Last night I was chomping at the bit to put stuff on the shelves. DH suggested "how about just the light stuff?" So I moved in the cereal boxes. I had second thoughts this morning and took them back out. I've decided to wait until next weekend (which is just over 2 weeks since the second coat). It will be a hard week for me. I'm not good at delayed gratification. Cotehele, you couldn't possibly put an adjustable shelf pantry in that amazing kitchen of yours. It just wouldn't be right! Kevinw1, I seriously thought about painting my pantry a very pale gray or white and doing the shelves and trim in the blue/green color of Julia Child's cabinets. I was just worried that it might be too busy or that I might get tired of it. I certainly don't want to have to repaint any time soon. All that cutting in would drive me insane. I do like the idea though. Desertsteph and warmfridge, the light is vintage and I found it on the internet from a lighting place near Ontario. Fixture by fixture, we've put vintage lighting back into all of the rooms in our house. I've found most of it on ebay...lots of good fixtures out there if you're willing to put in the elbow grease polishing (me) and know how to rewire (DH). antiquesilver, thanks for the suggestion to wax the shelves. I have a can of butchers wax and will give it a try once I'm sure the paint has cured. breezygirl, regarding shelf spacing, there were a few items that I knew I wanted in specific places, and then my carpenter and I just figured out how to divide what was left over evenly. I wanted to put my enamel fish poacher on the very top shelf (you can see it on the top shelf in the before picture). I can't reach it easily, so I might as well store something that I like to look at that doesn't get used. The next two shelves will hold my old cooking magazines in magazine storage boxes. The shelf with the electrical outlet is for the toaster oven. I had him make this shelf a little higher than needed in case I have a different toaster oven down the road. The two shelves above the toaster oven and the two shelves below are all the same height (10 1/2") which is tall enough for any single item I buy and tall enough for two cans stacked with space to spare. Probably more detail than you wanted, LOL. honorbiltkit, the pantry has a pocket door (salvaged), but I keep it open most of the time. I like to look at food. : )

Well, I was going to suggest the ubiquitous fiddle leaf fern, but looks like you have a cat, and they are toxic to cats. You might Google plants that are non-toxic to cats and see if anything grabs your interest. I think some palms may be ok with cats (and they can grow fairly large), or you might look for a contemporary plant stand and just sit a smaller plant on it -- maybe a giant tropical bromeliad or something along those lines. That said, if your cat is prone to pester plants, it's probably not a good idea to include one in your décor. (Definitely don't put a fake plant in this pretty space.)

I had the same situation in my former home/new build. I painted the stairs (I always paint risers white and treads an accent color) and did a runner up and over top step and across the loft floor. I had posts, as do you, and I used tempered glass instead of railings because I wanted to see the living room below. All around the perimeter of the room, my builder laid the same hardwood as the floor below…in my case it was Hickory/saddle stain. So have the posts ON the hardwood, not just at the edge, as in your photo. Not my loft, but this idea:

Sash, we need more info from you to help you with this one. Please take a picture from the doorway to bedroom & from doorway of master bath looking into bedroom. Also please post a floor plan of bedroom that gives measurements of each wall, window & doorway . We need to know the entire room measurements. Hopefully there will be a way to use at least one of your nightstands that you’re wisely replacing. It looks like your existing nightstands are part of your bedroom set. We also need to know the size of that one dresser shown in a picture.