One particular treatment that was done in the 18th and 19th c. when it came to paint, was to paint the entire room in the same color, trim and all. The modern interpretation of this would be to do a higher sheen level on the millwork. This could address the issue of the different sizes of doors and such and minimize the horizontal banding effect of a wainscot. * * * * Mount Pleasant, a Georgian house that has slowly been taken back from colonial revival notions of what it looked like to what it Really looked like --based upon physical analysis-- had very Interesting paint treatment: The entire room, including all the heavy Georgian detail, was painted in one color (a rather drab gold if I remember) The cupboards had a bright paint treatment on the interiors, and there was a brownish black band of paint that ran around the lower 6-9" of the perimeter, intersecting EVERYTHING: door jambs, doors, fireplace, etc...a cut line straight across. (Apparently to hide the splash marks from washing the floors and muddy clothing and such)

I fell in love with the #2 black curtain along with the SW Flower Pot color in your awesome kitchen. Today I picked up a paint sample of SW Flower Pot and it looks more like brown than a red tone for some reason. In the pictures online it definately looks red. If you are still here Jan can you tell me if it looks brownish on your walls? My cabinets in home are medium wood and I worry it will be too much brown. Countertops are cream though. I really want to add some red because couch in next room has red in it and I need to tie the rooms together. Our kitchen has 3 windows so the black fabric will really look great and stand out. SW Flower Pot really does look so beautiful with your white cabinets. :) It is the first kitchen that I have found that I actually liked since surfing the last few months! Most kitchens and decorating are very neutral. I need color!! (smile) Thanks!

island - I don't miss those fireplace doors at all! :) We'll try and sell them on Craigs List but wonder if anyone will want them. LOL. Yes, we did replace the entire firebox. We purchased a Heat & Glo direct vent gas fireplace and had to pull out the old firebox and reframe for the direct vent unit. There are many styles of doors they offer, and the prices vary. We liked the fancy arched ones, but not for $999! We went with the Folio, clean face front which was no charge. Figured we would put the "savings" toward the flooring. We can always get a nice fireplace folding screen if we want. Check out the Heat & Glo website for more information. www.heatnglo.com. We went with the CLX 6000 model which comes with a remote, nice embers and log set, and a blower. Let me know if you have questions! tinan - Yes, the smell was awful! I wondered the same thing about the noxious coatings. Ugh! At least the smell is gone now. Enjoy your new furnace!

A couple of thoughts... First, I would have no hesitation in going with silk or something fancier. It sounds like that will go with your eventual furnishing plans, and it is way easier to dress down silk than it is to dress up something more casual in the event that you later get dressy furniture. In fact, it looks like your first choice panel was a little fancier. Second, If you're doing the side-by-sides AND the four(?) single windows, you're going to have a lot of patches of this fabric around the room. I would therefore be inclined not to break the bigger set into patches as well, but stack them at either end of the stretch of windows. But if you are doing this on a single long rod, that will be something you can play with. Third, about where and how to find what you want. It sounds like so far you have two options on the table, either ready-to-hang, or going through a designer. It may be different around here (heck, I'm not even in the same country), but here there are a lot of independent drapery shops that don't bill themselves as "designers". I wonder if you could find one of those. show them the photo of the JCP panels you liked, and see if they can find you a similar fabric and make them to specification? We also have a decorator fabric store (a chain of three actually) where you wander in, pick your fabric, and they can make them up for you or you can just buy the fabric. Even our normal fabric stores around here have drapery sections... in other words, if you look for the fabric separately, you might have better luck than if you shop for finished panels. Finally, have you tried to actually call JCP, including their stores, to physically hunt down and flush out the last of those panels you like? I know this sounds a little obsessive (admittedly, I am) but I'd bet that several of their stores have one or two of them in remainder bins around the country, or that the warehouse has some somewhere. Worth pushing a little if you haven't already done so. But you do need a lot of them, and that might be hard to take to completion. Good luck! KarinL Here is a link that might be useful: Arlene's (aka fabric heaven)