Inherited a set of Visions pots, the purple ones, from a neighbor who moved to a retirement home. Was sooo happy, they looked gorgeous. She used the smallest pot for 15 years, still perfect looking except for a slight fog at bottom, the other two larger pots untouched. Though she had no incident with respect to using the smallest pot for 15 long years, all the information about Visions exploding makes me nervous. When you have pets or kids, you think twice about things... If I start using these beauties, I will have that image in my mind and be on constant red alert and edgy, not the most comfortable way to cook... I will probably end up tossing them... :(

We searched and searched and found this thread useful so here are a couple of tips...take or leave them... Moved the kitchen wall back 1' into porch to expand great room/kitchen. Really you could do 2' and still have a very large back porch. 10' ceiling won't allow mechanical to go in winged attic. We built two very large closets in the loft, one for mechanical and the other storage. The loft is still huge. Don't waste money on a study set or plans. Ours had to be engineered and we took concept and customized. Took side windows out of bedroom 2 and replaced with huge closet. Tweaked that and laundry room entry for our needs. Modified laundry room to make larger and have a 1/2 bath and big utility sink. Tankless water heater saved room as well. Master bath freestanding tub 57" will fit with no mini stub wall there. Master shower is plenty big with a corner bench and no door of any kind - minimal splashing. The island is centerpiece and took two pieces of stone but matched perfect with no visible seam. Make sure your cabinet person puts storage underneath bar hangover. These two slabs of stone provided all we needed for kitchen, master bath, and coffee bar. We use closet on east side of great room as the pantry and took out the west side and made a really nice coffee bar with upper and lower cabinets. Master bedroom may be small for a lot of people but great for us - all clothes and clutter lives in walk in closets. We did move north bedroom wall in 6" to squeeze a little more room. Fits a queen with beside tables fine but a king or california king would be tight and stump your toe to walkaround twenty times a day. Bath 2 should have put a pocket door into tub/toilet area. Swinging door is pointless and ended up being tight. Hindsight would move that interior wall out into vanity area 1'. Fits our 48" freestanding vanity amply as is with room to spare. We don't use the dining area or have a chandelier. We put a 8' diameter ceiling fan on a nice down rod to flush with loft floor over den and it is perfect. Can lights throughout house with dimmers. Will have outdoor dining and six stools at bar. Pulled front porch in from 12' to 10' for cost. Still is huge and has complete shade in high noon sun as we oriented our house north and south. Cantilever the loft stairs to float (shown below was field changed).

Thank you so much Lucille, I appreciate that!! I guess with the bottom, I got off pretty easy because as you can see, it was in reasonably good condition. I just sanded down the original white paint, first with a medium grain paper and then with a really fine paper so everything was good and smooth. I didn’t worry about stripping it because I was going to be using white again. That Behr color is the same color we used for all of our trim and doors and I love it! It’s a very soft and creamy white, so when I found that cabinet, I paid the consigment store to repaint it and requested they use the same color. (They had done a crackle treatment on it that was nothing short of hideous). I love the shabby worn out look but didn’t know if it was right for the room. I went solid first knowing I could sand down the paint here and there if I wanted to age it a bit, but when it was finished I was smitten with it just as it was. Then I went on a chair hunt and found these and thought they were perfect. (Their seats are walnut and the white is a perfect match to the table) I think going with the white bottom would be really lovely with the cherry wood top especially when you consider how much poly work redoing the bottom would take. If you were going for a color that leaned more towards vintage, like a teal or worn red, using one of the specialty paints would make sense, but for white, unless you want that old worn look, I really don’t think it’s necessary, if anything, I’ve found that the latex wears better especially with the table. (It’s a semi gloss and easy to clean) I ended up doing the top of our table a couple of times because I didn’t care for the stain I had used. I also had a couple of poly spots that I didn’t like. For those I used some steel wool to get the spot out of the poly and then I polyed back over it but I didn’t mix it with anything I just used straight non yellowing poly. It’s all trial and error, right? Also, you’re probably already aware but I’ll throw it out there anyways, cherry wood darkens over time, so in the beginning, you should avoid keeping any kind of runner or mat on it for longer periods of time or you’ll have a permenant reminder of them being there. :c)

The coffee table is sized so anyone sitting on sofas can reach it. Not sure what additional lighting you might need besides the floor lamp? If you need more task lighting a floor reading lamp behind the plant would work and a directional light to up light the plant on a timer would be great. Set to come on at dusk and go out at your bedtime. Here’s my vision. I selected this sofa table because it has two drawers. Could be drop zone for keys or phone chargers etc.