Proudmama: Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for in a light maple. Puppy farms? Egads, just another category of purchases to feel guilty about.... I can't buy anything from China without a twinge of guilt either.... Ellen: Thanks for the insight into Amish business practices. I'm glad they've found a way to survive and still hold their belief system together. I admire those people for their lifestyle and discipline. Thanks again for all of the replies!

Reno... I'm half tempted to send it to you because I know you would do something awesome with it!!! The effect you describe is what came to me after reading the first few posts here. Les... I had also thought about the distressed red idea. Good points are made here, though, about whether I should keep it at all. I guess somewhere I am hopeful that I can either make this house into one that I love or will move to another house in which this table will fit. I hate to give up the nicer things I have collected, but sometimes I suppose that makes sense. Case in point... the best furniture I own happens to be my Ethan Allen dining table and chairs. I love them. However, I have had to convert my little-used dining room into my office (pictured above) and with three little kids I hesitate to use the table in my kitchen, even though it would fit. So, for now it is kind of tucked into a corner of my living room and used as extra work space for DH and me. You can see it in this pic... My struggle is because I lived in my previous home for 5 years and spent the entire time making into exactly the home I wanted and loved. All furniture and accessories were purchased for that place. I finally had it exactly how I wanted it and we moved. Now, nothing seems to fit right. I'm "making do" with my things and waiting for a time when they will work again. Unfortunately, they are going out of style as I wait. I suppose I should be thankful that I ever had the home I wanted, be glad for my nice things, and quit whining, eh? LOL

>>...didn't have a pantry?>> Well, I wouldn't have any room to store any food, LOL. I cook a lot so I have doubles and even triples of every size cookware I use, plus 25 yrs ago I moved in with six sets of dinnerware and three sets of flatware. I have three separate spice drawers because I cook everything from Indian to Chinese to French and half a dozen other cuisines. It was my first (and so far only, thank goodness) opportunity to design a kitchen, so I crammed in all the storage I could. We were handicapped by only having 1 wall of uppers. One half-wall holds the frig and is open to the LR and DR. The other wall has floor-to-ceiling windows to capture a great hillside view: I worked with graph paper and managed to get everything behind doors. It was about a week before I realized I had FORGOTTEN to put in any food storage! I did have three narrow closets in the DR (a former bedrm) for the upright freezer, the microwave and wine stemware, and the table linens/vacuum/stepladder. But nothing for dried pasta, Asian condiments, dried mushrooms, cans of soup, etc. So.....we had fortunately not placed the order for the kitchen cabs yet. Two 18" wide pantry units were hastily added, and placed in-between the DR and kitchen. The top doors hide fixed shelves, the bottom doors hide rollouts. All are height adjustable, heavy-duty. I'd never had a pantry before. Now I'm spoiled and can't imagine living w/o one! A walk-in would be nice, but there's only two of us so not really needed. Ten years later I had a handyman built us a custom storage unit for our indoor back porch area. It was such a pain carrying the vacuum up and down stairs, I finally broke down and bought a second upright. I don't have any good photos of it, but half is deep enough for the vacuum and BBQ tools, about 12". The other half has shallow, 7" shelves that store dry goods like spray paints (for DH's hobby), DW tablets, Brita filters, vacuum cleaner bags, etc.

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for your time, efforts and comments! For some reason, I can't respond individually to everyone so I'm going to post down below and hope you all get notification! Questions; TV in the room- You know I don't know; I feel like may detract from people being social and harm the aesthetic, maybe one on a stand in wheels, I roll out of the closet for big sport events or something haha. Measurements - will get them soon! who lives here- It's just me, i haven't entertained too much, i'd like to. It's a townhouse, built in 2006, 3 floors, whets interesting is in my bedroom (which also needs a lot more design work) lol, is quite more rustic, I know the home is supposed to flow so am wondering if now the blue and orange will throw that off, then again, I don't actually mind that as much. I was hoping in the living room, to bring elements of green in with plants, jewel tone vases for them.. and a circular wooden table in the middle, or like a velvet/leather brown piece. Here is the upstairs of the house I was talking about: In terms of the dining room section there- you know I haven't really decided on a table, I really didn't want to add too much in there because walking then might become a bit cluttered, if anything I was thinking of a breakfast nook along that wall. there is a little bar there that I do most of my eating at. Here is a photo of the couch against the white wall. And here is another shot of the previous set up The reason I did like this set up, was because the couch there, sort of closes it off a little, like it almost defines the space as a cozy nook. I'm really thinking of how to make it quite lovely to enjoy a cup of coffee or a book in there, you know, like crisp fall morning- I know that's not a style but these are the things I get hung up on LOL. I actually do really love the suggestion above with this picture: You're going to laugh but I almost thought this could work: I suppose I just like it because of it's character- I dont think the colors will work at all. Maybe I can do some throw pillows instead of such a rug. The wall that is white now was originally supposed to be a burnt orange/terracotta accent wall, however, literally no color looked good on it, must be like a lighting thing. When it comes to art- i really love art, I have many favorites across all styles, I know there is a rule about the art piece of your room is where the attention is drawn, so I am a bit overwhelmed about how one hangs and figures out the sizes of multiple pieces of art without clashing.