jlt37869: The rod I ordered is in ORB; but looks black. I wanted it to coordinate with the black on the task lamps. Glad to hear you like them as I am trying to give the vintage pieces an edginess too it so it doesn't look old-fashioned and frumpy for DS when he is there. fripper/ghostlyvision: Sorry I didn't explain better; RAF=Howard's Restore-A-Finish which I used along with their companion product, Howard's Feed 'n Wax to seal in the restored finish. It's a product that can be used on older furniture where the finish is still intact, but it has some surface scratches, water rings and years of dirt and dust. It cleans and perserves the existing finish and can often be done instead of stripping and refinishing furniture. work_in_progress08: DS was fine with his existing room; though for most part he's more preoccupied these days looking forward to going to college. He did say that the bed is much more comfortable and I think he is happy that I have found a way to display his pottery (or at least the best pieces). There are some of his early attempts from 1st semester that I have boxed up and plan to talk to DS about tossing it or donating it. They seem to have unlimited access to clay and some pieces are BIG! I'm not sure yet what to do about the desk/hutch or when to phase it out; hence why I had been considering if I should gel stain it darker. My younger DD has a kneehole desk and it's great for storage so a similar one should work just fine for summer and laptop use, etc. At some point, I just would box up the trophies, but some of them he won recently up to a few weeks ago; so the time is not yet. Long term though, I feel the artwork has more meaning to have out as it shows his creativity. dlm2000: Thanks for the support for this project. Small spaces are often a challenge to decorate as I've experienced with all my three kid's rooms; but they can still be made to look nice and comfortable. I suppose I should just sell the torchiere on CL at some point as it's more a mission style which I don't have in my house. I have a whole garage full of stuff now I need to sell on CL which I should do next. The headboard is rather low-profile which I knew when I bought it and was one of the things that attracted me to it for when it goes below the window. I even bought a low profile boxspring for this bed, but it still sits up high as the slats start a few inches higher. Bonus is, more room for underbed storage. Which I forgot to add, the more boring part of the room make over is that I added two under bed storage boxes to store both the guest bedding plus his old twin bedding which goes on the aerobed for when he gets displaced from his room. My brother and mom may be visiting this weekend for DS's 18th birthday so I'm anxious to hear what my brother thinks of the new bed as I typically have him sleep in this room and at 6'2" I don't think he found the old twin too comfy.

I was just googling around for rooms with little natural light, and I ended up looking at a lot of finished basement or basement apartment interiors and also high-end hotel rooms. The ones that were the most pleasant and inviting (where the lack of natural light was not a noticeable deficit) had kind of a lot going on. Not in an overwhelming way, but those rooms had curtains and wall treatments and knickknacks and area rugs and artwork -- millions of little decor pieces and several layers of decor interest in most areas of the room. In particular, there were a lot of different textures in most of the rooms. It makes sense now that I think about it -- basements and hotel rooms are very bland rooms -- usually no architectural interest of any kind, including lots of big windows and natural light and moldings and all that. Which means the room isn't really pretty on its own. To make it pleasant and charming anyway, you need to bring in a lot of things that are pretty by themselves. And you need enough of them that you don't really notice anymore that the room's bones are bad. So your home, being a house, is likely a lot better than the average basement, but it still suffers from the same lack of natural light. This leads me to the conclusion that, while I also generally prefer a clean, modern type of design in kitchens, I don't think it will suit your house. It will just be so quiet and minimal that your eye will have plenty of opportunity to notice how dark the room is. Like a plain person forgoing makeup and accessories and wearing a simple beige shift. That kind of simplicity works well for the great beauties of this world, but the rest of us look better wearing cute earrings and mascara. However, on the upside, with all the professionally-designed basement spaces I just looked at, it didn't seem to matter at all if the actual elements in the the design were dark. Usually, there was a mix of dark and light. The bigger thing seemed to be that ALL of those rooms had a lot of lighting EVERYWHERE. Pin lights all over the ceiling, lighting on top of cabinets/soffits that diffused on the ceiling, pendant lights, etc. So: 1) I'd mentally set aside a big part of your budget to add lots of lighting. Have under cabinet lights, above cabinet lights, cans, pendants, a chandelier, in-cabinet lights -- whatever. Go nuts. 2) I think you are on the right track with a walnut floor. Walnut has a really interesting grain. It is thoroughly beautiful in its own right and will layer beautifully with anything else you add. Natural materials in particular are great for adding interest without seeming overwhelming or busy. 3) I would not repeat the walnut on the cabinets because, again, I think the super-layered design approach works better in low-light rooms. Cabinets just another opportunity to add interest, and you should take it. Make them a different color or painted or whatever. Also, think about something other than slab. Your floor will be flat walnut. If the cabinets are also flat walnut, then then that is EXACTLY the same thing. Here is an example of a kitchen with a lot of interest (cool tile floor, two cabinet colors -- one that is interesting and bold, glass cabinets with unusual glass, open shelves, unusual cabinet pulls, feet) that still has clean lines and isn't crazy fussy/busy: That is the kind of thing that will hold its own and still look pretty and charming even in the dark months. Also, it would look great with walnut. :D

