Okay - the general consensus seems to be the stains should remain! I'll probably clean it up a bit with wax and 0000 steel wool, just to get any grime off, but I won't worry so much about using a special product on the stains. (The bright green ink stain, however, may have to go as I didn't feel it has as much history to it as the darker stains ;-).) moonshadow - I never find much of anything on my local CL either, so I look in the LA and San Diego areas where all the good stuff is! Even then, it took me a year of searching under "antique pine" to find this. My DH wants me to actually have the space completed before I start filling it up, but I told him these things don't come up too often in my area.

Thanks for the help! The hall mirror is 9 feet tall. It came from my great grandparents house (who died before WW I) and was stashed gathering layers of coal dust in my grandparents attic for 80 years, until that house was sold 20 years ago. I got it because I was the only family member who had a ceiling tall enough for it and knew how to restore it (plus my Dad talked other family members into it!). The delicate looking settee and chairs are from the same great grandparents. I never met them nor my grandparents from my DadÂs family, so having their pieces makes me feel connected to my heritage. It was a large family so I feel very lucky to have what I do. 2 other chairs and a table are from my MomÂs family. I just learned how to post pictures this week so my stair runner has not been "featured" before. But thanks for your kind words! We replaced the wall to wall on the stairs a few years ago. We hoped the wood underneath would be decent enough to varnish but it was not. So we opted to paint with oil based and chose a wool runner that would go with all the current Persian carpets, all the rest of which are handmade wool or silk. This was just ordered from a regular carpet store and installed by them. I still want to glaze (or something) the banisters and spindles, as the builder used 1 coat of cheesy minwax on them in a dead color I donÂt like. But thatÂs a lot of surface area to cover and I donÂt know that IÂll ever get to it. I got halfway through moving furniture today before I got sidetracked. I went to the basement to get this beautiful large antique looking mirror I bought a few years ago and saved for this room when it was "ready". I wanted to see which wall it would look best on before I got too far ahead. When I unpacked it to show my husband I found the brass had corroded in spots like it was diseased. I wanted to clean it up right away so I could have his help to hang it: itÂs too heavy for one person to handle. I have this strong copper and brass cleaner that up to this point has always worked. But 6 hours later I was still cleaning it! So much for getting this room put to rights today. My feet are killing me from standing up cleaning that thing all day. Why is it that every project snowballs into something unforeseen??? Why canÂt I get anything DONE???

Thanks for the comments everyone. I have been so busy with painting my trim that I haven't had the chance to come and check the forum out. I am considering painting the walls BM Estruscan. It would blend the walls to the sofa rather than contrast them. The problem is that the ceilings are about 20 feet high and are on a slope. The PO put a molding (too thin in my opinion) about 10' up from the floor. This makes it so that you can paint the room without painting the 20' high ceiling. Above the molding and the entire ceiling in the family room is painted SW Camelback (one shade lighter than the Whole Wheat that I painted. Because of this, the color below the molding needs to complement the Camelback making my choices more limited. The problem with the Whole Wheat is that it gives off a green tint at night that I don't care for and that it's just not very exciting, not to mention that it's a big room and it's not very welcoming. I also don't have any artwork for the walls yet or drapery, which I know makes all the difference but I just don't think that I'm going to ever love this room with the current colors on the wall. I have considered green but I don't think I'd like it in this big of a space.

I don’t think the new color is doing much for what looks like some very beautiful wood tones here! Chair seat fabric is easily changed so I guess the rug is the biggest decider in this space! I’m not usually a fan of cutting colors in half; you loose something in the translation! This just looks drab to me and that’s not what you want in a dining room!