Toads eat bugs, and bugs are attracted to light, water, and hiding places. Toads, and most other frogs, also mate & lay eggs in water. The water needs to be a pond, ditch, or deep puddle, with a going mini-ecology, so that the tadpoles have something to eat & places to hide. (A saucer of water is not sufficient.) I can nearly always find a toad or two at night, waiting for dinner under the porch light. Thick, fine foliage is only a few inches away, and the automatic sprinklers keep the ground moist for both the frogs and bugs. The toads just wait for a flying bug to land on the foliage or the concrete below the light. Put in a small garden pond with a little rock waterfall, and let it run for a summer. Plant ferns or other fine foliage around it. Pretty soon you'll find that birds have brought frog eggs (stuck to their feet), and you'll get tadpoles.. and frogs. The waterfall provides aeration that is often absent in a still garden pond. Aeration is the key to beneficial organisms starting a viable ecology in the pond. Algae growing on the waterfall rocks also provides feed to microorganisms that feed the tapoles, as well as snails & other pond critters. Of course, the perfect environment for frogs is also the perfect environment for snakes.. who feed on frogs. Most snakes are very reclusive, and you may have a half-dozen small snakes in your yard and go for years without ever seeing one. (I haven't mentioned that to my wife.) Snakes also eat small rodents, which is a feature that keeps them on my "good critter" list. On warm summer nights in the south, following a rain, toads and other small frogs go noisily berserk in their mating frenzies. Drive out into the country after a rain has followed a couple-of-weeks dry spell. The ditches will be full of frogs and long sticky strings of frog eggs. The country-ditch ecology will not miss a zip-bag full of eggs, from among the billions of frog eggs that are laid in a damp summer night. (Wear high boots, and make lots of noise walking.. snakes will hear you coming & nearly all snakes will leave the immediate area if they "hear" a human.) Here is a link that might be useful: Lone Star Chapter, American Hibiscus Society

yes d_gw I agree..even though has potential of course if one picks the route Sophie suggests; it will dictate certain direction, no doubt. More rustic, more grounded. probably boils down to how much one loves slate. (say my DH is a big fan while I'm less of a fan, in general) I for example liked the first pic Sophie posted the most due to lots of light colors in it. Never saw such cool combo before. But. Then I though along your lines: that's a strong statement. Big surface. Should it be there, should it not? I don't know. I found for example amazing "teak" limestone, whites plus oranges.. but then I thought, again, too strong of a statement. Especially if one doesn't like orange or is not fan of a limestone. I love orange, and I do love limestone. But in the end I decided it probably not what the OP would pick so I didn't post it. thank you lizzierobin! and kmg and Mark, thank you for sharing your dilemma with us..will be very cool to see which direction you'll decide to take..if you'll feel like sharing in the future))

I feel like I wrote this post! Ha! We just did the same thing in my husbands office. He does have high ceilings but walls were bland and he wanted moody green. We used SW 6475 Country Squire and are so happy with it. We did the trim in a bright white and all frames on the wall black to match the desk/chair. Got a light rug from rugs USA. I will post some pictures if it helps you to visualize your room. (We haven’t done anything on the windows yet).

@cat_ky - Thanks!! Since they are moving back here in a couple weeks, they decided to wait and tell people (immediate family only for now) in person. I am the only person that they’ve told so far - and I’m sworn to secrecy! She told me that I don’t have the usual “spousal exception” - so, I can’t even share this with my SO. He came over while I was just getting off the speaker phone with my daughter, and heard her comment about how we had been on the phone for 2 hrs and 50 minutes! While she and I have had long calls before - the calls have never been close to THREE HOURS! After I hung up, he made a comment about how long the call was, and asked if something was wrong. “Ummm . . . NOPE!” It’s going to be a LONG couple of weeks! It’s difficult to have such exciting news, and not be able to share it - especially with my three sisters! That’s why I decided to share it with you all! In a few months, we can all brainstorm about putting together the perfect nursery!!