I'm not a mother (but I am an aunt to 6 kids) so I guess take my ideas with a grain of salt. I'd go with some sort of adult lighting which complements the space (perhaps one hanging fixture, or a row of them on the beam?) And, add in some table lamps to make it cozy. I would think the main goal would be to make it nice and cozy for a small child. My view is that the decor should be functional and should not have to be changed out as the child grows. You can bring in the "fun" stuff with linens and other accessories, rather than getting a bunch of stuff a fickle child might not even like down the line (or appreciate at age 2 1/2) and which you'll just end up getting rid of. Then again, I have never really understood decorating children's rooms or nurseries in strongly "child-like" or baby colors and themes. ;-)

we are pretty set (99%) are getting the fans. however, getting them wired if we weren't to get them is a great idea! jennybc: the 2 rooms are going to be guest/computer style rooms. we have no kids and don't plan on having any. if we do, it will be just one. the upstairs calls for 8 foot ceilings with a vaulted ceiling in every bedroom. we are doing an angled tray in the master and still unsure about the other 2 bedrooms...either vault or leave at 8'. edit: also, we were thinking....in the great room with those 3 or 4 windows, what if you do those windows as a casement style? would that work? we're trying to get the same look of the fixed window in the rear of the house. i don't know much about casement windows and how much more they would be compared to double-hungs. the window is about 3x6/7 and then another square window above it (not sure how big that one is right now, maybe 3x2). i'm not sure if the casements are even made in that size. This post was edited by stblgt on Thu, Sep 12, 13 at 9:40

Ladies, the wall is built, the plumbing is being run, the electrical is in and there was no other way to lay out the room that I could afford. I had originally wanted to add-on but that would have added $15k minimum to the cost, so it wasn't in the cards for me. I'm trying to finish my home renos before I retire in September - December at the latest - and been working on them for 2 years now. Weeping tile, eaves troughs, new porches and new exterior doors, some window replacements are complete. This, plus replacing the siding / insulation / weather wrap and a couple more windows to replace or add-on to the south side of the house still remain. This house hadn't had any improvements the past 30 years so i got it cheap and I've been saving since I moved here to do them... I'll be broke and living on social security and a pension, but my house will be in good shape and I'll be able to pass it on to my kids, or sell it if I wind up in a rest home. This is a photo of my backyard, facing west... yeah, I want to keep the view. I'm thinking to go with the idea of 3 windows evenly placed across the wall, no longer trying to lay anything out in line with the vaulted ceiling. Thank you so much for your input!

Thanks Nancy, that's pointing me to a third solution I hadn't thought of. I love the arched element idea, to echo the other arches in the home. One thing I'm not sure about is that the windows already have a 2-3 inch wide white frame on all sides (this is the plastic frame that is part of the windows, not trim. I'm not sure whether wood trim would look good surrounding these wide white frames? What do you think? The trim would go on the wall itself, not inside the window cavity, right? I guess that's the only way anyway. The glare in the photo is from my photo editing. We love the light coming through, and in fact have been going through the house painstakingly removing the UV film the previous owners have put in from every single window. I don't understand why people would make/buy a bright house and then go and put film on all the windows. Anyway, we got new windows through most of the house, and they already have low-E glass. So most of the visible light goes through, which is fantastic, but most of the UV light is reflected to protect us (and the furniture and carpets).