What a wonderful plant! I adore red and would get it in a heartbeat even though I am on the edge of it's hardiness zone like NHBabs. Babs did you end up getting one? If so would you give your experience with it.

never_ending, yes, upper cabinets are easy to make. There are reasons for this. Several reasons that all combine to make it worthwhile. -- The thing you can have is 1 big box as an upper cabinet (therefore continuous, long, shelves inside the 1 cabinet). The front cover could be *either* 2 or 3 sets of panels that open with Blum Aventos HF hinges, *or* several narrow (vertical) doors that hinge on a front frame. In either case, you have continuous shelves. At first glance it looks like wall "cabinets" but, it's a single entity, not a series of boxes stuck together. So the shelves are uninterrupted by cabinet sides. When you open door 2, you can reach things in sections 1 or 3 as well. Storing things is easier too since your things don't bump up against barriers. -- 1 big box is easy. Here is one of the several reasons why wall cabinets are easier to make than floor cabinets. A wall thingie has to look good (straight and level), and be well screwed to studs. Looking good is less demanding than being truly level to a fine "tolerance". A run of floor-standing boxes has to be far better aligned: it supports a level countertop. So, a 1/8" misalignment becomes a serious problem, even if the floor is perfect, rigid, flat. A floor-standing box has to hold up to max. physical stress AND could have an unstable (squishy, spongy) floor under some of its legs. So, it can be a chore. Or more. But a wall thingie doesn't have to be square or level, to the Nth degree. Executive Summary: wall cabs are a few panels joined at 90 degree angle. They hang on the wall. The cabinetmaker doesn't need to work to the same degree of "perfection" as for the cabinets that stand on the floor and become a base for countertops. I second the notion that "you may be able to go IKEA bottoms and custom uppers without breaking the bank." -- Open shelving is not as easy to make as 1 big box. Because each shelf has to get its entire support from the wall studs. With 1 big box, shelves are supported by the two sides of the big box. (Between the two sides at the ends of the long shelves, the shelves do need some support too) ((and this is "easy" or easier to arrange than for individual open shelves)) -- "They are spacious and operate so smoothly with the soft close feature." sample budget: $1500 Ikea cabs (floor-standing) $2000 any "front" from Scherr's, ikea or anywhere $1000 installation DIY along with a handyman helper who has a level

color on the walls never went away.. I feel it's about tastes and preferences of course, but geographic location first and foremost. every place on Earth has its own settings..its own light. so yes, the colors are chosen to work with the light that's there as you say adhiker..bright or soft..lighting up and shutting down as with the switch, or lingering.. I also think: every color is a color. White is. Gray is. So what if they're neutral. To me many browns and greens and blues are also neutrals of sorts.. Whatever your eye is used to see a lot is a neutral. People would think neutrals are less restrictive..true..but with so many shades and tints-you'll still choose one main direction for the rest of your things(warmer or cooler, brighter or muted), and add a bit of other colors. But you still will choose main direction. I love taupe, ivory, cream, off white..I have both taupe and greenish off white besides greige as I've said.. I also have shades of green and purple And they all work perfectly well together because they're a tad muted..they're soft, muted, and change with light but in a way that I like the changes And you can actually get away with many much brighter, saturated colors too..so many beautiful examples, whether it's New Orleans or India..:) or England or Russia you can have enfilades of rooms, or just rooms all painted or wallpapered differently yet it all perfectly works that's when you have this very-very open floor plan only, and certain style of a house, when you have to choose a color otherwise hard to pull off.. Also so much depends on the materials a house is built of..architectural style..etc that's why I actively dislike all this "timeless" blah blah. Timeless is beauty. Beauty is different. Forest is beautiful, and sea is, and jungles are, and mountains are, and deserts are. And the most timeless you can do is to go with what's there already, and create a dialogue between the place and you. I don't know why people think something is in vogue. True, something is, but there are literally hundreds of"vogues" going simultaneously It's like if all the people would dress the same but why on Earth should they, when everybody's different? I feel bad writing so much..:)

Not that anyone has been waiting with bated breath for an update on my paint dilemma, I thought I would finish out the saga anyway just due to the fact that I come here so often to read posts and am always disappointed when they are left unresolved. My husband had finally had enough of looking at patchwork walls and listening to me talk about paint colors so he scheduled a painter to start this past Tuesday and told me to just pick a color and be done with it!! He also said “it’s just paint if you hate it we can have them come back and do a different color”. I told myself the night before I was just going to settle on the Dunn Edwards color Crystal Haze with the accent wall in Metal Fringe. Needless to say when the painters showed up the next morning I panicked and was seeing a lot of yellow in the sample I had up so while they were prepping I decided I was going to just be safe and do the Gray Mist which was what I kept coming back to, with the ever popular Chelsea Gray as an accent wall. Needless to say when I came back with the quart of Gray Mist to try out on my biggest wall it looked too white. 😕😞 At this point I knew the painters were losing patience with me as they were ready to start so I just decided to go back and get a couple gallons of the Olympic Mountains and hope for the best! While they were mixing that I went back to the paint chip wall and found a color somewhat similar to Chelsea Gray called Squirrel Tail which looked promising so I grabbed a gallon of that color for the accent wall. As I was watching the paint go on I was certain I had picked the wrong colors but knew I wouldn’t be able to tell until it dried. So they finished the job in two days and after being unsure at first I am now really liking it!! Hallelujah!! I realize that I had become consumed with all the images of beautifully painted, perfectly designed rooms on the internet/hgtv and I guess was looking for that moment of surprise/elation that you see there and was frustrated at all the “perfect, tried and true no-fail” paint colors out there that just didn’t look good in my house along with the fact that although everyone says “it’s just paint” who in reality wants to fork out another $2000+ to redo it. Also the samplize sheets are good and eliminate all the leftover paint samples and using swatches painted on poster board is somewhat helpful but none of it is really indicative of what the color looks like when it actually goes on the whole wall. I guess the best lesson learned from this is to just pick 3-4 strong contenders and actually paint swatches on your wall and also realize you can actually go a little darker than you think because both rooms I’ve had painted now have turned out looking lighter than the actual little swatch. I will be needing to paint my upstairs sometime in the near future so hopefully I can follow that advice myself and not go back down the rabbit hole 😞 So in conclusion, while it may not be the perfect result I had envisioned I am happy with it. I probably could have gone a little darker/warmer but Olympic Mountains is a very nice light neutral. It may show a tiny hint of green at times during the day but I also haven’t put my shades/curtains back up yet so I’m getting a ton of light in here all day and I’m not super crazy about it at night but I didn’t find anything in this color range that looked great at night and since I’m unwilling to use anything but soft/warm light bulbs I’ll deal with it. The accent wall color (Squirrel Tail) is also not exactly what I had imagined either but it is a lovely rich velvety color that is a nice mix of gray/green/brown depending on the time of day. Anyway thanks to all on here for the advice/input and listening to me ramble on endlessly since my family was no longer listening 😕 Happy painting everyone!!! 😊