johnwc, thanks for the wood info. think i am going to go with the maple. the custom shoppe is a company located in wisconsin and makes custom made wood products, desks/home entertainment etc offers options galore as you can design you own piece of furniture my local store quoted me 3300 for the desk/hutch i want in maple but there is a place in north carolina that quoted me 2000 for same, only concern (the name for nc store is southern designs)was a response here that the customer service for southern designs was less then desirable the furniture is american made, all wood, does use veneers in areas for strength, dovetailed drawers i was able to see a piece in my local store it was beautiful and seemed well made you can gooogle the custom shoppe and check out good luck and thanks for the info!!

I tend to do anything other than food in a "food room" like a dining room just because it's so... expected. I will admit, however, to having a little funky oil painting of a coffee cup in my kitchen. But a still life with fruit? Not for me. Landscapes, yes. I like the idea of sitting down to eat and facing an interesting landscape. When our dining room was a dining room, I had 2 landscapes in there. Now it's a dining/library room and there's not much wall space, but I have a small painting of a house on one wall, and, uh, a silver deer head that's actually a Christmas decoration on another narrow slice of wall. Put it up for the holidays, and couldn't bring myself to put it away when it was post-holiday cleanup time. If I were you, I'd keep looking til you find something that you love, and don't worry too much about the subject matter. Maybe it's a painting of a cow. Or a sofa. Or a flower garden... whatever it is, you'll probably know it when you see it.

Joanie, I understand, and we all like different things. Kevin, I'm not one to dither forever, and when I see something that works beautifully, at my price point, more or less, and is easy, I'm on it. I have looked at dozens of manufacturers online and their chairs and...this was it! I hadn't bought the Canadel, because I had reservations, however, I couldn't find anything I liked better at that price. Sure, if the price doubled I could find plenty, but hey! I have also been scouring the catalogs at the local, good, furniture stores and scrutinizing their products enough to make the sales women batty. I have also looked at antique stores and CL ( too much). Oh, and custom online. Can't afford it. Yes it's perfect. A pine trestle table stained and waxed with bread board and leaves. Can't afford it but PB fits the bill ok. So, ultimately, this table and chair set summed up all my lingering questions and concerns ( what to do about a desk?) quite nicely and the purchase was at the end of a quest, not the beginning.

a2gemini - Great! Send me an email (starpooh at gmail dot com) when you're ready to post and I will give you the FKB Checklist. AnnaA - Yes, it's all volunteer time (although, as with all bloggers, I make some money on ads from Google Adsense). But it's a very relaxing night-time ritual; my brain is tired from working on the computer all day. Sitting in a big easy chair while watching HGTV, posting photos and categorizing kitchens is actually fun! And it keeps me busy so I don't order things on amazon. :-) I had tried to create a new FKB similar to Houzz where you could upload your own photos but it got to be too complicated and I was so busy working on the new site that I didn't add any new kitchens to the existing FKB. (Maybe in the future.) For now I'm the only person who can make updates. So just send me an email (starpooh at gmail dot com) with a link to your new photos and I will update them. I use watermarking software to add the owner's name to each kitchen. It's easy once it's all setup. wags848 - Are you viewing the FKB from a computer, tablet or smartphone? From a computer I see these links at the top right of the page: Home, Find-A-Kitchen, View Photos, Slideshows, Add My Kitchen, Articles, Links, About/Contact Several of these have drop-down menus with additional links. Do you see them?