I think you've received some great suggestions. Of course, you came to the right place! I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for your loss. My mom passed away almost 6 years ago, and some days, it seems unreal to me, and we weren't even super-close. So many days I need to know someone's name, or fill in the blanks in a childhood memory, or just have a question about how to do something. I invariably find myself going for the phone. Then I remember that she's gone, and it's been 6 years! Anyway, my mom and grandma passed away within 5 years of each other, and my brother and I got everything from both of their houses. We sold a lot, and kept the stuff that had memories or an emotional attachment, like your tables and lamps. Some of the stuff I started using/had sitting out right away. But, my grandma had a china cabinet bursting with glassware and teapots and such. So much of it is not my taste... too pinky and too many ribbons and roses for me. But, my grandma was the center of my universe, and she loved those things. So, they still sit in a couple dozen cartons, in the basement storeroom. Fast forward ten years... I "made" a silver and crystal vanity table-top set for my MIL for Christmas. I bought the tray cuz she wanted the non-tarnish silver, and I bought a few crystal tumblers for eyeliners, lipsticks, and other tube cosmetics. I wanted a small bowl for center front in my arrangement. I had it in my head that there was a little crystal bowl in Grandma's stuff, and it would be so cool to give one of her things to my MIL, who has sort of taken her place in my life. So I started searching, and searching. Turns out that the "crystal" bowl was just pressed glass, so that was a wasted hunt. But, the good that came out of it was that after ten years, some of the emotional bond with the stuff had faded. I now think I am ready to go through it, pick out the stuff that I really do like, and consign the rest. So, some of the emotion/guilt fades after a few years, and it's easier to deal with these items. Of course, in your case, it's not two houses FULL of stuff, and you actually like what you got! Sorry for the long story. Your tables and lamps look great, btw!

Camlan, yes I read in bed, as well as place a drink on the bedside table if I'm doing office work in bed. The table surface should be about 19.5"w x 18"d. If I go with Plan B, undercabinet lighting would probably be warm fluorescent as quite a bit of light is thrown out both to the sides and forward. A similar set-up was used in a bedroom for my son in my last home, and the reading light was fine. If I do Plan A, the wall cabinet height may need to be reduced to 30" to place the light at the right height. This is something I could live with. I guess my question is, do you think undercabinet lighting in a nice bedroom would shout "kitchen" as my designer seems to think? I do not wish to do both types of lighting as either one should serve my purpose so I do not see the need for both. And yes, lighting behind the valance is already planned, with the focus to be on a painting above the bed.

Yes the south is known for their mopheads! I responded to your other thread re: hydrangeas. I'm zone 6B and I have a few micro climates that are probably about zone 7 so I can get away w/ growing some types of roses that typically don't do too well in our climate. My back hedge of Nikko blue hydrangea was in a lightly shaded area until my giant Blue Atlas Cedar came down this past Fall. Now my Nikkos's are in blazing sunlight. I have a heavy clay soil and I only water them occasionally when I see that they are getting very, very droopy typically in a heatwave. Then I'll get out the soaker hose and put it on for a few hrs. a day a few days in a row. I don't feed them but I do heavily amend the soil w/ iron to get a bluer shade. Our soil is very, very rich as I understand the original owner was a die-hard gardener. Since the cedar came down there isn't a bed of needles around the base of the hydrangea anymore & that used to help me get a better shade of blue. This yr. though one suffered an iron deficiency that was pretty easy for me to correct. Other than that I'm pretty much hands off w/ my hydrangea. This yr. some of them really took off size wise all of a sudden and I thought that it wasn't going to be a good yr. for them but my Nikko's are still flowering better than my 2 different versions of everblooming hydrangeas that are in my side beds. The Nikko blue row is at least 7yrs old but I plant at least 2 new hydrangea somewhere every yr. My in-laws just gave me an oak leaf hydrangea for my birthday last night for my white garden. I've never planted an oak leaf before so I'm looking forward to that. I'll have a bank of those surrounding the bistro area of our patio.

@Soisth M My whole home is furnished with Mid Century Modern furniture and with the increased mattress thickness I have had to get creative. My home is an MCM ranch with 8' ceilings. I just bought a mattress for my guest bedroom. When it was delivered I realized that with the standard box spring and frame the bed was higher than my butt cheeks. Way too high for a low ceiling home - higher than the window sill and just looked odd. (A friend who is a big guy (6'5") tried it out and said he felt like a little kid on the bed). I ended up taking the box spring apart and removing the risers between the upper and lower layers to get a bed that was an appropriate height for my home. They sell low profile box springs, but even with the low profile box spring the bed was high and I really needed it to be a 2" box spring vs a 4" (low profile) or 8" (Traditional) so that it fit with my furnishings. In my master I bought nightstands that were originally designed to go with a platform bed. The set I bought only had the nightstands and 2 dressers. I paired it with a traditional headboard and the current mattress is just below the upper shelf instead of even with the lower shelf. It isn't that your night stands are not standard, it is that the standard height of beds keeps getting taller and taller and taller, although my sister has antique Queen Anne Furniture and her beds are crazy tall, so I guess the height keeps changing from generation to generation.