Kimberly & Oneplustwo, I'd say that the wall color leans slightly to the blue side when you put bolder colors w/ it like the red, white & blue color scheme going on now. When the rm. was empty & it was just the white shades, white trim, cream area rug & some white furniture it seemed more sophisticated & leaned less toward blue more towards gray. This rm. was our MBR originally & after the reno was done (as far as it's gotten) & painted, I nearly moved back into the rm. I'd just go in there by myself & sit & be quiet. The color is an old Lowes color that I think is by the Valspar manufacturer. It's called Silverware. They still have it in their computer & in the old fandeck that they have behind the counter. A close BM color is Blue Lace. Teacats, I found some wonderful posters that I have my eye on! Thank you! Les, Love the idea of maps on the ceiling. In fact I have quite a few framed antique & reproduction maps including a huge wall sized one dug out of an old one rm. schoolhouse that my FIL was working on. I've been looking for a hanging place for them & I think that after your suggestion I've found the spot in the upstairs hallway. The old soft colors will really tie the upstairs rms. together. DH stopped at the shop & made the slats for the beds yesterday on his way home (that was the fastest he ever get furniture fixed for me!) & here are the headboards. Now I just have to get a mattress set this wk. & get the beds put together: I love those beds so much that I asked DH to work w/ my dad between workshops to make a king sized version for me in black. It was midnight when I asked so I'll see if he even remembers. You can hardly see it in any of the pics but there is also an old horse drawn wagon seat bench that DH re-finished that is the perfect size for little kids to sit on. Somebody didn't want it anymore & just dropped it off at the shop. My kids love it! Now that my camera battery is recharged I will have to take a pic of that & the toy bench that my dad made once DS2 gets up. DS1 who normally talks me ever-lovin' ears off was speechless when he saw it! He said that he loved it & I got a big bear hug & lots of "I love you's'. He even played w/ his little brother fight free for a few hours in it before we had to leave for a car club banquet.

1) does the desk have to be in your bedroom? not the most restful combination for a student... 2) I don't see a huge effect from rearranging -- I think your best investment would some large art for the walls, whether cheerful or restful. Go to a local poster store and find one or two that you like and have them dry-mounted for a budget solution -- those big empty walls are calling out for them! 3) you need at least two lamps, one for a bedside table and one for your desk. another good second-hand project. this is function, not decor!! 4) later, when budget and energy allows, look for a simple headboard, just to make it look less like you're sleeping on a mattress on the floor (ish). second-hand stores could be good for something in wood that screws onto the metal frame you have, or you can probably get a padded headboard for not too much either -- here's one that's under $100! That will make you feel more grown up right away.

Wow! What amazing words of wisdom - thank you for all your comments. Just to add a little color on some of the questions that were asked: We had our 3 kids very early, so while they are all off to college now my wife and I are still relatively young (48 & 46, respectively). We are still very healthy and active so we probably won't think seriously about retiring until we are around 55 or so. We have been working with an amazing architect over the past several months. He has been incredibly thoughtful in the design and flow of our house. It is absolutely beautiful. We are in the Midwest so part of the square footage includes basement space. The current design has about 3,600 sq ft on the main floor, 1,600 sq on the 2nd floor and about 2,200 finished sq ft in the basement for a total of roughly 7,400 sq feet of finished space. This does not include the 6-car garage, pool area or outdoor space. The first floor is pretty normal - foyer, kitchen, dining room, great room, master suite w/attached laundry, pantry, mud room, office, music room, lanai and a couple of half-baths. The 2nd floor has 3 bedroom suites and a laundry room The basement is where all the "nice to have's reside" For example, we have a large bar area, wine cellar, TV room, fitness room, dry sauna, play room (for future grandchildren), pool bathroom and a bunch of storage. The basement also walks out to a covered outdoor kitchen area which then flows into the pool area. We entertain a ton so we designed the basement to be very open and spacious. We also have a lake house that is a couple hours away. Honestly, we are thinking of selling it because we are not sure we will ever want to leave this house... although I think our kids will protest quite heavily because they love to go to the lake! The house will sit on roughly .75 acres. We fully intend on outsourcing all the landscaping, yard work and pool maintenance. We both have pretty demanding jobs and don't really want to spend all our free time pushing a mower around or cleaning a pool. No offense to anyone - we have done this work for years, but the older we get the less appealing it is. We are installing a geothermal system that will not only heat and cool the house and provide hot water, but it will also heat the pool very efficiently. We are also going heavy with insulation, windows and doors. We had an energy study performed and all indications are that our utility bills should not be significantly higher than our current house. Long story short - we are going to go for it! Maybe in 10 or 15 years it will be too much for us to handle, but until then we are going to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of this house and create some wonderful memories with our family. Thank you again to everyone who contributed to this thread. We are sincerely thankful for your input.

We are pretty sure this isn't a forever home so we want to keep resale value in mind that's all. We've considered the idea of just adding the window and painting to make it a bedroom for our use but leaving it in a way that it could still be a theater room too. I would like the idea of adding two windows, one in each room, but the cost is on the higher side of what we were expecting and so don't know that we can do that. But 3 bedrooms in the basement would make it easier to sleep on the same floor as our young kids and the rooms upstairs could be an office/guest room and a play room where there is tons of natural light. I don't mind a dark bedroom when I just use it at night anyways. My husband is rightly concerned, though, that we could end up spending more money on this place than we will see in return.