That sounds cool, Hank! I have a white painted brick house with dark green trim and shutters. My house was built in 1949. It is more like a little cottage. Right now the front yard is still a mess - will I EVER get it done? I'd also like to tear down part of my deck, but I can't figure out which part yet. It has 4 different levels (or 5?). The middle part is covered, and I'd definitely like to keep that. And the part that meets the patio doors off my computer/plant room. The people who lived here before extended another level from the covered portion to accommodate their hot tub, and when they removed the hot tub, they covered it with octagonal shaped decking, and made it a step higher than the other deck portions. Really weird. There are two planter boxes built to extend from the deck, but the stupid guy who built them, did it out of plywood. Well, you can imagine what they look like now. I am just going to have to rip them off. They are so tall that it takes a truckload of dirt to fill them. But, they are coming apart at the seams and I need to figure out what to do with/about them. Portions of the deck need to be replaced as well - old and rotting lumber. They didn't use deck screws, but nails (ouch!). There is a rail around the upper portion and the covered portion, but it needs some work done as well. Oh, well....best laid plans. Congrats, Renee on completing that task! What a job that must have been, right? I know you're glad to have it done! The color may grow on you. I remember one time we saw in a Country Living magazine that a homeowner had painted their kitchen cabinets a cobalt blue and it looked so cool that we did it to our kitchen! OMG! It looked AWFUL! So much for magazines. We had to hire someone to come in and strip that goshawful paint off the cabinets and redo it in a nice cool beige. Much easier on the eyes. Susan

Thank you all. Either painting the ceiling or the cabinets would be the easiest way to avoid too much brown wood everywhere. (I actually rather like modern high gloss lacquered cabinets.) White paint with a slight blue tint on the ceiling with walnut stained beams sounds quite pretty. However, my DH hates painted wood. Given the choice, he would much rather go with tile floors than paint the ceilings or the cabinets. The wood ceiling doesn't look too bad as is in the photo I posted. I like the depth of the color it is now - not too dark and overpowering - but the tone of the color is the problem. At certain times of day, as the light changes, the ceiling takes on an unattractive pinking or yellowish cast. One of our big problems in the house is lack of lighting, so we are adding as much as we can during the remodel, including cove lighting on top of the cabinets (we can�t do any recessed lighting because there is no space between the wood ceiling and the roof), so the wood ceiling will become more of a feature with the lights aimed at it. Our contractor is supposed to do samples to see if we can dye the ceiling to a more neutral brown shade, without going much darker. We could try to do a greyish tone, like driftwood or aged teak, but that will probably be harder to achieve successfully over a large area than a brown tone. There are little wing walls that separate the kitchen from the dining/living area, so we could do separate flooring in each space. I do not mind using tile in the kitchen, it is the living room that concerns me. I agree that the trick to using multiple woods in one space is to vary the tones and textures, but they still must be complementary. We could leave the ceiling lighter, like it is, and use darker wood floors in the living room, but the furniture in that room is a mix of pecan stained cherry and teak, with medium-dark brown leather couches. I will buy a new contemporary styled rug in lighter tones (creams and blues most likely) no matter what we choose for flooring. In the kitchen, we are using white quartzite counters, stainless appliances and some glass doors in cabinets, so that will break up the brown wood. I still think wood floors in the kitchen at least will be too much with the cabinets and ceiling. I am really torn between lighter or darker walnut cabinets because I love both looks. Black walnut from Smallbone (not sure if this is stained or natural): Sanjuangirl, we are south of you, in San Diego.

Take a look at Pirula's kitchen in the Finished Kitchen Blog--link below. She has slab cherry counters and wood floors, and her kitchen is gorgeous! Her counters and floor don't match exactly, but they look great together. (Dianalo is right about tones needing to match, I think.) Her counters were the inspiration for ours, although ours are oak. Do you have samples of the floor and counter you're thinking about? If the samples look good together, then I think you're OK. Oak counters with hickory floor: Here is a link that might be useful: Pirula's kitchen in the FKB

Wow, looks like the Ponderosa Ranch on the old show Bonanza! Time for a change. I would start with painting all the wood panelled walls and window frames (advice given above re. primer 1st is key) One of the nice thing about wood walls is that you can hang a painting anywhere you like. Change the lighting to something modern and brighter. See how you like it at that point. Personally I would paint everything as the beams look too small to be interesting and the wood panelling isn't that interesting.I would go for a rustic Swedish country look which would be not that much of a stretch with your great rustic house. The furniture layout looks like it could be tweaked a bit as well. And just curious about the stair railing? Is there glass in between the posts or is it really empty space?