Hi Kristin, I made those albums public, let me know if you still can't access them. We actually sold that house about 2 years ago- someone knocked on our door and wanted to buy, so we just built again! We loved fox hall, it was an awesome plan for our family.

He did a great job! It's always neat to see the ingenious ways of dealing with our small spaces. FlowerLady

I usually think butcherblock does look like it belongs in a kitchen, but if you have see it used and like it, then I'd check out Ikea's butcherblock. It's really reasonably priced. Is the laminate damaged, like in, pieces of it missing? Or just discolored? Would it be possible to refinish/paint it and hide the damage (hard to know without a pic of what you're facing). Rustoleum (and maybe others) make paint kits just for laminate. Here are some ideas for painting it, if you think that might work for you. Here is a link that might be useful: Painted laminate ideas

I would take out two of the middle framed art near the center of the hall and add a large mirror. At the very end I would do some sort of single panel wall paper mural. And then, depending on the style of the rest of your home an interesting stand on which will sit a single vibrant colored vase with something tall and sparse. Or, a floor to ceiling mirror while keeping the continuous wall of art.