Continuity in a home's decor that is consistent with at least some of it's architectural style does help a home feel more pulled together and thought out as a whole. A quilt of related choices that produces harmony all together. However, your description of your home's existing decor says that continuity isn't as important to you as is choosing variation in your decor. A crazy quilt of many different colors and patterns, can work too, if there's enough color and pattern and variation when viewed from a distance. You need to decide on you home's overall direction before you can choose a direction for your kitchen. IF you want to treat each room as it's own entity, then you certainly can do fire engine red slab cabinet doors with stainless counters----as long as your kitchen isn't open to the rest of the home. However, if you take that road, be sure that you will be living in the home long enough (10+ years) that you will not be penalized on your choices at resale. Home shoppers are way conservative and lack the ability to imagine the home in any other decor other than your own. So, if resale any time is a concern, you might want to address the home's decor as a whole rather than individual parts. Individual parts do not always come together well in a quilt, and sometimes you have to step back and look at the whole picture when making choices for the entire home, not just the kitchen. Too many directions in a home's decor can look "ecclectic" if mixed well in every room in the house, or it can look schizophrenic if done hodge podge and poorly.

jynxed - Your home sounds like it's going to be beautiful with your new window treatments. And I can't wait to see the pictures. sallymo - You're the greatest. Thanks for the visuals. It really helps me a lot. I agree that the black might be too strong in the living room. There are eight total windows in there. Check out the picture below. Plus, I'm thinking of doing panels for privacy, versus valances alone. I think it would be great if I could get touches of red in the fabric for the great room to accent the kitchen area. caroleoh - I love your colors. Your tastes are a lot like mine. Is your kitchen valance the cuffed top pattern by Pate Meadows? That's exactly what I had in mind for my kitchen as well. Les - We don't have any furnishings in the great room that we'll be keeping. The stuff we have (a microfiber couch, love seat, and two end tables) don't go well with the decor and have been well used. So at some point, we'll need new furniture. You're right about the fabric matching and that it's better to choose the furniture first. So that's another whole ball of wax. I'm just wondering if it's okay to go ahead with the window covering fabrics in the kitchen now, or if I should wait on that too, until we figure out the living room furniture situation. We don't plan to buy furniture until probably next year. I love the caldwell espresso. We probably need panels in the living room because privacy is an issue at night. There are a total of eight windows in the room (3 singles by the fireplace, 4 connected toward the opposite end of the room from the fireplace, and one more on the long wall, also toward the front of the house). Here is the wall toward the front of the house, opposite from the fireplace:

Making progress! Busy day so far. Second coat of paint, one hockey game, interior and exterior window cleaning, and some more pictures. New color is BM Aura shimmer. It reads blue in real life, almost a matching blue to the Vancouver Day, in a good way. I don't find it conflicts next to the brown tile. The white paint is much better I think but I think the trim work needs work. I still think the windows are a little top heavy, especially with the top trim piece. It could be more rectangular. That said, there are a lot of rectangles in this view. Perhaps something to introduce a curve? I spent some time last night looking at window trim on Houzz. The trim could be very wide and tall: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/kitchens-traditional-kitchen-boston-phvw-vp~1541411) [Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Boston Architect Jan Gleysteen Architects, Inc It could disappear, with trim that goes to the ceiling: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/shingle-style-home-in-hanover-nh-victorian-kitchen-burlington-phvw-vp~106086) [Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Burlington Architect Smith & Vansant Architects PC Or it could connect the left run of cabinets with the right (eventual) one; I forget what this piece is called: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/portfolio-traditional-kitchen-denver-phvw-vp~207337) [Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Denver Kitchen And Bath Angela Otten; WmOhs Showrooms Inc Thanks a2, blue would be more of a blue grey. I originally had baby/sky blue and couldn't STAND it. dretutz - what a nice thing to say, thank you! I am not familiar with Revere Pewter, will look it up. Hi colorfast - I haven't yet bought a paint sample of Gray Owl; may try if I decide against the current off white. michoumonster - thank you for the soft chamois color recommendation, with a name like that, it sounds lovely:) I may still try it.... BM china white I have used a lot of in the past. A few more shots then off to tackle stacking the wood. Gorgeous fall day out there! View outside the kitchen window: And my personal favorite:

It doesn't HAVE to be the same color of course. It's a nice finished look to have all the woodwork in the house match. Be sure it looks good with everything you're keeping--sink, counters, backsplash, floors. But wouldn't it be nice to have your pantry door not be the bright spot in your kitchen? :) (If you decide not to paint the cabinets, maybe just change that door!) In a previous remodel I had my new cabinets painted the color of my existing trim because I wanted white and I didn't want to find the perfect white when I already had a nice white that I knew looked good. Much less work deciding how to deal with trim, too. You can save a lot of effort sticking with the white that you know!