this is such a great thread! thank you all for sharing. I have so many I love. DH wrote me a song when we were dating called dream garden and not long after I saw this painting. It made me feel like his song so I had to have it. :) It is one of my favorites. I have lots of favorites but I dont have pictures of them all. This is another - I like to imagine being on vacation in this spot and I think the frame fits it so well. One of my favorite ebay purchases....

Purplepansies Blue Louise--I love the combination of the copper brown and the blue. Florantha Starry Night--Good job finding swirly tile. I tried this exercise, but was stumped searching for swirly tile. I love the dark blue drapes. Purplepansies Approaching Thunder Storm--Oooh, I love the artwork! You did a great job of capturing the colors and the mood of the painting. I love the magma supreme granite. Honorbiltkit Vuillard--Also a beautiful painting, full of interesting details and patterns. You captured the color of the rug in the painting, and the painting you chose for your design does a great job of mimicking the painting in the painting. If that makes any sense. Palimpsest Vuillard--You also did a great job of capturing the colors of the painting, playing up the neutrals a bit compared to Honorbiltkit. The floor--is it Marmoleum?--mimics the colors of the rug. Style-wise, the table is unexpected, but I really like it in the design. Pricklypearcactus Lanadscape with Butterflies--I like the interplay of colors in your kitchen just as much as in the original painting. I just want to say how very much I've enjoyed this thread. I liked the artwork, I liked the kitchens, and I liked all the creative thinking that went into putting them together.

Pal - I thought same as Annie....Naaaaw not Kincade! I actually really liked the floral painting in your design though. I came across it in one of my searches last night. Humph, but I already forget now the artists name! This is such a great exercise for the mind. Mine has been really REALLY out of shape for years. "Personally embellished". Ha! Now we know his technique for achieving the shimmering highlights of morning dew glistening of each leaf or that diamond glint on a trickling brook. His DNA signed works cost extra. I remember as a teen going to a Kincade gallery. It was in the Mall. It was like walking into a dark cavern. The paintings would have small picture lights above each. But some special works had tiny lights embedded somehow behind the frame so the street lamps and house windows lit up. Now that is realism! Annie - That's awesome! The houzz pics droopy chair is absolutely perfect. Cawaps - I love your interpretation room! The ant on the red half round table is my favorite. I want to try my own, but I am not sure how you guys do these. I am using an iPad. Does anyone know if there is an apple app to make these boards? I will look, but for now I will watch and learn. Thanks jlc for starting this thread. I love the ideas of DAT based on your pet, a song or musician, and the craigslist one sounds really fun.

great advice upthread I'll try to be short, probably repeating several people: -get rid of the white console next to the fireplace/look for smth else instead if you need it there for function -think of other window treatments. curtains? woven blinds? roman shades? any of these will look better. move your sectional a bit from the wall, both to allow room for window treatments and because furniture generally needs at least couple inches to breathe..that wil also make room seem larger -you already purchased the ottoman in the same color and style of the sofa..off white, right? well something different would be better, but it's okay..buy a throw, fold it and put there to break your lines a bit. tray is great too-both for function and beauty. you'll appreciate it when watching this TV -I liked reading how your wife gets her art:) okay..so if there's no real room for other suggestions(I'm also prejudiced against mass produced canvas art..maybe she can be talked into a print instead?..)..put that art there first. Make sure it fits-seems huge?.. Say you go for that a very similar art, you have there-a bit of white, black, brown, indigo blue, fiery yellow white and brown you already have in your room (btw like your furniture) pull your other colors (in pillows and throws and accessories) from that art -deep sophisticated blues, golds. can be metallic accessories (like vases or flower pots?), can be softest fur pillows can be velvet, can be knitted throw. everythhing you buy-make sure it's a different texture..leather is sleek you've got enough of it. Speaking from experience-I also have my fair share of leather:) then look for a big ticket items like curtains and a rug. (or simultaneously..just keep your general scheme in mind). you can decide to make them fairly neutral. repeat the color of the furniture, just different material of course. or go for one vivid deep color but make it a shag rag for example. Don't try to match pattern to art..art has a mind of its own. Look at the room as a whole..what does it ask for? and know yourself of course..say I love many rugs but I don't like to clean them lol. You know whether it's high traffic area, what your habits are, and whether you'll be sad for 5 min if the rug will have spots and then get over it, or will be sad for 5 days. when you buy a side table try, again, to introduce another texture, just different material in this case. maybe wood. maybe ceramics(garden stool?some of these look really modern). every new material you bring creates dimension. Dimension is something you look for when creating spaces. Why? well that what we've used to. Ouside always has it. Even when it's a desert or an ocean. It has depth. we need to recreate it with all sort of ways and means that are availiable to us.. Good luck! will be a cool room edited because of thousand typos..))