Our kitchen/breakfast room is open to the great room. Separate DR at front of house. As you can sort of see in the pictures linked below (look at #2 and #3), the travertine is in the kitchen/breakfast room (also back hall to laundry room, and to pantry, powder room and sunroom). We have wood in the rest of the main level rooms and it begins at the kitchen/great room and our cedar posts. In your plan, it seems the best thing to do is stone in kitchen/dining room and change to wood at columns into great room. I would also keep stone to front door, into your pantry area and powder room. Here is a link that might be useful: my kitchen

Hi Plllog! "That is, I know it's possible, but might not be in your budget." See, there's the crux of it. This little beverage center idea of mine was not in the original budget. (Nor, alas, were new drywall in the livingroom and halls, the gorgeous walnut top on my used cabinet island, the matching gorgeous top that will soon be on the new media cabinet and the near full gut of the bathroom.) And we're still determined to get through remodeling our ugly duckling without taking out a loan or dipping into savings. Conventional wisdom says: Wait until the coffers are full again but that's so hard to do. First off, I'm a cheapskate. Even if the goose who laid the golden egg waddled up onto my deck and built a nest, I'm not sure I would willingly pay someone to mess up the walls I just paid to fix. Second, I'm not quite cheap enough. My new kitchen is starting to look pretty good but, gosh, it would look so much better if the microwave and coffee maker didn't take up so much room on that one counter. I'm willing to spend a little bit more to change that, especially since I'm going to have a piece of countertop leftover that should be just the right size. Still, it's nice to know that it's possible. Maybe when the coffers ARE full again I'll put a tile counter outside on my deck to shade the golden goose should she happen to wander by ;) Thanks for your help!

Don't know what you decided to do, but your saving grace could be the handscraped wood look you chose. If the grout you use will blend in coloration with the tile, the uneven or slightly wider width tile joint probably won't be noticed and may simply be accepted as a part of the design.

Pillows are on the agenda too. I wanted to add some colour with the pillows thought I should get the wall squared away before I did so I could use to pull room together. My apartment before this house had rich colour but I felt like it was all dated when I got here, so I got the lighter longer curtains and wanted to stay somewhat neutral with the rug. Mounting the tv and stand would look much better but there won't be any colour from the picture ....that leaves walls and pillows