That is pretty, flyleft. I think the reasons it works are the very high ceiling, the continuing brick work on the wall surrounding the mantel, and the raised hearth. Although that vertical brick makes me wonder about maybe doing stone of some sort in a vertical brick pattern instead of the square limestone tiles. Too trendy perhaps?

Grey and Walter Ltd., Are you suggesting I post pieces I really like right here? beckysharp, (still my favorite name) I understand what you are saying. I still love these timeless pieces I have because they were not designed really but were functional in a day in which solid wood was hand hewn and actual metal smiths forged the amazing locks and hinges. I still adore my hand made rugs. Grey and Walter Thank you for your input. I agree with you absolutely. I have been living with over scale in my small 50s 1/2 story for too long. Now that I am putting in an addition, for the first time, I do not have guidance. In my area (everyone in my upscale area has either torn down houses like mine or put on additions) and the designers I trust are busier than the time frame I have. As I speak they are framing the addition and want a kitchen and master bathroom plan when I do not have a designer to guide me. I completely understand your tongue in cheek comment about the "Road to Hell." One without guidance can make costly mistakes. I am taking down all of the walls so the concept has to flow. Then I decided that if I delineated spaces with partial walls, I would have more room for my art. I wasn't thrilled with my fiance's table at first because he has it in a poorly decorated home, period. He picked pieces because the black frame of a round glass piece matched an art fair acquisition. He collected Lladro, swarovski, and everything was in plastic "showcases" nailed here and there on walls with no rhyme or reason. I am not pointing fingers, but his wife just didn't care about such thing. The table was lost among so many design styles I couldn't see it anywhere, least of all among my rustic, French country pieces. Yet, he seems attached to it. I thought that if I put a partial wall deliniating the new family room from the the dining room, I could use the credenza which goes with the table and keep the red blown murino glass chandelier and that would be the end of the mid century modern. On the other side of the "wall" I could put my rustic many drawers piece and his "can't live without" television over it. I could use the dark wood "coffee" table which was actually used in the turn of the century for bread. It is so cool. I left wall space between two windows for my two large multi colored abstract. This way one would not see the table and credenza, which, to me, would fight with my transitional eclectic pieces that somehow go together. I am incorporating at least one of my 1800s armoires in the kitchen and using it as a pantry. I found someone who can reconfigure it. I don't mind because it isn't a museum piece and was already reconfigured to house a LARGE television in my first house when the televisions were giant. I like the idea of using the two tall red velvet chairs with arms on either side of the table. I do love my antique French country dining room table which is parquet inlay doesn't have leaves but pulls out from both side to accommodate more people. It has curved legs and is nothing like the mid century lines of the table and credenza. Well, I am going to post pictures of my favorite things here when I figure how to upload things. Ellie

it's a doggie door. it can be amazing and also very annoying. Maggie the Airedale is always half out the doggie door so her butt is in a lot of my photos. we call it "butt bombing" haha Julie! I could not have done this with out your amazing skills and tracking down perfect dining chairs. My husband and I thought we would never agree on a set :) :) I have learned so so much! Now on to the bedroom, and then the entry way and dog grooming/yoga studio!

Thanks for the suggestion lindac92. i had asked that they be stained as close to the original as possible. I also gave him a verbal description of the cautions you mentioned about the wood maybe not accepting stain well and mentioned gel stain as a possibility. He sent us pictures of stain cards next to the original finish asking us what we wanted. We said in the pictures it looked like red sedona and rosewood were the closest. He said he would get small cans and try them on the underside. We didn’t hear anything back and I didn’t worry about it. i just figured all was going fine. You can see in his web site he has tons of experience and lots of good looking results. Next pictures and communication they had this weird putty look to them. Red sedona had been used but then he put a solid version of red sedona over the curved part of the wood which caused this putty look. But as you can see in some pictures the final product looks fine. in person they have a painted asthetic which doesn’t go with anything in our house. Yesterday we discussed painting them black, looked up reviews for gel stain and reviews for rustoleum furniture transformation kits. I also talked to minwax about their polycrylic finish coat and if we could go over it. They said to sand it off with 150 or 120 grit paper. i then slept on it over night and decided to try to sell them on Craigslist for the amount we spent on the refurbishment, $600 each. The deciding factor was that I bought them for the wood look and the best we could probably hope for was a painted asthetic. I really don’t think I would ever love them painted. However lots of people, particularily younger people love painted wood furniture. On Houzz people are updating their wood furniture by painting it all the time. They are brand new cowhide, have new webbing, comfortable new foam and were completely reglued so are rock solid. This may appeal to someone who wants eclectic chairs. Very disappointed but I really didn’t feel I should micro manage the process. He has loads of wood working experience and I have none. I trusted him to put the brakes on and take corrective action if things were going sideways or the stain wasn’t working out and that didn’t happen.