I am trying to convince my DH to try the drysink in the corner, but he is sure it is to large for the area. I even printed the photos shown and cut the drysink section and placed it behind the table (which would need to be turned) and it did not look right. The board can be taken out of the table since it is only the two of us, to give even more space. I will keep working on it. He is very tired of the small redo. We have been waiting for a wall unit to house the microwave, which will include a pantry and broom closet since before Christmas. He has painted the walls and baseboard twice, and he doesn't like to paint, but he does a great job. When I get home from work I will show you a valance I now have above the sink. It is a cutwork white that I really like. Does the kitchen window/sink area, and the dining are drapes/curtains need to be the same fabric? Thank you all. jejvtr - for the websites. I will check them out tonight. I am at work and just did a quick check on the HD Forum. We originally had it caddycornered in its current position, but neither of us liked it, but I liked it about as much as I like it now. sheilaaus - I agree that the greens/blues are a little off after living with them longer. I really like the first fabric, too - the cream, orange, rust etc. andee - if I can move the drysink, the wall now behind it would be a great place for the 'twins'. Otherwise I am out of wall space. Jane PS: One piece of advice I would seriously consider giving is to find drapes/curtains you fall in love with and then find the paint for the walls. Paint can be easily changed, but finding the right fabric/drapes has become a nightmare to match the color we chose.

LOVE the traditional furniture ..hate the wallpaper..Love the tray ceiling..it needs a dramatic paint job to play it up..and really go for it..don't use white. Pictures make it a little difficult to tell the origin of the wood, if it is fruit wood or a darker oak..seems a bit too light for mahogany but seems to have a more golden tone as well ..that might be the photo. you are looking toward greens and golds?..the sage green would definately work well with your woods..are you going to keep the wainscoting? I might carry one of the other room colors that adjoin through to the ceiling tray of this room..a soft golden color would add LIGHT to it..and then put a contrast on the rest of the tray outside..you might play it up with some beautiful mouldings..and maybe a medallion if you are staying traditional.. then put beautiful mouldings on your wainscot to match..and under the wainscot you could use moulding frames..sometimes this is a little difficult to figure out how to do if you are carpentry challenged..but you can go to a store and find actual picture frames in a moulding that you love and buy a whole bunch of them and glue them equally spaced on the wall below the wainscot to make panels..or squares..and then have the background painted one color and the mouldling another..i prefer lighter as darker can be a bit "overkill".. say the soft sage behind a soft vanilla moulding with a very pale french cream or darker vanilla on the top 1/2 and then the golden ceiling with the vanilla moldlings and sage up in the tray with a vanilla medallion and an antique chandelier with the oiled bronze finish.. now if you want to get a little fancier..the sage on the wainscot behind the mouldings could be of a waterstained type silk or moire..that would be stunning..saving some of the same fabric for curtains..yum... Then wouldn't it be stunning to have depressionware green glassware with some very creamy and green dishes..they would bounce off that golden reddish wood..

Mom2SethC, I think you've found some good choices. Yes, the bench is a very Modern piece but the strong geometry of its base echoes the lines of your cabinets, the wood's color is a color that, via stain or a new table altogether, would go with the look in the photo you found, and the upholstery's grid picks up the floor tile. The chairs, too, were just what I had in mind, although Jejvtr is right about the scale of mine being a bit undersized. Like I said, those aren't cut-&paste items from Photoshop, they came straight out of my brain one pixel at a time, and by the time I got them done and realized they were too short, I didn't feel like spending another hour re-doing them. Obviously, you got the idea. Anyway, the shape & the clean lines of both light fixtures is good, and you could stick with a white shade, although I'd look for a soft matte-finish metal or go with paint rather than the shiny chrome, since four chairs' worth of legs is already plenty of sparkle. The suggestion to maybe try a custom shade color rather than white isn't bad, either. Like I said in my first post, white is what the area needed to give a little more life to it's dark & kind of murky palette, but you don't want too much of it in a small area, or, as was mentioned, it could look like somebody else's dining area got delivered by mistake. So, while I don't care much for that scrolling leaf pattern, that orange/red color might be a good alternative for a custom shade, to better tie the front grouping to what's going on behind it, and since you've got the actual red/orange/whatever accent pieces with you, you'll know best which color would be best for the shade. [And Alicate, on that other thread? You certainly don't need to apologize. Not, anyway, to me. Your follow-up question was perfectly reasonable and besides, I always like to give the benefit of the doubt to my fellow posters, and assume that don't have any bad motives. The hyper-sensitive taking-of-offense-on-behalf-of-other-people & the silly attempts at shaming posters for perceived slights & insults, and the attendant conunterattacks on the whiners that I see on other boards are the main reason I stay away from those places. That's schoolyard nonsense. It's nice being on a forum where people can have different tastes & express different opinions without all hell breaking loose. As the great decorator Elsie de Wolfe said, "Never complain, Never explain."] Now I gotta run, friends. Time to find some inspiration.

This post helped me in my decision for my dinette set. Thanks Mag. You made some really good points. I couldn't decide for 4 years. I ended up picking something very similar to what you mocked up here. What you said about contrasts helped me conclude that I needed a shape very similar to what you drew. I was going for Parsons, but they would have been yet another rectangle in my space. I was also able to convince DH that a plywood seat would have enough flex to be comfortable, so he was set up for a win when he sat in the chair to try it out. Because I have very dark floors I went with a honey color chaiir. My elements are very similar to the OP's. Metal bar stools, and amber /orange pendants. Dark cabinets and floors. This was a really helpful post. Check out this sexy chair I picked. My table will be an ellipse. Here is a link that might be useful: My choice based on Mag's advice here