peaches, there was no criticism in your comments, and you have a right to be puzzled. I'm sure I would be if this were someone else's post. Waiting for the shutters is an excellent idea, as is the suggestion of soliciting opinions here before buying anything. Come to think of it I did the last time, and that's how I ended up with white shades. I may very well end up with white again, especially since my summer bedding, which I'm putting on soon, is black and white.

Thanks to ALL who have chimed in with their thoughts. I have changed lanes (somewhat) to accommodate the deeper, more contrast-y floral print in my carpet. First, we're ordering and bringing the carpet home before we paint. Two reasons...1) the possible shading difference. When trying to work with a color like purple, there is no margin for error (HA! That's really funny coming from ME) and 2) my husband said that the chocolate brown carpet that's in there now is having an effect on how the color blocks I've painted on the wall will look with the lighter carpet that is replacing it. After I add my latest color samples to the wall, we'll roll out the new carpet to get a more accurate visual. And if the carpet print is actually the color of the store sample, then I'll have to make a change in the paint's undertone and temperature. I've been looking at cool purples with gray undertones and nothing appealed to me. I've switched to warm purples with red (and yellow?) undertones. Looking MUCH better with the store sample board! The "vibe" will be a little different than what I originally wanted but I'm good with it. And I've decided to go darker. Here's my theory <g> I'm replacing a dark carpet with an light creamy background and med shade print. I have dark walls right now. A med. chocolate brown so it's not going to be that different. This 10x16 room is half (or more) trim/doors/windows. Including trim, there is a 65" closet, 42" closet, 2 38" doors (one glass), a 5x3 and a 3x5 window, 7" baseboard and 5" crown. Trim is white. Between the light carpet and all that white painted wood, I don't feel like the deep color will be oppressive at all (especially since I like darker walls and find them cozy and embracing). I spent all day yesterday watching the paint samples on the wall change colors with the time of the day. My windows are N and E facing, so not a lot of light. I'm not in my bedroom during the day anyway unless I lay down for a nap (I'll close the blinds). So I'm more interested in how the room will look in the evening with a variety of lighting effects...dimmable recessed and 2 lamps. AND the large 4x4 picture that I said was staying works better with a warm purple (to my eyes). Picture can be seen in this thread Picture BTW, I have three paint samples on the wall. I cut out and placed each color swatch on it's coordinating color on the wall. I was really surprised that all three of the card swatches were spot on! OTOH, as nice as my displays are (computer screen and phone) all the colors are a bit cooler on my screens than the fan deck samples. Here are some colors I'm exploring (don't look if you're anti-dark wall/anti-purple) <g> Will be trying SW Plummy and Wood Violet too. They REALLY look "cool" on my computer screen so i didn't bother include those. Thoughts? (as I brace myself). Bathroom floor and half walls are the color of the carpet background. Granite, Giallo Ornamentale, is largely the color of the carpet. Glass accent tile in the bathroom is shades of blues. I can add purple towels to the train rack above the tub and hand towels on the other side of the bathroom at the sink to tie the two rooms together. Plus this large "watery" purple flower picture to go on the long wall over the tub.