Wow you decorators are GREAT!!! I thought my thread was doomed to die b/c my dresser wall is so fugly (and who puts filing cabs in their bedroom anyway??) ;-) Thanks for proving me wrong! palimpsest (and les) -- I know EXACTLY what you mean...I would never have thought to attach long handles but I think that would work excellently (if I can find the right length) sunnyca -- I love the idea of a runner, especially b/c the top has some minor water damage (looks like cup rings). I sew, and I could easily sew up something that would tie in w/our caramel color bedroom curtains. Again, an idea that would not have occurred to me. oceanna -- those are some fab cabinet makeovers. Our metal cabinet didn't function well so I never considered making it over. The new cab functions great...and as much as I love that $750 cab, our budget was for "$30 delivered" CL cabs LOL. les917 -- you always have the best ideas for rearranging furniture...there was a period of time where I would seek out the threads that you posted to, just in hopes that I could somehow tune in to your skills ;-) I can see how putting the shelves/cab between the dressers would balance the wall, but I'll have to think about the functionality of it. One nice thing is it could create a "filing niche"; I could possibly utilize the inner sides of both dressers for hanging wall pockets (my new favorite thing to sew). I will have to see what DH thinks since he'll be moving everything. He originally wanted to put the cab between the dressers but I didn't think it would work, functionally. He doesn't like to have to re-do work...but hopefully he'll be willing since we're bringing in a new piece of furniture anyway. The "new" cabinet is such an improvement over the old, and now I have some ideas of what I can do to help it look nicer, too. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am really slow about finishing projects, I have two little boys, but when I finish this project (which is "relatively" small) I will post some before/after photos :-) Melanie

Lafonda-the red is one of my favorite choices I made. Makes me happy, even when I'm doing laundry! It is BM Raspberry Truffle and the ceiling is SW Believeable Buff (looks similar to SW Blonde with my lighting). The raspberry truffle is great, not too blue, not too pink, it's seems to be a very true shade of red. Thank you for the wonderful compliments! You're very sweet!

I had the same thought that Palimpset expressed...Our 'paint grade' cabinet doors are poplar, and we had them up for awhile before painting them. Their grain is not subtle with fairly strong dark and light variation, and is definitely greenish combined with an ashy light color. I don't know for sure how they'd stain, but I'm guessing it'd be a challenge to get them to go with other stained woods, especially the fir. We were tentatively planning to have QS oak cabinets when we were also planning painted trim. As soon as my dh decided to use our own fir trees for our trim, I just couldn't imagine the mission-stained QS oak with the golden/orangish/reddish tones of the fir. I see the oak as a cooler brown...more true brown...and was afraid it would really clash with the fir. Our architect friend agreed. We strongly considered cherry, before deciding on fir, since we'd done cherry in our last house and wanted to try something new and different. Cherry is so lovely with fir, because they both have some of the same tones, and both darken, but cherry gets a little darker and richer, IMO. I agree with Palimpset again that Craftsman/Mission furniture and cabinets were also done in cherry and it makes a gorgeous look. I have visited custom furniture stores that specialize in that look and have seen marvelous examples of both oak and cherry. The door style and surrounding environment should keep the cherry from looking contemporary. All of this is just a collection of my thoughts on the subject...Not to say I am totally against the use of the oak with the fir. Robin_D got plain sawn oak cabinets stained a dark color to go with the original, decades old dark-stained fir in her Craftsman home. Very beautiful. Another thought if you really would prefer to do more QS Oak throughout the house is to combine the oak and painted. Painted doors and QSO trim, or vice-versa. Or all painted in rooms like kitchen, laundry, and bedrooms, with oak in the public/main rooms. That's often how the houses were done originally.

I put it in five years ago and it's been great. It is grouted. The only damage reviews I saw were in kitchens where people were pushing chairs back and forth. That's not an issue in bathrooms. I haven't found it hard to clean but I don't wear shoes in there. I mop it with hot water now and then. Usually I just go over it with a damp terry cloth rag. I'm using the same tile in my master bath. This is one of my leftover tiles.