I have a Mediterranean style home. We used a tropical painting that we purchased in Hawaii over the tuscan inspired fireplace and I think it looks just fine. I think the tropical would work with your old world kitchen, but personally I feel that the antique pieces have a more country vibe. By the way I love your ceiling fan!

i think you can use your palms and your old world style nicely,,a la ethan allen bermuda style. but, if it were me, i would choose antigues that would be native to that area of the world. instead of am apple churn, maybe old nautical things, for instance.

I'm terrible at mixing styles, but I think that the antiques go nicely with the Old World style kitchen, and the Mediterranean works with the Old World style, but mixing the Mediterranean and the country doesn't work well. Can you use the antiques in another room that's not so open to the living areas?

I think that mixing tropical (I think that's what you mean by Mediterranean?) with old world is actually a style known as British Colonial. Think polished mahagony, glass, silver pieces and porcelain ceramics. Your rough brick fireplace, and the American country antiques, are more rustic. I would maybe put some slate tiles on the FP surround, and mount the country antiques in the potting shed, for example. Or if you put an old-fashioned stone hearth in the kitchen they might work there. FWIW, I don't think you NEED turquoise anything to use that painting, it looks great with your wall color, which is lovely.(What is the wall color?) But you do want to repeat some of the cool colors, somewhere else in the room.

British Colonial, huh? Thanks. I'm glad to have a name for the style I'm after. It makes sense too, since I love English country and a lot of my furniture is Queen Anne and cherry.

One solution did pop into my mind, and that was to take the brick fireplace room and make that room (which is around the corner from the rooms you see from the kitchen) the room that has the American antiques. Do you think confining it to one room will help? I'm afraid that I'm a little stuck with using those pieces because it's one of the very few decorating things my husband wants to have and he's GC'd the whole house being built.

I guess I think of Old World and antiques as pretty much the same thing, but maybe your rustic items would be better placed some where that's not so heavily tropical/Meditteranean.

I like the idea of the brick fireplace space as showcasing the American earlier items. The bakers peel and the apple butter churn (is that right?) would look good with the brick.

Can you mount them sideways on the wall? They look big enough to hang on the side of an out-building, possibly combined with a wagon wheel or farm implement. I see them really setting a mood, definitely in a separate space, possibly outdoors.

I have a country kitchen, w/decor inspired by a vintage general store. There are lots of tin signs, birdhouses, & twig wreathes mixed with Coca-Cola memorabilia, nearly-antiques & kitchen cottage-y flotsam. However, the cabinets are traditional raised wood-paneling, I have a white tiled countertop and backsplash, & ceramic tiled floors. So the "bones" are still traditional, and blend with the rest of the houses' furnishings.

Which I didn't have much choice in, my old Italian grandmother gave me most of her things when she re-decorated after my grandfather died. Her newer furniture was garbage, this stuff is really timeless.

I mixed...do what you love and what makes you happy! :)

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thanks, loribee. Sometimes it's difficult to give myself "permission" to do things the way that makes me happy versus the "correct" way. Your home is lovely. Really. I think I'll just wait until closer to the time and see what my heart is saying.