I tried to go in a different decorating aesthetic than I'm used to. I lean towards a darker, more masculine look and I really tried to brighten up this room. Did it work? Does it look cohesive? Does the red table need to be painted a different color?

Also, there's one outside corner in the shower that's finished with a regular tile on one wall butting into a bullnose tile on the other. Starting about eight inches from the floor and going up about another two feet, the grout in that joint has cracked--in some places it has separated from the bullnose tile and in others it's separated from the regular tile. The rest of the way up to the ceiling it's fine. The grout in the bottom 8 inches of tile isn't cracked but it's very lumpy and uneven--not a smooth line. I figure the two feet of cracked grout has to come out and be replaced--is there anything special to keep in mind here? Does the lumpy grout need to be redone if it isn't cracked?

Thanks for any advice!

lousy close-up but it's all I have to show the soffit / crown and the decorative pieces we ran (vertically) to cover where the bookcases met each other (and the wall on the left)

Our ceilings were (former house) 8', so by attaching crown & homemade soffit to join the top of the bookcases to the ceiling and decorative moulding to hide the joints of the individual bookcases (plus some luan skin on the sides) we were able to make them look built-in. We used the chase between the ceiling and the top of the bookcases to run wiring for (also IKEA) puck lights.

Recently someone wrote that they were disappointed with the sturdiness of the Billy bookcases. I can only speak to my experience which was that they were AWESOME! Granted, we attached ours to the wall, but I never, ever had any doubt about their construction or abilities. And they saved us so much money!!!

Hope I'm not putting too many pictures!

Quick description (feel free to contact me if you have questions)
-Soapstone: Julia
-Cabinets: Custom, inset/flush shaker style with single bead (waiting to see if we get some issues resolved before I recommend the cabinet maker)
-Bookcase and desk tops: walnut
-Sharp microwave oven drawer (love it!)
-GE fridge
-Shaw 30 inch apron sink
-Wolf range top
-Thermador double ovens
-Vent-a-hood hood
-Dal tile
-potfiller: Newport Brass
-hot/cold faucet Newport Brass
-Main faucet: Mico
-Door to garage: one panel painted with chalkboard paint...fun! The kids love this and it's fun to put messages to guests, each other, holiday wishes, etc.
-Pull out baskets (love these...I keep bread in one and potatoes, onions, etc. in the other)
-Wine shelf--love it!
-Bar stools from Sturbridge Yankee Workshop (love these and they were so reasonable!)
-What would I do differently? More than 12 inch overhang on seating area of island (maybe 14-16 inch). And I might skip the bead board in the backs of the bookshelfs and glass cabs.

Happy kitchen designing to all! Thank you again!

Do you just have to have an eye for it?

In some of these pictures like subjects are grouped, in some though they are not. They all still seem to work (at least to me). I know somewhere I have a picture from cattknap that I saved for inspiration. Do you think you need the layered look in everything for it to work? Meaning lots of accessories, fabrics and pillows too? I do not have that and am not sure I could pull that off with 4 cats that love to jump on everything.

I am wondering if anyone has pictures of their homes with stacked pictures hung and would care to share how they pulled it off?

Some inspiration pics I have saved (I think most are from Jennyfromtheblock - thank you jenny!)

For me, I've religated most of the family pictures to the hallway and would like to do a photo wall similar to how lindybarts has displayed. I particularly like the display of old sepia toned prints--that convey a sense of history and family and can also work well in most decors. In my LR I have only one photo out and that is a formal portrait of my grandparent's wedding which I sized down using my scanner/printer on photo paper from an 8x10 to a 5x7 print which was more in scale with the surrounding decor:

We do have the most recent sports team photos of two of our daughters in our family room--because it is an activity that is important to our family:

I also enjoy seeing smaller/candid photos on display interspersed with other nicknacks. cliff_and_joann comes to mind of having a a very tasteful balance of pictures with other decor.

any ideas of where I could find a similar one?

First off, my name is Duane Collie and I own a small home furnishings store in Alexandria, VA. I've been in business since 1979 and specialize in high-quality, American-made 18th century furnishings. Because of the nature of my business, I have learned hundreds of things about what makes a good piece, or a bad piece, or even a mediocre piece (just don't overpay for mediocrity).

Let's start off with something easy, the basic building block of all furniture..>WOOD<

Solid wood is preferable to veneers (which are laminates over a secondary wood) Wider boards are more expensive than narrow boards in solid woods, and more desirable. There are different grades of wood within a type. For example, there are over 200 species of pine and while Southern Yellow is not very good for furniture making, Eastern White Pine is. A cabinetmaker selects his wood based on his project and costs. If he is using an aniline dye and shellac coats, he needs a higher grade of lumber than if he is using covering stains that mask the wood flaws and mineral deposit variables.

Which wood to get? This varies by price and characteristics. Just because a wood is soft, doesn't mean its not suitable for a project. Here's a rundown of some common woods in the USA that are furniture grade:

Pine. Soft, but relatively stable. Eastern White has good, tight knots that will not fall out. Shrinkage and expansion is moderate. Dent resistance is poor. Takes stains nicely.

