Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to have some validation before I ordered it. I'm going for it. I definitely will use black and white throughout. The color will actually be a background to the black and white. I'll be sure to post photos once I'm done. I guess my kitchen & surrounding areas will be the lone LOUD shocking space on the forum.LOL! I love creamy and pale and sedate. It's very sophisticated. In fact, I've done it in previous homes and would have never guessed I'd be faced with a situation like I'm in. But this spec house with so little natural light and zero architectural charm BEGS for color and a "happy factor." I moved from a 1920s raised Acadian cottage in New Orleans with good bones and tons of architectural interest to a subdivision spec house with not one ounce of charm or architectural interest in another state. I would have never chosen this house, but I'm here and I want to bloom and this seemed the right direction to go. So, on this forum, at times...I feel like a fish swimning upstream with no marble, limestone, blingy chandeliers and a simple 10 x 10 U-shaped kitchen with (sadly) no room for an island or much else for that matter. thanks again for all your input. If anyone pipes in after this I'll still be checking. I'm all for lots of creative thinking. I'm going to check out all the designers above. Thank you all again. :-)

This summer I tackled our storage room. We have been in this house for over 25 years now and things have a way of being stashed in the storage room to be sorted through later. I steeled myself by saying "If my husband and I were to die, what would my kids do with this?" We took many trips to the garbage dump and got to know the friendly people at the Salvation Army and SPCA thrift stores. I came across cardboard boxes of hundreds of yellowing paperbacks which went to the recycle bins. Titles of books which I had loved years and years ago but needed to be euthanased. Boxes of kids' books went to local elementary schools though I did save some of the special hardcovers and one tattered and very much loved copy of "Goodnight Moon". (One day I hope to be a Grandma :) ) I had an enormous number of outdated travel books and some hardcover expensive uni books that I just couldnt throw out earlier. Off to the recycle bin. So now I am left with one bookshelf of favs (many were RP discussion books - "The Crimson Petal and the White" for example, I remember discussing with Siobhan.) I have a few plastic bins still but I need to go through those too. Also some bags of books from these charity book sales that allow you to fill up a bag for about $3. I vow to restrain myself at these sales in the future. I give a lot of books away, I dont know how they keep accumulating. It's like that old Star Trek episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles." And now I have an ebook. I downloaded about a hundred classics and old favs on that but the problem I have is that I dont really like the ebook except when travelling. It's been a lifesaver then, in terms of baggage weight allowances. So I have an invisble TBR pile on that gizmo.

I bought a copy of The Iliad in Greece. I studied The Odyssey three different times during school years but had never read The Iliad, and it seemed so appropriate. To my dismay, it was not the complete work and to this day I have never read the original. I have a paperback copy of a mystery, the name of which I cannot remember, that I bought in Waterstone's in London while waiting to meet Martin and Anyanka for lunch., It turned out not to be a very good book, but the cover had a very evocative Victorian scene. The company, however, was delightful, and I wouldn't get rid of the book for anything. A couple of years ago I traded a paperback I had read for another on the bookshelf at our B&B in Cornwall. That was my introduction to Martin Edwards' Lake District series, which I have enjoyed tremendously and which always make me think of that delightful area. Other books, other memories. I had several Anne Siddons Rivers books along on an Amtrak trip to the West Coast and back, and I once read all the Charlie Chan books riding across Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska, speaking of long boring drives.

Thank you, all. This is my writing (checks, envelopes, notes, cards, etc.), reading (real books, with a bookstand for the heavy ones) thinking (deep thoughts, LOL) desk only. The computer is in our den, comfortably housed on an early 1900s mission oak library table. We use a "regular" computer chair there for ergonomic reasons and love the vibe of the old library table combined with the three over-stuffed bookcases in that room. I love your half-round table and its shelves. You are wise to keep your current paperwork tasks right there. Once everything is finalized, then it can go into the office files. I love the home-made writing desk, too. It truly "belongs" on the other side of the window but he-who-shall-not-be-named simply would not agree to the less wide window. For three years I delayed replacing the old gapping window hoping he would agree to a slightly smaller one. I begged, pleaded, bargained, described, sobbed, explained, pouted, raged...all to no avail. Now he sees what I was saying. The north wall, where the TV cabinet is set, is 11-ft; 9 and 1/2 inches. (Roughly 141 3/4 inches when we used the tape measure on it. The cabinet is 50 inches wide. Once I decide this spot is its real home, the TV will be mounted 12-14 inches above the cabinet. I "know" this is where it goes but I'm still going to test drive it on the west wall, where the loveseat is now, just to be sure. Next to the wall where the desk sits is the front window, 108-freaking inches wide, the wall opposite it is only 135 inches wide. I wanted an 80-inch window. I will make it work but I feel sadness every time I look at that gaping hole that should be part of my living room walls. Oh, I digress. The east wall/corner where the writing desk sits is 57" wide; the desk is 36" wide so there's roughly 10" of painted wall between the desk and the window blind, and the desk and the corner. I can pull the chair out and sit in it without bumping the TV cabinet, but I have to be careful. I will probably add a purple/plum print desk blotter and a similar seat cushion to add bit of color. To the right of the desk is The B.A. 108" Window, then 38" of wall; next to the 44" of front door which butts up to the closet door. I will post more photos, but have to push the rag-tag collection of odds and ends chairs around. I don't want to admit to The World the sad state of affairs in that room. I have decided on the new furniture, which will be my old small foot-print swivel/glider/rocker once it's repaired and recovered, plus two matching easy- club- or smaller high-leg recliners, and a third matching piece covered in leather to suit the hubster. End tables where possible, a lamp or two, an area rug...then on to the larger four seasons porch. Here's a corner of the 10'x11' den/office/his dressing room where the library table and computer live. I love this room. The ceiling is the same color as the upper wall, the "red" walls are a deep, rich burgundy, although you can't tell it here. Color still isn't correct, but this is closer than the above photo. I built the funky bookcase in my first woodworking class. 48" tall 65-ish" tall. The old maple bachelor's chest is an early 1950s workhorse. One drawer is office items, two drawers are his stuff.