Dream, I loved how excited you are with all the ideas (and how the Enablers here have made you need to go shopping for more stuff!! LOL) Looks like your new plates are going to very good for a number of different settings and I can't wait to see ALL of them. I think the eBay salad plates are very pretty, but as you said...too white to go with yours. (Jeanne and Dream, thank you for compliments on my vignettes and collections. I do ok with them, but truly it is darn DISHES that throw me into a tizzy for some reason! I feel like a first grader, and all of you are in college. LOL). hugs, Karen

Here is a couple of sites that might help you get started. We used Michaels for alot of our inspiration for our daughters wedding. Michaels had these large vases with flowers on pedestals for $500 each that my daughter thought she couldn't live without and we made our own by sale shopping for $100 each. Wish I had some pictures downloaded and I would share with you. You may want to go to the wedding forum here and see if you can get some ideas. Let us know what colors you will be using and maybe we can help. The colors change quite often around here. http://www.yourweddingcompany.com/index.php/action/showGallery/gallery/centerpiece/ http://www.nisiesenchanted.com/featured_vien.html#

Sure, we did this in a house (that we have since sold). I designed it and I loved it. We didn't have room to have the big kitchen we wanted PLUS a standalone table, but did have room to make the island bigger with seating. We also had a separate dining table. We really enjoyed this set up (and didn't use the dining table unless we had extra people visiting). We had no problem with the counter height, though my elderly father did not like it. Also, it was admittedly a huge pain for the period my son was in a high chair because there are no chairs that tall. We still had plenty of room for island storage and didn't need any more kitchen cabinets. In fact, if we wanted to fit a table in the room, we would needed to cut out some cabinets. This allowed us to maximize cabinets. We're currently designing another kitchen for our other condo, and also struggling to fit all of the cabinets I want plus a table. The island seating is the perfect solution. I also really liked sitting at that island while my husband cooked and vice versa. Much more casual and intimate than sitting at a kitchen table. Here's a picture from the mls listing (ignore the wide angle lens :)

Rules are meant to be broken. Lol. If there is a new mantel i like the width. Smaller will encourage more accents on mantel. But all in the eye of the beholder. Art is personal. I like the clean look of this art. A new fixture would also enhance the room But just offering other options.