I love your idea and I love your brick walls. 1. I don't know, but id hate to see any sheen to them. Id try to leave it as is if you can. Maybe a piece of glass over the table top. 2.Love the colors. 3. Long ways only IMHO. Good luck!

I found a couple additional fixtures which are similar to the Visual Comfort one I posted previously and one from Pottery Barn where the shade has a similar shape to the pendants. I am also going to repost the previous favorite one so that are all on one post. I think I am leaning towards order the Visual Comfort one but would love to get more opinions. Visual Comfort Original Visual Comfort Barbara Barry Westport Hudson Valley Pottery Barn - this one but in bronze instead of brass Also, I took some photos of the family room. It is more full than normal with the Christmas decorations. What color do you think would work for the banquette cushions? What color chair would you replace with wood ones with? For the banquette and chairs I really need some type of leather or vinyl because my little kids (1.4, 3.5, 5.5) are messy as you expect. I also need help with furniture and decorations for the family room. With the dark furniture, dark wood coffee and end table, and the wood floors in this house it is just too much darkness. I haven't found I rug I like and desperately need one but don't really know what would look good. I will probably also post in the home decorating forum. Any insight you all have is much appreciated. sprtphntc - I don't know if I want up or down lighting. I think there is enough light in general that we don't need down lighting. I had looked through HF's website of all of the chandeliers and none of the stood out to me other than the one I posted. If you have one which you think would work well in my space, let me know and I will take another look.

"Is your family the kind that will keep the island totally clear? Otherwise, an island with stuff on it will further detract from your view." Yes, in between meal prep we are fairly good about cleanup/putting clutter away. STILL, though, our kid's preschool art projects have to go somewhere when they first get home, so rather than fight that reality and not have any drop zone for that stuff (thus dumping it on the island), I'm thinking to just acknowledge it and contain it with a command ctr where we can have a drawer just for those art projects. "When renovating our house, I evaluated the view from points in my new floor plan. My priority was that when people walk into our house and look ahead-bam- there's the mountain straight ahead, framed by a large window. Maybe that's something for you to try. What do you want people to see when they walk in? Does that matter to you?" Great question for me to talk through w/ my husband. I have been thinking much more about connections to the back yard. We do a lot of grilling and hopefully backyard dining in the summer months; I like the banquette near that "action" as a way of feeling more connected to the outdoors. "Are you working with a designer? It sounds like you have a beautiful property and big ideas. There's a big opportunity here for something amazing or something short sighted." Not yet but not opposed to it. I am not sure if we need an architect, or a design-build firm, or just a contractor, or... ?

Live wire oak - I failed to explain that we also have a 57” aisle between the nook and our island where the chairs on that side will sit. So the chairs on that side will definitely have plenty of space. So the 61.5” nook only needs to fit the table and bench along the back. I think we can fit a 25” deep bench along the back and a 39.5” wide table in the book (with 3-4” overlap) and the chairs in the opposite side will sit in the aisle (outside the nook). Here is a picture of how wide the aisle is. The chairs are and metal table base are positions where they would sit and there is plenty of space. So I am still wondering if 27” is enough space for a chair on the sides of the table. I positions the table base and chair on left with this much space (bench base that was started is kind of in the way). It may be a smidge tight but seems like it might be fine. I’m leaning toward ordering this table and just doing bench across the back. Is this ok? Thoughts? I’m also wondering if a carpenter could trim a couple inches off the table on either end if it was just slightly too long.