I love your inspiration photo! And I am kinda facing the same dilemma: we are also in the midst of having a mantel and cabs / bookshelves built. I'd wanted to paint them a kind of pale sage (not too dissimilar from your photo) but now am wondering if I should just go with the pale yellow which is our trim color throughout (most of) the house. Anyway, I don't know if you looked at this thread which has umpteen pics of fireplaces / surrounds -- maybe something there will help? What I really got from your message is that you like the look of the painted cabs. That was what I took away from your post, and to me that's telling. We have a painted white kitchen (I mean the cabs are painted white) and in our den our cabs are painted the same pale yellow as our trim. Both of those rooms / cabs see *a lot* of use, and neither shows any scuffing or abuse (and I have LOOKED!). So I'm not sure the cabs getting scuffed is really a reasonable, realistic fear. Seriously. My sons are 4 & 6 and they and their friends avail themselves of everything, so we are not a precious family. What is the natural light like in this room? Do you like a brighter space or are you a darker, cozier kind of person? I think that would carry weight in which way to go. Of course doing the cherry would be beautiful, esp. in marrying your kitchen island, but that could end up being a lot of dark wood. Are you okay with that? I know I haven't told you in which direction to go, but I think there are other circumstances which will help lead you to the right choice. The lighting in the room, and the fact that it'll be hard to really scuff the cabs to the point of repainting. That really is a super inspiration photo -- thanks for sharing!

Well, it´s dead. But some plants in the same container seem to be doing OK, which have obviously had the same conditions. We can only really guess at the reason, could even be some obscure infection, or no real reason at all, but like other folks say, your soil does look a bit suspect. There are as many favourite soil mixes as there are growers, and I have now firmly settled on a well-draining gritty mix with a good proportion of limestone for my desert cacti, with just a little organic material. I totally avoid soggy peat, which means any commercial ´cactus mix´, as they are invariably full of peat or even worse - ´forest product´- read sawdust. A gritty mix in unglazed terra cotta pots will set you up. Err on the dry side rather than overwater - it is quite difficult to kill a cactus through underwatering. They are succulents - they will store water when it rains heavily, then be well able to survive drought conditions for weeks or even months.

It looks like a marble or quartzite, I bet if you have a stoneyard near you that specializes in exotic stones they may have this or could find something similar.

DH made wood valances out of wood fluted panels. They were purchased from a high end cabinet maker's shop. He was reducing his stock. You might have to look at products sold to manufacturer vs. the public. This is maple. Dusting with a fluffy 'feather' type dusters is not a huge cleaning issue.