I just wanted to update my post with a final decision. They pressed us for a stain choice two months ago and they JUST STAINED IT ON THURSDAY! How's that for urgency? Anyway, after much thought and consideration we went with Minwax Walnut gel stain for the front door. Thanks to all who offered thoughts and opinions. I think it turned out beautiful. Here are a few pics as I know that's what we all REALLY want to see... :-)

mamabird, I can appreciate your (or is it DH's?) desire to have a white room to house that large stone fireplace. It sounds very good to me, in fact - a lovely Scandinavian-country look. I really like the idea of a nearly-white in that room - it won't look cold! not with that behemoth of a firebox in the room. LOL! If you like the White Dove for the woodwork, it looks good. For the walls, if you're amenable to other brands, I would suggest Farrow and Ball's "Strong White". I have this colour in my living and dining areas and it looks like cashmere on the walls - just regular undyed, cashmere. A definite white with a little bit grey, a bit green, a bit tan, but only enough to keep that white from being blinding. Strong White's my preference for your room. It will "go" with the white dove as well as with the tan of the stone. Another (set of) suggestions are from Donald Kaufman. I have DK-24 (in a bedroom) and I love it. It is basically a white with some green, blue and lilac / tan to it. I have it in north-facing room and it reads quite like a blue-green tinted white - once again just enough to knock the blindingness out of the white. This would be even more of a scandinavian-country touch to your room with the great big stone fireplace. Other nice whites from DK are DK-4,5 and 6 the last of which has a noticeable amount of green to it. So not a green colour per se, but a green-shaded White. Alternatively, if you're really bound for a deeper colour in the white-ish territory, I'd suggest F&B's Off-White or Shaded White. Both are gorgeous, definitely deeper colours but both also come across as whites-in-shade if you get what I mean ;-) And I think they'd go swimmingly well with that stone fireplace. Good luck. For what its worth, I support your paint-it-white vision as I think the look will look stellar in it with the fireplace.

Sorry, left out the paint recipe: I use latex paint in Satin (one was Valspar, one was Sherwin Williams). Both look lighter in the pics than in real life, they're dark cream colors. I mix hot water with Plaster of Paris to make a smooth and creamy consistency, then mix it with the paint. It goes on very nice, and has a wonderful feel after waxing. I don't like my pieces to get too flat or chalky, so waxing is important, as is sanding between coats. I lightly distressed both pieces. I use less Plaster of Paris than most people. I used too much on a practice piece once, and it was like pure plaster, a total nightmare. I did not prime either piece, just cleaned them first. I want to say, I used to cringe in horror at painting old wood, but I'm really liking this chalk paint recipe, and how it turns out. And I only paint if the wood is too damaged for us DIYers to restore. My partner did strip and restore both tops here, the wood grain came out beautiful. We're currently working on a sofa table.....harlequin pattern on the table top. I'll post pics when it's done. :-)

When we moved into our 1960’s bungalow, it had many rooms with “bold” accent walls. These served to make the rooms dark and closed in. We repainted the entire main floor with BM Cloud White (which has a creamy tone to it). Baseboards and trim plus the kitchen cabinets were done in BM Chantilly Lace (which is a brighter white.) The floors and interior doors are birch hardwood with a lot of colour variation. The transformation was stunning. The consistency of birch floors and white walls on the entire main floor gave the space a light, airy feel. The white looks different depending on which room you are in and where the light is coming from. I can’t say enough good things about all white walls. I would do it over again in a heart beat.