My goodness, you guys are fast tonight! I was moseying through the Kitchens forum, stopped by here on my way to bed, and there are already three of my friends online and commenting! ML, I swear I did not lift a finger. I just pointed and Belinda did everything. The most I did was empty some drawers, then she carried the boxes. Belinda needs to earn spending money (she is on disability) and she does everything I can't do or don't get around to doing. Black for the desk would be perfect. I was trying to lighten the area, so did not think of it. The keyboard that will be next to it is black, though. So are the trombone cases, the music stand, and so on. We will have to see how it looks once the room is done. The fake red mahogany may look okay. The room faces east. The honeycomb shades are fairly new - we installed them the day his dad went blind about 3.5 years ago. DH may let me do a valance and side curtains, though. I can only imagine the fun I would have in a fabric store - I am a color and texture lover. Maybe I should look into hanging the 7.5' square rug on the one empty wall behind the loveseat? That would muffle a lot. The rug is in the basement, rolled up after being professionally cleaned. DH is weird about practicing. Lately he has been practicing in the hallway outside of the bedrooms, pointing his horn into the tiled bath. He seems to like that sharp sound. I will have to ask him tomorrow. He went to bed an hour ago, after struggling for hours to figure out a stock distribution issue with my sister's taxes. Her taxes usually take about 10 minutes to do, but not this year! I cannot take credit for the maple, it came with the house. I can only take credit for not trimming it back, or shearing off the bottom so that it looks like an umbrella, like some folks here do. I did choose the door to match it, though! For artwork, there is an interesting photo montage of parts of a trombone, all different angles and perspectives. DH also has a framed poster from the Montreaux Jazz Festival, from the year he played there. I have a picture of him with a mop of hair from his college days, playing. A friend gifted him recently of a sculpture of a figure playing keyboards. I do have a couple of those down lights that you place above artwork that I can use to illuminate something in the bookcase, I like that idea. We have an old broken trombone or two in the basement. Maybe I could look for more musical items in thrift stores and make a sculpture to hang on his wall. The horns live in their cases. I have offered to make shelves for them and DH has declined. Hi Marti, yes that is a barrister bookcase. I got it from Craigslist several years ago and had planned to use it for a display case - even purchased several T3 fluorescent fixtures to put inside some of the sections. It ended up just holding books because we ran out of space. Today we discussed what we are going to do with it, and DH wants to keep it in the foyer. I had planned to put my art deco buffet in the foyer, but the bookcase will fit better. The little curio cabinet next to it holds a few of my precious items. It is supposed to sit a bit down the main hall, where it intersects with the hall to the kitchen and family room, but when Dad was alive we needed it out of the way for the wheelchair and ambulance crews (who else decorates around what the ambulance crews might need!). Now, I leave it in the foyer because I do not want it near where Casey has his pee pads. I don't want it to become a target for him! Since he is on prednisone, he sometimes needs to "go" with little notice. Once the brain tumor or liver cancer take him, it will move back to it's proper place. The hall tree is heavy wrought iron and quite handy, so I may keep it there, too. I just envisioned the foyer looking a bit nicer, with a table and flowers and a picture or mirror on the wall! A tall bookcase (with my McCoy pottery inside) and a coat rack? What do you think? Hi Chris, I did ask the heart doc about the far infrared sauna, and he said it was okay. I got it up to about 120 degrees last night and it was just heaven. I felt well-baked. Know anyone driving through the Detroit area? I have two more shelves in the garage I cannot use. They are 30" wide, 91" tall and 10.5" deep. I do like the color of the bookshelves. They look nicer now than at the lawyer's office. That makes me think that maybe the shelves need touching up. I am not sure yet, since I am not picking them up to look at, since I still have a weight restriction. The shelves are solid pine planks. Jim wants me to look into replacing the metal shelf bracket tracks. They are silver colored and stand out. He wants me to look into getting them in antique brass. My feeling on this is that most of them will be hidden by books, and can't I just paint the visible ones? DH and I are having discussions on what material to use to top the three chests below the middle bookshelves. I want to get this nice granite tile with bullnose edging. He wants to spend less money! The link below shows the product I want to use. I would like the color Giallo Almafi. Here is a link that might be useful: Granite Solutions

thanks, MamaG! I love the rug, too. At first we thought it was a blue-green, then it looked green. Now it is green with a touch of blue in it. I think I forgot to answer somebody's question about the lawyer's bookshelves earlier. There were actually seven bookshelves in the lot. Two were 30" wide by 8 ft high. I sold those. We used all five of the 36" by 8 ft ones. I am somewhat amazed at how well built and how good looking the project turned out. That is all Jim. I am awfully proud of having the idea, though. I find myself constantly thinking about how this old piece of furniture or that old thing could be turned into something new. How I wish I could make them myself! (My hands and elbows and wrists and shoulders won't let me do the work.) And how I wish I could do something this creative for a living!

Hi lascatx! The piano does not fit between the windows or on the opposite wall unless I angle it in the corner which someone mentioned was a no-no for upright pianos. I'm wondering if art and lamp above/on the piano could help with the "all one height along the wall" problem. And then I could move the existing art to the back wall where the mirror is in these pics. The bookcase has been in our foyer right outside this door to this room. I kind of miss it there, so I may move it back. It's not really any farther away if I use it for storage for office items - I haven't been sold on it between the windows and that would be one less piece of brown furniture in here. I definitely gravitate towards blues, so I'd definitely be open to that on the walls...finding the right color is the hard part. The current color is Benjamin Moore November Rain and it isn't terrible in person, but I figured I should explore other options since it needs a fresh coat.

tracefloyd, I had considered something similar, but dismissed it because I didn’t think there was room for it. I measured it out though, and if I keep my desk under 60 inches, there is plenty of room to walk around the desk. Keeping a 57” x 26.5” desk aligned with the window will only give me 32 inches between the desk and current book shelf. A few inches less with built-ins. If I move that desk forward, I can get the clearance I need behind the desk. If I did this, I would skip adding doors. I don’t need privacy in this room during working hours as everyone else is at school or working outside the house. Not building the wall saves me a couple of thousand dollars, and I would probably swing for the built-ins on both walls. I have dual monitors which isn’t the most attractive look for a desk that’s not against a wall. They are on a single stand, and a desk with some cord management options can help keep that looking tidy. I have a docking station that would be viewable, but maybe I can switch to one that can be mounted under the desk. My two small speakers aren’t an issue, but my subwoofer is going to be very noticeable. I love the look of desks that face out in a room, but when they are clutter free with just a laptop. Below you can see the potential layout of a desk aligned to the window and one where it is moved forward. A plant could help hide the electrical socket and the primary cord.