to actually do and time frame including dry time, then detailed instructions including hints and tips and stuff. Way better than the instructions I found on the crazy Ikea finish that I tried to use on a different project. Things we considered: - What color are your cabinets? Ours are medium to light brown, but I think we may have them repainted to an off white to make the black walnut stand out more in the future. -What color is the paint in that room? I personally think our grey/green makes the walnut look more "cool" in tone - but if the room was the yellow color we almost went with, the walnut would reflect that and pick up those yellow tones and be even warmer looking. -Do you want to match or contrast? Or both?! We have "mullican solid wood - oak" from loews. It is a medium brown but has dark almost black grains. We decided that would work well to compliment the Black Walnut and that the White Oak would make it too consistently yellowish of a tone in the room. This is our floor: I hope that gives ya something to work with. I am certainly not a designer, but now that its all installed and done, we get lots of compliments so that has to stand for something! Ps. My finishing products (the waterlox ones I mentioned) came a couple days before the top did, actually. I had a chance to practice which was really nice. Highly recommend a quick practice run, even if its on plywood or a 2x4, the technique matters on the last coat. Oh and last thing, I was able to find how much product I needed to finish it so I'm including that so you won't have to look through their site: "For a 2 oz. pouch, coverage is approximately 7.5 square feet for one coat. For a pint the coverage is 60 square feet for one coat. For a quart the coverage is 120 square feet for one coat." This is a LOT like what mine turned out like (minus the edge profile): Here is a link that might be useful: craft art DIY stuff - and if you have a contractor doing the install, tell him to watch the install video on there, too. Helped us a lot.

I have thoroughly enjoyed browsing all the photos and reading the stories of your collections here. Such beautiful pieces and wonderful, touching stories. To see most of mine, you'd think my home was full of antiques, which is far from the real deal, but these seem to be most of my most interesting non-art things. However, some of you have given me some ideas for things I could do in the future with things I have stored! This is a small collection of silver vases, albeit in need of some polish right now. My collection of miniature tea sets. This started with my aunt giving me her much-used Mickey Mouse set she had used back in the 30's as a child and a then-new set when I was about 8-years old (the blue and white delft set). The rest is a mix of old and new I picked up along the way as an adult. I also have a lot of old hankies that belonged to my grandmother and great-grandmother, and yes I use them at weddings and funerals. They made some of them, including the tatting on the edges. Gallery hallway of family photos (old and new) To honor our home states (Alabama and Ohio) I started looking for old maps of our states and regions. This is one of Alabama and of the Eastern US in our breakfast room. The next one is an Agricultural map of Ohio. I think I've posted enough. Thanks for viewing. BTW, those clocks are awesome! And I adore that mirror, and I can't say enough about that belly cast!

Thanks capegirl for your response. Yes, it is smooth on the side that I've shown and has a huge 1/3" wide x 15" long gap on the back side, so am assuming that is the back! It was not labelled as such. Interestingly, the back has only a couple of knots that aren't as prominent, but they aren't filled either and have good sized gaps in them. The top is smooth and actually quite beautiful. It just looks rustic to me, and all my friends think it's rustic looking too. ARGH! The final piece and I just wanted it to be like the picture on the website! And yes, so far Craft-Art has had good customer service. I'm still emailing photos, so keep your fingers crossed......

CPArtist, care to elaborate? This is the second studio I've designed. The first was in the condo and I wound up learning from my mistakes in that one. I am so looking forward to this one. What specific mistakes did you rectify this time around, or are they already explained above? (You might save others, er...me, some grief.) Happy to oblige. My last studio was the third bedroom in our condo. I had a wonderful closet to keep supplies in, but no place to store boxes or finished artwork, so it all wound up stacked up behind the sleeper sofa. (BTW the sleeper sofa will be on the north wall under the window in my new condo but won't have boxes or artwork stacked behind it.) One new closet has shelves built vertically to store artwork and boxes. And the other closet will actually have pull out drawers so I can store more in it. If you look at the photo, my easel was to the left of my desk chair so I could stand at my easel and reach for a pencil. The problem was the computer screen was lower so if I needed to look at a detail (I work from my own photos and from life combined) in my photo, it meant bending over to see the screen. In the new studio, the desk is 36" high which will put my computer screen at eye level when I'm standing at my easel. My pencils were always in a pile on top of the desk since there was no place to "store them". That meant many times I'd spend time searching for the color I need, even when it was right in front of me. LOL. The new desk has that wonderful drawer with 20 pencil compartments so I can store pencils by color and brand. There was no place to store my paper which was large sheets. so they wound up on top of the bench under the table, with the ends flopping over the edge. In the new studio between the two closets will be a paper storage cabinet. This will also allow me to store mats and finished art that isn't framed. The top was also glass on top of wood so it was always full of fingerprints and pencils had a habit of falling off. Because of the desk drawer, I don't have to worry about pencils falling off and the top is oak wood. The desk was not deep enough. It was if I recall about 25" deep, so I never felt like I had enough room to spread out. The new desk is 36" wide. I had no place but the dining room table to sort paper or frame drawings. Now my desk will allow me the room to do that. In the old setup the printer was on my desk as there was no other space. In the new studio, the printer will be in the closet or on the top of the paper storage bin. I didn't have great lighting so it was impossible to work once the sun went down. In the new studio, I have 8 high hats with LED lighting as well as a ceiling fan with LED lighting so I will have enough light to work at night if I'm trying to finish up a drawing. Additionally, with windows on both the north and south walls, I have bright daylight all day long. And just a personal thing. At times I just would go on the computer and the tv wasn't conducive to watching at my desk. In the new studio, my tv won't be conducive to watching while I'm drawing, but I never watch when drawing. I will listen though. However if I'm at the computer in my new studio, I'll be able to see the computer straight ahead. Lastly, I work standing up, so I designed the desk to be counter height. It will be easy for me to stand up from my chair to start drawing or sit down if I need to. One thing I'd say if you're setting up an art room or a craft room is to really figure out how you work and what you absolutely need. Where do you need to keep your materials while you're working? In front of you? To the left? The right? Where do you keep materials that aren't needed immediately? How do you work? Do you prefer sitting at a desk? Sitting at an easel? Standing up? Do you like listening to music? TV?