Poplar. Great Secondary wood (drawer bottoms, etc.) and very stable. Inexpensive. Halfway between a soft and hardwood. Takes paint well, but never stains up nicely.

Cherry. A great lumber! I personally find it more interesting to look at than most mahogany. Its a hardwood, but not as dense as maple. Takes aniline dyes beautifully and requires little or no sealer. Cherry will darken and 'ruby up' with age and exposure to sunlight. If you use it for flooring or kitchen cabinets, expect deeper and more red dish colors to develop over time nearer the windows of your home.

Mahogany. Poor Mahogany! So misunderstood! Mahogany grows in every part of the world, and varies greatly. Figured mahogany is highly desirable (aka as 'plum pudding' or 'crotch' mahogany) but you rarely see it outside of veneers due to the cost of those logs. The very best furniture grade mahogany is from Central America and Cuba, but is very hard to source. African mahogany is decent, and the stuff from China and the Philippines the least desirable. Mahogany can be done in open pore, semi-closed pore, and fully sealer finishes. Mahogany is a favorite for carvers, as it carves easily and is not prone to splitting when being handled.

Maple. Both hard and soft maple is an industry standard. Very durable, very dense, accepts many colors nicely and stains up well. Excellent for the best upholstery frames. Stable, and plentiful.

Figured Maples. Sometimes called Tiger Maple, or Curly Maple (one of my favorites). A small percentage of maple will be highly figured and is pulled off at the mill to sell to furniture makers and musical instrument makes for about 2x the price of regular maple. Tiger maple MUST be board matched and typically a single log will be used to make a project, rather than taking a board from this pile and another from another pile. Consistency is key, and you will hear the term 'bookmatched' used frequently in figured maples. Figured maples look best with aniline dye finishes and hand-scraped surfaces. Birdseye maples are in this category as well, but are so unstable that most shops only use them veneers.

Walnut: A hard wood to work with. Not many walnut forests, and most cabinentmakers loathe making walnut pieces for two reasons. First it much be bleached before it can be finished, otherwise its ugly. Secondly, it has to be filled and sanded. Very time consuming to do properly, but quite a handsome wood when done right (3/4's of all walnut pieces I see is NOT done right)

Oak: Another mainstay wood. Very durable, and dense. Not widely used in fine furniture because of the grain pattern.

There are other woods as well, but those are some of the mainstay furniture woods.

Wood has to be milled to make is usable. It is run through planers, joiners and wide belt sanders to get it to size. The larger and thicker the board, the more expensive it will be. Bed posts and pedestal bases on tables are very expensive to do as solid, non-glued-up pieces. So if you buy a bed, check to see if you see a vertical seam in the lumber which signifies a glue-up. Nothing wrong with glue-ups, just don't pay the price of solid 1-board.

Industry standard is 4/4 (pronounced four quarter) lumber, which when milled will finish out to 7/8" thickness. Anything thicker - or even thinner - requires more expensive wood or more planing time if being thinned out.

Once the wood is planed, it either goes to a wide belt sander or is hand-scraped. If hand-scraped (much more desirable) you will feel a slight ripple when you run your hand over the surface. Belt-sanded items will be perfectly smooth. Cutting the surface of the wood gives you a brighter finish over a sanded surface in a completed product.

Solid wood MOVES. The wider the board, the more it will move with the seasons. Expands in the summer, shrinks in the winter. The art of the furnituremaker is to build to allow this movement, without sacrificing joinery strength. Narrow board furniture does not move nearly as much, and plywoods and veneers don't move at all.

Joinery. The gold standard is Mortise and Tenon. That's the strongest joint where you have intersecting pieces of wood. All mortise and tenoned pieces will have one or two distinctive wood pins visible from the outside of the piece that secure that joint. Next up is Dowel joints. Not as durable as mortise and tenon, but superior to a bolt-in leg. Dowel joints look like M&T joints, but don't have the cross pins. Last choice are legs than bolt on, or are held on by screws. Plastic blocks, staples, nails, hot glue and the like are unacceptable as joinery methods.

I've reached the character limit for this post. More later. Hope you like this thread and will ask general quesions!

Long before I met him, my now-husband purchased a kind of schlocky set of furniture, inc. a white melamine covered particleboard (like IKEA's, only not as nice ...) dresser:

When we started to live together I used it because in my previous home I'd had built-in storage which obviously didn't travel with me. As is, it wasn't my taste but I didn't have the money to get what I really wanted, so I attacked it with sticky primer (a primer which will create a "tooth" on plasticky furniture) and then Benjamin Moore's high gloss for metal and glass. (I cannot recall the exact name of the paint, but it's something like that.) I also attached some petite moulding to the dressers and changed the hardware to "dress them up."

And this is what I ended up with:

I liked it so much that even when I could afford what I wanted I didn't purchase it -- I was so happy with my recreation. You never know, you might feel the same way as well!

GOOD LUCK!!!

And close up