I'm very late to the opinion party here, but I just wanted to point out that I think it's wonderful to partner with our children on decorating their rooms. Letting them experiment with color, helping them with furniture placement and other design elements ... I think essentially it's really helping to develop the inner decorator in each of them! Think how many adults are afraid to paint anything other than white -- would life be different if their moms & dads had encouraged color exploration in their own homes and rooms? Last year, before loading some gorgeous Art Deco furniture we bought off Craigslist into our then 10-y.o. daughter's room, I talked to her about how the yellow that was on the walls (which she chose) just didn't work with the light bird's eye maple furniture. (Truly, it was going to be a terrible combo). We talked about potential colors and we went to the paint store. She went straight to BM French Lilac as her one and only choice. I, of course, picked out several other paint chips for variety and home we went. Well, we ended up with her first, instinctive choice and the room is just gorgeous. It better be, because that furniture is never going anywhere. Heavy doesn't even begin to describe it! LOL Anyway, I love that my daughter loves her room, and that she chose the paint. I never had that chance when I was a kid!

I've been considering a massive bulletin board at my house as well. Mine would be huge & cover a wall...about 5 feet tall by 7 feet wide. I haven't done it yet, but here is the idea I have in my head: Find something (haven't looked at the options yet) as a backboard. Firm & sturdy, yet not crazy heavy. Glue/attach ceiling tiles onto the board. (I have a spare room with 2x4 ceiling tiles I'm planning on removing & doing a correct ceiling...hence the ceiling tiles). Cover the entire thing with a great fabric...I was thinking burlap, but you could do anything. I would do a light coat of spray glue between fabric & ceiling panels, then staple/attach fabric around the back like you would if making a headboard. If you want a frame, you could get your own trim and cut/miter to fit. Paint/stain/etc. If you do something along these lines, POST BACK! I'd love to know if it turns out well. lol! Gayle

I don't consider myself a "purple person" per se, but I fell in love with a pale lavender-blue paint color a friend used in her bathroom 15 years ago, Glidden's "Tailwind." I first used it in a bathroom in our old house, and then again in our current house in the laundry room. After 11+ years in this house, with lots of time spent in the laundry room, I still adore the color. It doesn't dominate the room at all and nothing else in the room is purple/lavender (accessories are navy blue, aqua, and pear green), but as a backdrop it gives the room a very calming, peaceful feel. When we moved into our current house and were picking paint colors, my husband picked a muted lavender color for the dining room, SW Sensitive Tint. It's more muted/gray compared to the Tailwind, but is similar in saturation. My husband doesn't usually care about paint colors (whereas I completely obsess over them), so I was really surprised, and not in a good way, that he chose that color, but decided it wasn't worth arguing about it. At first I wasn't in love with it, but it has really grown on me over the years, and I think it looks especially good against the stained trim (which is similar in tone to that of the fireplace in the 2nd picture on this thread). We're getting ready to repaint all of the hallway areas (currently SW Jersey Cream) a very light green (BM Halo). My husband said he was ready to change the dining room color as well, but I told him no way... I like it too much to change it now! I think it will look even better when the hallways around it are Halo. I like the deep purple room examples posted above too. I had a very deep brownish-eggplant color in a living room once and loved its coziness. I think it was called Library Mahogany by Ralph Lauren. It's similar to BM Caponata, which is the accent color on the exterior of our house... So I guess maybe I am a "purple person" after all ;)

Now I'm even more confused. Milliken sent me samples of the stately beige color. Meanwhile one of the carpet stores my husband contracts for oordered a sample board. Believe it or not both the large sample on the board and the smaller sample are labeled the same color, stately beige. That's way more than slight shading difference that carpet companies say is normal. I was not look for something with so much contrast. I like the smaller sample much better. Hoping a Milliken rep can advise which shade is more accurate.