Thanks for the ideas everyone! eliza, unfortunately I donÂt know how to tell you to post a picture. Can you describe the bookshelf (dimensions, is it at the head of the bed or along the side, etc.)? Does your daughter bump her head into it? valinsv, I agree about liking the "daybed" kind of feel of the bed against the wall. We too sit back against the wall while weÂre reading. 3dgrad, I do have a swing arm wall lamp, but it's pretty big and seems like it would stick out too far from the wall into the bed space. I think I still have some smaller wall sconces that I might try. I hope I still have themÂthey were in the "going to Goodwill" box at one point. Now that you mention it, I have seen a little folding shelf thing like you described, but forgot all about it. Thanks for the idea. budge, there is a headboard, so a clamp lamp might be what we end up with. Does yours get knocked around? ThatÂs kind of my dilemma, a clamp lamp will be down near pillows and such, but a wall-mounted lamp will be up where the light might glare down too much. I did see a canvas "nursery organizer" which is like a hanging shoe bag but with wider pockets at Babies R Us. I was thinking about that because itÂs soft and would hold a few books and maybe even a water bottle. I might have to do some surgery on it though to make it more horizontally-oriented than vertically.

To make sure we understand you correctly... you want to paint this mantel a light color? Paint over polyurethane is fine -- you just need to sand the mantel enough so that the paint will have something to "grab". You don't need to sand it OFF -- just rough the surface up a bit. Since you're painting light over dark, you might need a few coats.

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.

Thanks for your input! Dh can mix a stain that matches the top exactly. The actual grey color will be in the same hue as Requisite Gray. DH is only mixing black and grey lacquers that he has. After reading Pal's post and then yours Les I started thinking about the chandelier in the DR. I'm re-using the one that was in the house when we bought it. It's brass and sinilar to this new one pictured below, but I've wanted to spray paint it a different finish for quite some time. Maybe silver is something to consider then for both the feet of the table and the finish of my chandelier? I just finished the black chalkboard wall this evening so that's done! Hoping to have this done by Thanksgiving!