I personally like Minka Lavery Taylor, looks more elegant to me. Few years ago we used http://www.wegotlites.net/ to buy our beautiful Crystal Chandelier for our dining room. They have a great selection. We called them and got a better price than it was listed. Shipping was free and they also sent some extra crystals in case some delivery damage. Good luck.

bbtrix - thanks for posting your kitchen. The karbon really doesn't look out of place at all, and in fact, looks really cool against your wood counters. (Beautiful wood counters!) I'd seen oldbat's kitchen, but noticed that it was a bit eclectic (with the tile), which would be the reason her karbon fits in nicely, whereas my kitchen won't be eclectic. So that's why I was not sure whether her kitchen was a good 'basic traditional kitchen' to compare to. I think bbtrix's is closer to mine. breezy, I agree with you 100% that the faucet really needs to be highly functional. That is why I've been having such trouble choosing one. The pretty, vintage ones all have some sort of function-gap that makes it impossible to pull the trigger on one. After posting my initial post, I went to have a look at the Karbon in person. A couple of things to note, in case anybody finds this thread through googling: 1. If you grab the nozzle, you can position the faucet anywhere you want with ease; however, if you try to reverse the orientation of a bend--or 'unzig a zag'--that requires a bit of muscle with one hand. But my feeling is: how often am I going to do that? I would assume not very often, but it would be good to know from owners if they do this a lot. 2. the chrome version stays fingerprint-free because a lot of it is that carbon pipe stuff. 3. there is a heftiness to this faucet that the pull-outs don't have. It feels good to grab hold of the whole faucet to position it. It feels tough. Anyway, I'm still thinking about it!

Yes, I am partial to blue, as I plan to use a dark navy color scheme in the living room; I want to add some of those elements into the dining room to tie the rooms together. This is a room that I am drawn to as inspiration with a dark blue/navy color; I love the look of the wood against the blue wall. The furniture is more modern than I would attempt. I was initially thinking of solid, navy curtains for the dining room- but everything is an option at this point. I do need a heavy fabric to keep the heat of summer out during the day and cold of winter out at night.- the windows are older and we won't be able to replace them until next year (hopefully). We live in SK, Canada and the summers are hot (south facing windows), and the winters are brutal (temps of -20 to -30 Celsius normal). I like your suggestion of beige/gold, I can see that validated in wing chair in the living room; I like how that color works in the room against the trim.

Hi Jason- Congratulations on your new home! The kitchen would be improved by changing the paint color to a less yellow color. (Or is it the lighting?) Please get cool spectrum light bulbs right away. The kitchen would look more modern if you refaced the cupboards. You mentioned shaker which is an option. More modern still is slab front which I like too. If you replace the door fronts in the kitchen, you might want to replace them in the living room as well. You might also think about changing the hardware. Cup handles are definitely not contemporary. As far as your island, blue is a very nice color. Painting over kitchen cabinetry is not easy at all, and when not done properly will peel and bubble. You do need some sort of leg there to support the edge of the island. You can talk to an experienced finish carpenter about substituting another type of leg. If you are going to get a white countertop, what is it about quartz that you like? You may get the same thing in Corian with more advantages. Why not invite a professional, Joseph Corlett, LLC into this thread and he will tell you why Corian is superior to quartz. I like the photos of the kitchen you like, but imagine those kitchens with your floors, how much richer they would look! Your floors are gorgeous, and with white cabinets and countertops and a blue island, dark floors might be just the right look. Tiling is not as easy as you think. However, you don't need as much as you have now, either. You only need a backsplash behind the stove, and if you want a modern or high tech look, you could do stainless steel up to the hood and no tile at all. After all, your hood will probably be stainless, right? What looks great is a mix of metals, and you could do a stainless hood with brass "straps", and brass light fixtures over the island as you have in your photos. I favor the ones with covered bulbs, and with non-transparent glass, because glare gives me a headache, but that's just me. I don't know that I would remove the fireplace altogether. You could just move the TV to the wall perpendicular to it. The other reason to move the TV is that the TV's width is too much for the fireplace. Generally something should be 2/3 to 3/4 the width of what it is above. So a painting or TV should be 2/3 to 3/4 the width of the piece of furniture below it. If you wanted to change the staircase, you could remove the vertical wooden spindles and install multiple thick metal cables with vertical metal bars periodically. However, if you plan to have children, you will need to cover it with acrylic or unbreakable glass panels so their little hands don't get stuck between the metal cables. You could also just do the thick acrylic or glass panels without the horizontal cables except having metal at the top and bottom. I would save this for very last, it is frightfully expensive. I hope you and your wife enjoy your new home in good health!