Thanks for the paint info, Kevin. I have asked you about your paint colors before, so was sure this was a Williamsburg color. My home is also Williamsburg-decorated and you have made such beautiful color choices I was just reading that the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has given the license for the W colors to BM as of the 2Q this year and dropped PLambert/SW.

The mock up is a little box, shaped to scale like the room. Here's a pic of the ceiling: Inside the hole you see is the current light fixture, which is a hanging lantern currently installed in the room. They left the two walls blank so we could talk placement of furniture. His bed is a 1930's style bed, and it will be beneeth the monkey tree so below that will mostly be foliage. It won't be tucked tight against the window wall. On one side there will be a stack of antique suitcases (all made child safe) with his other lantern (when I find one good for a child's room). Then he has a short amoire which will go between the bed and the closet wall (the other blank wall). They'll paint some monkeys high in a tree playing with the giraffe above it, but still do the foliage all around the room. His only other piece of furniture is a small toy storage unit, in black wood and wicker. It will go in the corner opposite the lion, again blocking only foliage, not animals :) On the floor we'll have a few worn rugs like you might see in an African safari tent now a days, and then there will still be the canvas curtains in each corner. There are wood supports on each wall and around the ceiling like crown molding, which will appear to be holding the tent up. We have to keep the bed fairly simple so it won't block too much (It's not a huge room). I picked up some wonderful faux furs from Diva Design Fabrics for nothing which I will make into huge throw pillows for the floor, and I also picked up several of those $1.99 twin cotton duvets from Ikea on our last trip outside which I'll be using for his comforters. I've also been collecting seffra bedding (twin size) in white, tan an browns, for his bed decor. They're amazingly cheap if you only get one or two things (like a brown pillow slip etc). I love ebay LOL The back wall, where the lion is, and the window wall, are the primary decorative walls. They're not really good for furniture placement given that they have a door opening up into the room (which would hide the lion somewhat when open all the way) and then the window, which is off center on the shorter wall. The long wall with the monkey and giraffe are the best for furniture. I'm also having his closet built out on the inside so he won't need a dresser in the room. (We have one just outside the room in the family room that we will be using for him). I want to leave as much floor space as possible for play. I can't wait until they get started :) Today I have to go paint the closet doors and the trim in the base colors. The artist that is doing the walls is still at work upstairs, but he'll be done on Tuesday, then he'll be working on the mural with his wife who is also an artist (she does the animals, he does the trees). I know it's an over the top room :) LIterally with that ceiling, but for both DH and myself, it's nice to imagine him enjoying it, since we had many times in his first year that we didn't expect him to make it to toddlerhood. And having my design come to life (I could NEVER have done this well) is really a kick. Gad knows in two years the kid will want Star Wars on the walls LOL. But we'll try to talk him out of that for a while. Hopefully Sue is right, his friends might talk him out of it instead :)

Sheesharee...I'll post a couple of photo's....but you MUST remember we just JUST moved in and still have some construcion going on so it's not decorated and it's a mess! I'm just doing this to show wall finish. When it's really done I'll post pics that look pretty LOL The high chair is up here because we're trapped in the master suite while they finish the downstairs and the kitchen (I like to keep the puppy and DS away from saws and nail gus LOL...mostly to protect the contractors). Baskets of laundry and all the other mess goes as well! And the bedding is going to be in rich deep browns and gold (verses the white you see in the corner of this picture...I haven't unpacked the other stuff). Oh and that tv will be hung to hide the cable box. I do love the colors the artist did on our walls and can't wait to see it with the bronze silk drapes and the onyx finished (I have to back lite it and it gets a very small back splash of 3/4" to hide the seams against the walls of our headboard cabinet). The walls are actually in metalics, which are hard to photograph! So picture the pictures above with a gold glow LOL And the counter in the first pic is the back of our bed. It's missing it's doors (it's long term storage) but basically it allows me to put the bed in the bay window and was a great excuse to buy some onyx which I adore! Our master closet walls are a similar color, but without the leather texture. All of the cabinets in there are a rich walnut, so it's dark as well :) I've happily embraced the dark side!

First, I can't imagine why anyone would display the Mona Lisa in his or her home as there was never an uglier woman on canvas! The original painting is not that great either. It is smaller than you'd think and while masterfully painted, IMO it is the Renaissance equivalent to a Polaroid. Further, I've always thought that background suggests the canvas may have been a landscape painting upon which the woman was superimposed----like Da Vinci said to an assistant, go grab me a small canvas I have to paint this woman and forgot she was coming today for her sitting, and the assistant said gosh we are completely out of that size and Leo says well just grab something about that size and I'll paint over it, hurry! Second, I think people should have art in their homes that speaks to them. If they like old masters, they should have old masters. If they like prints or canvasses or posters or whatever, that's what they should have. If they aren't that interested in art but need "something big to go over the sofa," they should look for something pleasing in the right colors and shape. I don't think anyone who displays a copy of a famous work in print or paint thinks anyone is going to wonder it it's on loan from a museum. I have acquaintances who live in a fabulous house in Alabama and who have a collection of art that is about as depressing as it could possibly be. They bought mostly Dutch and Flemish paintings at auction through a dealer, mostly dull farm scenes and old men They are original oils and the collection is valuable. In my back hall and home office is a collection of travel posters from various countries I've visited, and I recently added to the collection with posters from the Disney movie Planes. They are colorful and fun and I happen to like them---for my house--better than stern looking old Dutch guys. Good taste? Hardest thing to define in art, especially since there is no function other than aesthetic appreciation to consider. It may be questionable to mount a work of art with a gruesome subject in the dining room, for example, but you'll never get a backache from sitting on a painting and a sculpture will never be too low for the chair. Get what you like and never, ever apologize for it. And that is kswl's Gospel of Art, lol!