I have floors the same color as your dining room. Vellum, a very soft yellow (but not lemon-y)looks beautiful with the floors and I think it would make your dining room seem infused with sunlight. I have Deer Path in my dining room b/c it is a better contrast against my painted furniture. Deer Path is a warm neutral, bronze undertones. Other BM favorites (that also work well with your floors): Blue - Santorini Blue, Brittany Blue, and Gray Wisp (Gray Wisp is same as Restoration Hardware Silver Sage). I also really like Newburyport Blue or Van deussen blue if you are willing to go with a dark color (navy). Green - Soft Fern and Spa (I just painted my guest bathroom Spa (*LOVE IT*). I have maple cabinets, white & grey floors, and white counter tops - the Spa paint is exactly what I wanted. Very neutral green, not too blue or too yellow, very soft but not pastel. Toned with some grey, really easy to live with. Off white - Woodmont cream, Mascarpone, Linen white, and Elephant Tusk. If you like red, the best red I've seen is Farrow & Ball Picture Gallery Red. I have a small accent wall in this color and love it. It is a very earthy red, strong color but doesn't dominate like some of the bolder reds do. Hope that helps!

Bumblebeez, I do like Restoration Hardware lighting. I’m planning on using some of their flushmounts and pendants in other parts of the house. Lascatx, thanks for your thoughts. I may end up going with a cheap chandelier until I can get a feel for the space. I understand I threw this question out there in a vacuum, as you say. Part of the problem is I have no direction for the dining room. I haven’t found an inspiration room, we will be furnishing from scratch, and the room is not even constructed yet. I’m looking for a jumping-off point for the design I guess. I can’t describe what I’m looking for really, its one of those I’ll know it when I see it things. I’ll do a follow-up post if needed when I have some more concrete ideas. I was just hoping for some inspiration, I guess. bsmith1, we do seem to have similar tastes in lighting. I took a quick look at the Pinterest board you linked (I’m obsessed with Pinterest, by the way) and saw several chandeliers that I really liked and will be studying in more detail. I had forgotten about wayfair as a possible source. I’m going to follow your linked board, and I can’t wait to check out your other boards. susieq07, your lights are very different from each other, as you say, but both unique and interesting. I love finding pieces that are a bit unusual and not like everyone else’s. Thanks for sharing. Bronwynsmom, I think its hard to go wrong with a traditional fixture. The church I attended as a child had chandeliers similar to the Dutch style brass chandelier you posted, and I can remember spending a lot of time staring up and them and thinking how pretty they were. Let me know when you find a spot for the Rejuvenation light…I’d be interested to see that space! AnnieDeighnaugh, I agree and understand that a lot depends on the room into which the light will be placed. At this point, I’m really interested in seeing other people’s choices to see if anything stands out to me. Your chandelier looks great in your room; I think it is perfectly proportioned. Luckygal, thanks for the ideas. TonicHome looks like an interesting site that I’ll have to spend some time exploring. I look at pics on Houzz frequently, but had not thought to search “chandiers”- thanks for that idea. Those chihuly chandeliers are great! I’m leaning more towards installing a cheap fixture at first- as you say, changing out a light fixture is not usually a big deal, and my husband can handle the job. Chispa, I think that light will look great in your house as you describe it. sas95, your chandelier is beautiful. I hope you’ll post a picture once it is installed. It would be too modern for our house and my husband would never go for it, but I think its great. Beaglesdoitbetter, I’ll definitely check out eBay. I like all of your chandeliers- do you have any more info on the one from Shades of Light? On another note, we share a love of beagles. I always talk about my beagle helping me to make decisions about the house. His helping usually consists of sitting next to me on the couch with his head on my lap while we look at things on the computer (which is what he’s doing now, although my typing is disturbing him I think.) He also helped me through law school, and during that time he was known as the legal beagle. Anyway, enough raptures about Mr. Otis. patty_cakes, I agree that Murano fixtures are beautiful. Beasty, that light is so different and gorgeous! It wouldn’t work for my house and, again, my husband could never be talked into it, but in the right space it would be awesome. Bronwynsmom, I think we all have those could have would have should have moments. The chandelier does sound lovely.

I had an area in the kitchen that had upper cabinets, but no lowers. It's about 16" deep, so too shallow for base cabinets. So here is what I came up with: This is made with two 34" high unfinished bookcases from The Woodland Mills, and a variety of other pieces of MDF and wood. The top is IKEA Numerar finished with Waterlox satin. The baskets are from The Basket Lady. (I designed the whole thing with those particular baskets in mind.) The wine rack is just a shelf with strips of 1/4" x 1/4" wood glued every 2" to keep the bottles in place. It sits on brackets and is not attached, so if at some point we decide that we'd rather have a flat shelf there, it can just be flipped over. Overall shot showing the relationship to the cabinets above: This whole assembly cost less than $500. I'm still figuring out what looks best where but this is solving lots of problems and adding storage that I really needed.

My favorite wedding was a non wedding. DD became engaged on Christmas Eve. They planned to take it slow and marry the following summer or fall. But her accounting brain took over and she ran their taxes. She called me in tears that they had to get married now!!! Of course I thought she was with child so I consoled her by saying, well so it's a bit sooner than planned but these things work themselves out etc. She said I'm not pregnant, it's taxes. LOL So on News Years Eve her brother married her quietly without fanfare. They met halfway as if they were meeting to drop off a package and that was that. Fast forward to the following year. DD and her DH decide to host an anniversary party. We had been a pirate loving family long before it became a thing with Johnny Depp. She decided the party should be pirate themed and all guests would come dressed as pirates. So she went and had her pirate costume designed with pants and a rip away skirt with matching vest for her DH. We held it at a local restaurant with a basement. The pirates in attendance all showed up bearing wedding gifts. I got a small tiered cake which I decorated at the last minute with sugar sea shells. They had a sit down banquet with three meal choices for the guests. A new Years Eve Party was in full swing upstairs and we had several party crashers who wanted to visit the pirates and take pictures. People are still talking about that pirate non wedding. to this day.