First a couple of experiments. It was time to remove the quilt. It may end up in our bedroom but for now it needs a wash. We moved one of our $35 tables where the quilt was and put the screen on top. It needed chairs on either side (that made a huge difference).

The picture doesn't do justice to what it did to the room.
We'll mount it on metal brackets at the bottom
with a wire around the middle top hinge.
Glass, marble, granite table top?

Gordon is really tired of the view of our messy kitchen. The original idea is a tiered tray at the end of he counter. Today we had to use our imagination: a low frosted glass screen constructed with candlesticks on the countertop. We experimented with a roll of paper towels:

Imagination required on the screen.
Gordon will only allow us two stools.
They can't be "wood" colored.

The laundry hall needs a strong paint to separate the hall from the kitchen and provide a little drama for the walk to the upstairs bedrooms. We have to get modern track lights.

Pardon the laundry in the hall. It's college wash day.

Now for the fabrics.
I'm at a loss to tell you about comparing fabrics. They all looked great. We moved them around and some combinations look better that others. We wanted all of them but we're not worthy.

We've been leaning toward light colors. But if we did the sofa and both chairs in the same light color chenille fabric, wouldn't it be boring? Gordon says a strong rug "will make the chenille pop." We went to the linen closet to get some strong colored sheets. We threw them on the floor near the chenille. It definitely popped. Good grief for a brief second I had a flash of understanding.

What is a strong rug? Gordon's eyebrows arched mischievously when he said it. I think it will gross us out in the showroom but be oh so right in the living room.

So the shopping plan right now is to grab our fabrics, particulary our top two and go rug shopping. The rug will tell how to pick the fabrics. Then we'll rush to the sofa store and buy the sofa and chairs. All the furniture stores are talking Fall Furniture Market October 20 - 26, 2005 as putting a kink into furniture ordering. I don't doubt it. Nor do I doubt that the sellers are hoping we'll put our money down in a hurry.

Here are todays fabric samples, mostly without comment. The theory is sofa one color, upolstered chairs in another, floral as an accect for another chair and pillows, perhaps yet another for the dining chair cushions. Gordon even matched the fabrics with "the thing" and the screen. We put them everywhere in the room and looked at them from every angle. We'll be dreaming about them!

I liked the "red" fabric on the left.
Amazingly, it looks like my parents' chair that's now in Rachel's room.

The light fabric is the chenille. We loved it. It's so soft, light, and very casual. Rachel said it looked dirty. Need a stong carpet to make it pop.

There are two versions of the floral. One has a brown background, the other has a black background. Depending on the distance and lighting, I can't tell the difference. But you put them with other fabrics - whatever the distance - you can tell. This is the brown.

This one is the black.

We liked the geometic print a lot. Heck, we liked all of them.