Sonicmom, glad you like her style. When I met her, she was also a nice person, which always makes a business transaction much more pleasant. Talking about portraits, a few months ago I received a card in the mail from a nearby local artist. It seems she goes around the area taking pictures of homes and then does watercolors of them. She then sends the homeowner a note and tries to sell you "your house" and makes some comment about placing it on her website if you don't buy it. For some reason that just struck me as kind of sleazy. Maybe a note showcasing one of her works would be better than holding your house hostage!! We do get people that stop and photograph our house. It is a spanish style and we have done a lot of work and improvements to the house and property. We also have a large cactus garden up front with lots of varieties, so that attracts attention too.

crl, i see a lot of questions here where people question their sense of style or their taste or ability to see color, etc... or seek affirmation on their choices made... even questions about how high to hang a piece of artwork make sense to me if you don't have an eye for things like that and don't want to create more work for yourself of repairing holes... but, that's different to me than questioning whether a family picture should be placed on the mantel... i am sure some people do need to discuss things more than i do even tho i am a 'hem and hawer' myself about certain things and have some serious cognitive dissonance sometimes, but i know i would never get anything done if i needed to talk everything over... there's nothing wrong with being a 'rule follower' tho, if he/she is!

Walls are painted, bed and mattress have arrived. I've been out of town and slowly making progress while I'm home. Here is a photo of where I am at. Please ignore the bed covering (and the jeans ha)...it's holding me over while I finish up the walls. I'll probably pick one up next week. More pictures to follow as I continue on. I'm thinking an entire wall of wood planks behind bed with a large black and white framed picture above headboard. Thanks for staying interested!

I think you've gotten good input on why the custom colors cost more. What was the third white the company offered? And what Benjamin Moore white would you prefer? I've looked at BM's whites, and there's not a lot between Simply White and, say, Chantilly Lace or Ultra White, which are BM's whitest white. You could get a less stark white but with a different undertone than yellow (pinkish, bluish, greenish). What is it you are looking for? Any white paint color will look less yellow if you change to a cooler light bulb temperature in your kitchen. That's often recommended as a fix when people discover the cabinets they ordered are much yellower than expected, but it could be a way for you to save a money at the start if you just planned on changing the lighting from the get-go. While Simply White has yellow undertones, and you definitely see them when comparing it directly to other BM whites side-by-side, I DON'T see yellow when I look at the images Sammy posted.