Thanks to a couple of stylish ladies who came and saw things in person, I moved the African mamas and the Mirror of the Family up a couple of inches. They are not resting on a stripe and look good. The change is subtle enough I didn't take photos.

They also helped me see that leaving the inside of the glassed area of my storage armoire red wouldn't look weird through the glass (which has a greenish cast). It also helped that A held the glass in the door frame and then in its place in the armoire. So, no white paint required and I'm back to work on that. Darn clear finish needs at least 3 coats. BORING!!!! But, I'm anxious to get it done and have storage in the great room!

Despite A's declaration that he wanted to play hookey from projects for the summer, he couldn't restrain himself and started working on the stairs--a small project, which should have taken only a couple of evenings. When we bought the house, there was a strip of carpet running down the center of the stairs, and the pine treads were "finished" with a white glaze. Not really my style. The carpet's been gone since Day 1 (or 2 or 3), and we had plans to stain them to match the teak laminate. Aaron spent hours yesterday afternoon sanding off the ugly "whitewash" finish. Then, he stained a sample stair.

Ummmm, it's gross. Hideous. Completely disgusting.
Sooooooo, he presented me two options. Option A: Paint the stairs solid white (or dark brown or whatever) and possibly put stair mats on them. Or, Option B: Remove the treads and replace them with matching laminate. They do make bullnose for stairs, but we aren't exactly sure how this works. Despite my loathing for Lumber Liquidators, we are bedfellows now. Fortunately, they have opened a store in town here, so we'll be checking out the validity of Option B some time soon. B is my very, very much preferred alternative (in fact, A is so abhorant, I'm actually ignoring it and if B doesn't work out, then we'll be back to Square Zero), so let's hope we can make it work.