Thanks everyone for the kind comments, it's been a while since I looked at this thread!! serenity, I understand totally what you mean about crumbling tufa, I chalked it up to good cement gone bad, but that's a whole 'nother thread. As for the recipe, well, it was a very long time ago that I made the 'lighted' mushrooms, and I think it was probably just a basic tufa mix of 2:1:1 - peat, sand & portland (don't quote me on that!). The other (smaller looking) mushrooms had more peat, 3 parts I think. They are considerably more spotty looking. I was concerned they weren't going to harden but finally did, it just took longer than usual. As for the carving, I have a really old wood rasp that I use for most of my carving (it's probably some valuable antique that would bring hundreds on e-bay, lol) and an old butter knife. Nothing too fancy or radical! I love the carving part, very satisfying for me. Hope that helps! ~GC

I will second what pussuskattus suggested...although it is definitely more work/time, we found that it was very worthwhile to mock up the drawers and try out our handles that way. We ordered various sample sizes of our handles and DH cut some scrap wood planks in the lengths of our drawers. We then just placed the handles on each board and it was VERY quick and easy to determine which size to go with. It was surprising what we found...definitely some different outcomes than what we had thought before mocking up. There would be no need to cut wood, though...could easily just use posterboard or scrap cardboard from a shipping box. And the ribbon idea would be easy, too. Would save the step of buying the pulls if you don't know for sure yet what you want. Good idea for next time! Good luck with your search on the vintage pulls!

As I staged earlier, I have recently learned that I love LARGE prints. I think I would go with one really large print on the wall at the end of the dresser. It is the wall that you see when you enter the room. I think this will draw the eye to that end of the room. Your bed area is very nice but I think at the moment, people entering the room see the dresser first and that blank wall. Something large would draw the eye there and on to the bed. I love black and white photo or art and also love sepia toned ones. (even though my home does not reflect this) My classroom and office have always been done in black and white art.) I think that a sepia print of some kind would go great with your colors. Although it sounds like the brownish tone might not look good with your grayish walls, I think they would. You could frame in black and work with mat colors if you wanted some contrast. Seeing the photo that organic poster of her similar colored room helps visualize using a pop of color. Her pitcher with the dried arrangement gives the idea of what the sepia would look like. (hers is a brighter hue) You mentioned living in NO and having prints already framed. How many? Could you use them above the chest and/or the vanity? I also love the vanity where you moved it and the t.v. on the chest. (guess the pictures would fit above the t.v. that high. LOL) You might even find a sepia print of NO. The black and white photos might even work around this. I am including some links to some prints from allposters.com to let you see ideas. Since I don't know what you like, I just grabbed several. I really think the pop of sepia tone would look great with your pillow on the bed and still not move you into "colors". The rooom is great. I can show you a pic of a large art on one of my walls if you want. But the style is very, very different. I am all Southwest, Native American and very casual.

I would look at top knobs- they have an appliance pull section. The berenson pulls I used said they had appliance pulls but they did not feel substantial. I was able to match my pulls exactly at top knobs and these are sturdy!