Thank you all for the comments and insights. Patty Cakes-thanks for the links! I'm a huge bargain hunter also! As you can see in the pic the room is mostly neutral and pretty stripped down. It's a reflection of my recent (last 2 years) love affair with federal style furniture. I bought this sofa and loveseat on CL and unloaded my grey velvet lawson sofa....also on CL. I'm on the fence about the ottoman but my dog loves it so....sigh. I live in a Victorian Cottage, ca. 1870, all the rooms are approx 13x13 with 12' high ceilings. The house is also 2 blocks from Main st. in our small town....small city lot.....lots of trees on the property but after going crazy with neutrals I now feel the room needs a little color....like green. Loving the Emerald green but a little scared of it too! I want it to pop but not scream lol! Having said that...I keep coming back to stare at that Como Emerald!

Oh, gosh, the pics of all your former-dining-rooms-turned libraries are wonderful! I, too, think that it's a great idea . . . if you're not using your present dining room. Repurposing space to fit your needs is so darn practical. For us, though, it wouldn't work. We eat every dinner in our dining room and our weekend breakfasts, too. And, I ENJOY having sit-down dinners with friends and family. Most are fairly casual, but I enjoy sitting around the table for a good couple of hours, chatting and enjoying food, friends and family. I'm not Italian or Spanish, but I do admire their dedication to that time you spend eating and enjoying the company of each other . . . and we're not overweight or over-eating because of it, either ;^D. We just had a big taco party here the other night and I loved having so many people laughing and talking around my table. We have a kitchen peninsula with very comfy stools, but I prefer looking at my family while we eat . . . instead of the tv or the kitchen cabs (LOL!), so we limit it to occasional quick lunches or snacks. But, getting back to dining-rooms-turned-libraries, I agree that if you're not into entertaining around a dinner table or you have a table in your kitchen for family dinners, this sounds like the ideal solution. Now I'm off to see Justgotabme's slide show! Lynn

Thanks, ladies! I started to pull the old fabric off the balloon chair yesterday, and gathered up my little sample jars of chalk paint to see what I'm going to concoct for a color. I need to get some 1" foam for it, as that is what is between the front and back fabric on it. My young carpenter friend, who I've sort of 'adopted', was here yesterday briefly and I told him I was going to glue the 'throne' chair back together this weekend, so I could start to get that fabric on. You should have seen his unhappy face, as he looked at me and said, 'REALLY? You've got enough chairs down there to keep you going for months, and it HAS to be that one this weekend?' He WANTS to do it, as he IS a carpenter, and he has strap clamps to use, and he has detailed for me how he'll do it. So, that is why the balloon chair is underway, and I'll admit that once I got to tearing the fabric etc, off that one, I was just as happy as if I was putting fabric BACK on the 'throne'.

Morning, Parma! Yeah, your table isn't frou frou in the least.. but it is gorgeous and really has a presence. It is totally jeans and pearls.. really really NICE jeans and pearls. I want to see the edge detail in all sorts of lighting. I was thinking that I bet it looks great in low light/candlelight.. almost like a romantic spanish table. You are hitting all the romance languages/countries! (I see what you have on your mind! haha) I could totally make the table work but I am not up for buying new chairs right now (shopping for or paying for)... plus in my mind it is YOUR table. :) Price-wise it is in the same ballpark with others that have caught my eye... but it far exceeds the quality and drama of the others. I am all over the place with my likes-- imagine that! LOL I want something that looks "fresh" and "interesting" and that has taken me in all sorts of directions. I'll post pictures and where I am thinking in a few weeks. It was a project I had planned for next year but I keep feeling the pull now. I AM still planning on the HW buffet! I firmed up my furniture selections last night-- in fact, I have written a long post with what I have selected and where I am still undecided but.. I was embarrassed to post it as I've dragged this out so long LOL. I had a few concerns about the buffet-- first the height, but my designer chick set up a section on their showroom floor for me. We put a painting over a chest the same height and set up a chair at my viewing distance. I think it is fine-- my other concerns are the fact that the drawers are velvet lined for silverware and just the cost. Will it look too out of place to have an expensive dining piece for the tv? I mean, I know I like the style and look of it for the LR but will it look too frivolous or silly to have my electronics on a NICE piece? I am going with "no" for the moment haha (but still scouring craigs list and ebay). I am in the process of selecting a finish for it. Wow, HW has SO many finishes and some of them are just so cool. I narrowed the 100+ options down to like 10 or 12 (all premium, of course, darn it). I will go in next time with a paint sample since many of the finishes are in the ivory, silver, green, blue range. The black is still in the running too-- but I am definitely leaning towards a more distressed and unusual finish.