Thanks everyone for the suggestions!! I think you've all made it easier for me to go with a more streamlined chair. Seeing your comments makes it a lot more clear why something simple works better despite the table being ornate. I feel pretty strongly that I shouldn't get more upholstered chairs. It feels like too many things going on. Plus from a practical standpoint, I don't think I want the added stress of worrying about dinner guests messing up the upholstery. (Part of the reason I went with the damask pattern is that I felt it hide small stains better). But as has been suggested, I think maybe the wooden chairs need some kind of cushion in a creamy fabric to tie in with the fabric and color schemes. So thanks so much. To answer the questions above: The room is already painted. The wall is woodland snow and the trim is bone white (both Ben Moore paints). I wanted to keep the paint scheme very calm (read: boring!) because so many other elements were going on. This is a old house that Ive spent the last 14 months gut renovating. I live in Brooklyn. If your curious about the renovation, I have a blog. (www.brooklynlimestone.blogspot.com) I haven't made much of a dent with the decorating yet but I'd love to hear any suggestions. Its pretty daunting but Im happy to nearly over with the construction part.

I use one of my two matching antique wing chairs regularly as a dining chair. Here's a really old photo preparing to host thanksgiving on our first year after the whole house reno. You can see that I brought the other wing chair from the LR to anchor the far end of the DR and add more seating. My 8 y.o. son loves to sit on the near end in that chair. He sits up on his leg though to get higher on the chair, but he still looks too low. I sometimes sit there during dinner parties and find it uncomfortably low. Also, I can't sit upright easily as the chair is so deep I can't sit against the chair back. I try not to place guests there because of this. I love the look of wings in a DR and only keep the wing there out of necessity. I don't really have enough room in my FR or LR for them after we reconfigured the rooms during the reno. Plus, I don't have enough dining chairs so this arrangement allows me to temporarily keep the wing chairs until I find a couple more matching antique dining chairs.

oh. petra, too funny. appaently we have the same taste, too. so, please just tell me what granite you picked and save me some time! :) love the kitchen you posted. i think the white kitchens with black or grey in the granite look great with ss; i'm trying to go gold (or possible green), though, and minimize the black (to flow better with my living room and dining room). and that's where i'm having trouble figuring out how much ss is too much. it's probably going to come down to a gut reaction when i go to the store; hopefully they still have a white bosch on the floor

I just went to the MSI showroom to view slabs. The slabs of Arno I saw had dark gold veining only with a bright white background. No other colors or variation. It was pretty. I'm on the fence. Our contractor said to look for jumbo sizes only. I wasn't expecting that and now feel somewhat limited. Arno is pretty and comes in prefab and jumbo size. Check out Vadara Quartz. I prefer their quartz colors. I also went to their showroom and I think their quartz is gorgeous.