It's the darn mudding and sanding that is holding everything up!!! Decided today that my craft table will be 4ftx6ftx35"h! 4x4legs, 3/4inch plywood top and shelf,2x4 construction, wheels and a 2" lip all around to add my magnifying lights. Plus I am going to make specialty shelves for mosaic supplies: 4ft tall x 2ft wide x 6" deep. Table and shelves are not included in the craft room conversion budget...Bad Jane...Scheming out loud... Oh! And I just got a cool idea for a coffee table! I want to have two comfy chairs and a book shelf coffee table so I bought these 2ftx2ft bookshelves, will screw them back to back, put plywood on bottom and top, add wheels for turning and TADA! A cool coffee table/bookshelf! Now that's gotta be mosaiced!!! Tonight I gotta do a bit of sanding, prime the walls, clean up the floor(very messy drywall!!) Tomorrow and next day paint baseboard and walls(DH has abandoned me for work!) Long handled paint roller is my friend now!!! Did I mention I'm wheel obsessed? I seem to want wheels on Everything! I've been looking for just the right(right priced)chair to sit up to the craft table. Like Gretch's!

Agree with the manual transmission! Getting harder to find. When I was buying my new car, my mechanics, inspection guy, etc. all urged me to go with automatic transmission, but I stuck to my guns and got a manual transmission ('08 Toyota Matrix). There are very practical reasons for going with manual. They're about $1,000 less than auto transmission, they get better gas mileage, you have A LOT more control in snow with manual transmissionâ¦and shortly after I bought the car (my old one was also manual - I was taught to drive manual in Beacon Hill, Boston, by my father!), gas went over $4/gal. With manual transmission, you can "hyper mile", which means coast in neutral down hill. I still do it to this day, now out of habit, and I get on the highway as much as between 50 and 60 mpg by hypermiling. The manager at Toyota told me that the trend now is that women are asking for manual transmission. Interesting. However, I don't recommend it if you live in the city or do mostly city driving. And definitely not if you live on Beacon Hill or in San Francisco! I am very nervous that it is going to be obsolete by the time I have to buy my next car.

I also know what you mean, and totally agree, emmarene...all the other flat wall colors merely provide contrast to the brown, not take away any of the " brownness"..but I just hate wallpaper because it is to tightly repetitive. TOTALLY biased opinion here, because I'm a decorative painter, but if I were the OP I would consider consulting a decorative painter to come up with something unique that works with the brown, OR look for a paper with less...repetition. ETA or go with the pale neutral wall w/ colorful artwork option but I believe the OP has ruled that out. This post was edited by coll_123 on Wed, Dec 17, 14 at 21:13

In my previous 1950s home that we remodeled everything was oil rubbed bronze. I was tired of that by the time we built 7 years later and I like to think of the new house as an eclectic mix of different finishes. I spent 18 months picking out our new ones so here is my detailed list :) The entry has a copper Chandler with a central light shining down and 6 arms that can be turned on different ways. It's from the 50-60s and i found it in an "antique" store in town. The dining is a shiny pewter crystal chandler that was in our previous home (my husband had picked it out and was the only thing that wasn't ORB). Kitchen has cans and then two large shiny copper pendants over my sink and prep area. They are solid copper and were a steal from an English seller on Etsy. We did have to Dremel the hole larger so our american pendant fixtures would fit. Our mud room, or "the Owners Entrance", has a muted brass lantern with wavy glass from the Amazon Warehouse. I had to replace one of the glass pains but was still only $30 all in. Laundry, pantry and 2 walk in closets have smaller school house light fixtures. I also detest boob lights. Front room has a fan with 4 lights. I really want to replace the lighting kit on it to something with covered lights. I do not like the harsh light coming down from it. But we mainly use 3 lamps that are on a switch. The Electrician was surprised when I asked him to wire for them since he hadn't done that in 15-20 years. No can lights in there. The power bath has a brushed nickle wall light with 3 bulbs from Hudson Valley. Also picked up cheap from Amazon Warehouse. The spare room is a large and thick crystal type ceiling shade that is very sparkly also from Amazon Warehouse. Was discounted for some chips along the edge that you only see if you are on the ceiling. My Bedroom has a large central vintage brass/crystal chandelier and a second small one in the seating area. Another matching small one is in the bathroom. I bought them second hand from a private seller. Then flanking the mirror are 2 Hudson Valley shiny pewter sconces with large frosted glass shades. I like the mix of different finishes. Has more of an evolved-over-time look to me. If you haven't noticed I love the Amazon Warehouse. Kind of a pain to search but I bought quite a few things from it for our build to save money since I had plenty of time. Edit to add: my home isn't an open floor plan but a ranch. Each light is in its own room.