Sweeby, I could give you a big hug! I think you are absolutely right-- especially in my room, the table will fade into the background. In fact, I knew that all along but it never clicked-- that is why I didnt buy the French Heritage table I fell in love with last summer when Parma ordered hers. My room wouldnt do it justice.. it doesnt have the view or space to showcase it. What IS important to me is that the table is round and works well (rather than against) the other elements-- that explains why I am all over th place. Painted, copper, even mission tables have been on my list-- the only common threads are old/old looking, round, european-ish. Thank you .. I have more focus now and it really makes sense given my decision earlier today-- I am going to order the chandelier and maybe paint before I get the table. I think it will make a big difference and will give me time to decide on a table. I love the chairs with rush seats-- I could even use those with my current table. I dont see anything like them on our local CL but I will watch ebay and the consignment stores. (sorry if i am babbling and not making sense-- it's been a long day and I wanted to be sure to respond because your post was really helpful to me. )

OP here. Just to clarify, yes, at the moment all that I can change is the colour of the bottom panel. However, all opinions are valuable, and you know, eventually the roof will have to be redone... ;) The front of the house is the only part that has been painted with the Slate colour, but the back of the house has been painted with the Driftwood, the trim paint, and the soffiting paint, and the scaffolding has been returned. Pic: Having watched my husband stand on a ladder on top of the scaffolding and practically hang out over the edge to paint the top, we're so not doing that again. :) We are limited in colours due to the formulation of this paint. I would have loved something more greeny, but didn't like the few greens they had. On the other hand, this does seem to read as green in different lights (our neighbors thought it was green). I quite like the driftood colour, and in real life, it goes nicely with the brick. Oddly enough, I had suggested painting one board where the stucco hardi panel and cedar join up, and DH had rejected that idea - will be looking at it again, though. DH is thinking of various options for the posts, some of which can be painted and some can't, so no decisions there as yet. Heck, we haven't even got the bobcat in yet to re-level the front of the house and then build a new walkway... The hardi-panel can be found here: http://www.jameshardie.com/builder/products_siding_hardiepanelSiding.py It's limited to 4x8, 4x9, or 4x10 sheets, so the plan is to have that 4 foot tall strip at the bottom, due to not being able to get all the cedar siding cleanly off the house. Think DH also wanted to use this for some manly reason of his own. Again, thanks to all for comments and work! Sarah Here is a link that might be useful: Paint colours

Yknow, IMHO, I wish we all could drop the "D" word from our vocabulary. If we love it , if its well made, if its functional - then a place can be found for it, period. In other words - your china cab is just fine, and it does look good on the side rather than viewed head on. That said of course we like our rooms freshened up now and then - but I think you can jazz it up in other ways incl choosing a new color ILOVE greens/browns/tans, but the pea soup color Im kind of tired of. (or so it looks on my monitor anyway, which has been known to be wrong.) Definitely think about going deeper richer. Dont know if Penny's or Anglo's deep dark colors are good for you but it gives you an idea at least of what deeper/richer could do for you. If all else fails maybe you could just take the living room color and just go a few steps darker/more intense with it. Let the DR be cozy and intimate complete w/ a big china cabinet - why not? The DR should relate well to the LR, and that would be one way of doing it. Minor quibble - I would think about that wall space where the china cab was - is there a third pic that could fit in there? With cabinet moved, that wall becomes very significant. Not liking just the two pics , needs to be 3 I think..... Or some other wall decor or arrangement .... minor thing, so perhaps just wait for the inspiration or right thing to come along.

Unless you are attempting to restrict a movable underlayment for hardscaping (sand or crusher course), you never need edging. It is only a personal choice. The right type of edging can help with the ability to mow well and close to the bedline but flimsy wooden pickets are not it!! Just a clean, sharp edge between lawn and soil is all that is required and that can be done with a good, sharp edged garden tool. As to the width of the bed, 30" is undersized for virtually all shrubs and many perennials.....36" is scarcely better. You want sufficient bed depth (from foundation to lawn) to accommodate the mature spread of the plant in question without encountering the structure plus room to access behind for maintenance needs. And most folks do not favor a narrow row of shrub soldiers lined out but would prefer a layered look of a mixture of plants of different sizes. And that requires more depth than a skimpy 30". There is also the aesthetic question of the depth of the foundation beds being in scale with the structure, so they should have a depth equal to at least 1/3 the height of the structure. 5-6' at a minimum but deeper is better.