I love you guys so much! You're all awesome! I have read your responses multiple times. Every decision impacts the next decision. So I will start small. The stools will be the easiest to do. I will re-stain the table and put pretty fabric on chairs and curtains to match on window. I will get dark knobs and pulls. I won't paint cabinets unless we are staying...that'll save some cash as we have a painter doing it. He has a whole house to paint here so he has lots to do. I like the marble tile too...it seems to be the best neutral for re-sale and goes with every inspiration picture I've collected. My family likes the green but it would narrow choices. It's not that I don't like wood it's just that I have tons of it...I have a living room stuffed with antiques that are beautiful and can't be painted because they are beautiful. :) Then you walk into kitchen/fam rm and more wood. When I say I'd love to move the microwave I'm not kidding...I'm just under 5 ft tall...it's in a stupid place. But our kitchen is so small there's really no other place to put it. Unlike a lot of people we use it a lot. I think my family would die if I pulled it. :) I hereby promise to post pictures as I accomplish projects....everybody loves pictures...I love reveals, they are my favorite! It should be a GW requirement that everybody posts pictures all the time! That fuzzy little sweet faced Yorkie is the naughtiest little boy. We live in the Pacific Northwest...we have wet grass...a lot...we don't like pottying in wet grass....we love to potty on area rugs!!! I have one rug left in the family room that is "not" a favorite spot. Of course it was a cheap temporary one bought because I couldn't find one that I really liked. Figures!

Yeah, don't paint the tile. It will look cheesy. This is a really small job for a tile-setter and won't cost you much to have someone do it professionally. And there are SOOOOO many tile options these days that are well under $10/sf. Do it once and do it right. You'll be much happier in the end.

it is a small family room (living space for furniture is about 15x 13), so don't want to add shelves I think... The niche is centered but previous owners have the TV way off. re: covering the hole, my husband and I are on two different pages! I'd like to cover it and my husband doesnt, because he worries about placement of furniture. my question would be, how would you cover the fireplace to suit the style of the house? easier fix, the better.

Hi there! What a pretty fireplace surround! I think the smear sounds lovely or even a solid white. I only bring up solid white because I think you could do a stencil on the green tiles and between the smear and a stenciled pattern, that might be a bit busy. Or not. Hard to tell! I’m sure you will figure it out as you go along. Here’s the link to Cutting Edge Stencils - they have a whole gallery on their website with step by step tutorials - they even tell you what paint to buy. Also, if you are on Instagram, they have a ton of inspirational pictures there. And that is usually where they post sales - they’ll probably have one for Black Friday if you can wait! https://www.cuttingedgestencils.com Happy smearing!!