sam b's Profile

Seriously, when I see Keep Calm anything, I don't think, "That's overdone," I think, "Here we go, the AT comment boards will be foaming at the mouth."

I agree that the chairs look great as is. I'd paint the table white, although it might be a lot of white in the room.

Your shelves display is nice, so you may not want to do this, but maybe you could add fabric or paper to the glass in those doors to introduce a new color and provide a little break in all the white and allow the fireplace to stand out more?

Really like the look of that Carlo chair and a few others on the Contract web site. Anyone have any experience with them?

I think we are all savvy folks -- given our obvious good taste by finding and frequenting AT -- and we can figure out whether a post is a sponsored writeup or not by paying a little attention. The fact is, folks learn to tune out ads -- in the left column, the right column, during breaks in your TV show -- and so the presentation evolves. Now ads split posts in half, they pop up to delay us from seeing the next page (hello, NYT) and they litter the bottom of our TV screens during programming. It IS a fact of life and it is not going to go away.

I don't fault AT a bit for trying to make a living. You could make the sponsored posts more obvious, but you may bring their advertiser value down by making them so easy to skip. If anything, I'd recommend writing the posts in a way that calls out the difference more. For example, start with Why we think this sponsor is worth sponsoring: or perhaps Number of AT staff who own (as in purchased) products by this sponsor.

The AT posts are half retail recommendations/reviews, anyway. Nothing stops readers from sticking their tongue out at the styles shown in non-sponsored posts!

But I agree with the complaint about recycling. And can you use your R&B pay to upgrade the search engine?!

On first glance, I loved loved #1. Still like those lines, but flickr showed #2 to be a more detailed, more unique version of #1. So I'd probably keep #2.

However, if you're really drawn to 9 and like the 3 by 3 thing, go for it. I don't think you can go wrong with any of these and I think they're perfectly suited to the dining room.

Wow, I spent the last 6 years in a studio and sure didn't have room for nightstands on either side. Not sure what your layout is, but I wouldn't invest in items you don't have real practical use for now.

I think buying just one of the nightstands might be a good compromise. You'll have a bedside element tying in to the dresser -- but if you get any other nightstand or use a wooden or metal chair (easily moved for guests to use!) as a nightstand on the other side you can also shake things up a bit and not go too far with symmetry or matchiness.

Otherwise I agree w/ JuliaL -- matching nightstands but a different style. Good luck!