I love the first and last stripe! I like the way the line draws your eye up and the last one is simple enough to not compete with the rug or the armoire. the one I picked was tough; there were so many that had your colors in them at Horchow! That one seemed to go more with your rug (which looked red, gold and brown on my monitor!)because it didn't have any green, but in the end I was thinking it had a subtlety that might work. having all of the colors represented is probably your best bet, though- it definitely brings your eye all the way around the room in a nice way. IMHO, you can't make your walls look too tall. Drawing the eye up is almost always a great thing. And I think some height will balance out the weight of the armoire as well. but only you can see how things look in person! clearly you have great taste!

I love some of these ideas--everyone is so creative here! I like both maddiemom6 idea of the hallway art rail and sujrfr's link to the art frame boxes. I think I might do something like maddiemom6's suggestion in our hallway for our youngest. Something I've done with my kids is to get them each a plastic filing tub at Office Depot and then I create a pendaflex art file folder for each year. All of the kids' school projects are put in a drawer in their room (the ones that are not on display in the house) and then at the end of the year we sift through the drawer and choose some of the favorite works of art or other projects and put them in the file folder in their filing tub. Other special momentos--awards, sports teams, girl scouts, certificates, etc. also get their own folder. Then when they are grown, I will give them the filing tub so they have their own memories. I love the idea of scanning everything, but just know I would never get around to organizing it all--plus this way they have some of the actual art work, poems, etc. which they created. Now oldest DS took a pottery class last year and came home with several pieces--he gave several out all out to his uncles/aunts this year who were thrilled to get a personalized piece of art from him.

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 everyone ... I appreciate all the help and compliments I received on this! The rug isn't new, but it was my 3rd try until I got it "right" You know I didn't even think to move the picture up a little, to cover the box, but I will definitely do that. Unfortunately my whole house needs to be rewired, so I will have many more of these type holes to patching paint!