inspiredisabel - beautiful home! Can you tell me about the shelf/cabinet that is below that fabulous mirror behind the slipcovered chairs? Is it a shelf attched to the wall, or is it a cabinet/piece of furniture? I would like to add something behind the couch, between it and the wall in my living room, but it needs to be something skinny (and cheap!). Trying to decide if I should just put skinny shelf at couch height, or try to find a very skinny console table. You won't be able to see anything but the top surface. Just want something so I can add some interest/items with height behind the couch. Hope that made sense. Can you tell me what your is? Thanks!

Hi Cheri, I've been meaning to respond for awhile and now am running out the door, so here's the quick answer and I can give more later if you want. Your plans sound lovely and as far as painting the hardware, I say go for it. The worst that can happen is it doesn't work out and you start over with new hardware. :-) My first concern though is how will you clean all the crevices to get every speck of oil/grundge off of the hardware so the paint will adhere over the long-term? You'll need a good solution for that. Next, spray-painting may leave a powder-coat, rough sort of finish which might be hard to keep clean, but may work. I recommend a line of products called Modern Masters. I've done a couple of metal painting projects and it is cool stuff. You will likely have to hand-paint. I would experiment on something else before you attempt your actual hardware, as it may take a few tries to get it right. I know I needed a lot more of the copper metal paint for the true verdigris (sp?) finish I was striving for, than instructions called for. Overall, the wear and tear of using handles is my biggest concern. Seems like cleaning, priming, painting and even sealing might be in order to pull this off, but that's me. I personally would give it a go. Hope this helps.

One Devoted Dame......I don’t see that whether or not mixing metals was done historically has any bearing on whether the ops home will look cohesive (or dated) if she chooses to tastefully mix things up a bit. I understand that a lot of folks feel that way, but I can't reconcile the generally accepted notion (here on the forums, anyway), that "timeless = architecturally appropriate" with "today, people mix metals all the time, it's no big deal." Generally speaking, we look back to architectural styles/norms throughout history, to determine if something is trendy or appropriate for any given house. History can give us important clues. If cohesiveness is important to someone, then yes, mixing metals certainly can be problematic. It doesn't *have* to be, but the likelihood is higher. If being "dated" is a concern to someone, then yes, ensuring that the home respectfully nods to historic precedent should be a priority. In the OP's examples above, of the faucet and pulls, I think the *lines* of each piece are similar, but the finishes are too different (on my screen, the pulls look matte-black rustic; the faucet looks shiny-polished silver) to look "cohesive." Whether they look "good" together is a different question, in my opinion.

Seileen. Your tuquoise tile is main eyecatcher in your kitchen. Next is your range hood. That hood appears out of code to my eye. It is too low over burners. Typical is 30-36 from top of burners to bottom if hood. I am short but I think even I would hit my head on it. It is really big. So that is second big focal point. Third is your shelves and styling of items on the shelves. I do like the first knob and slim pull on your doors and drawers. Those are like jewelry in your colorful outfit. It is very pretty but a few tweaks will make it really amazing.