whoops, link http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/tour.asp?t=550525&idx=1

You've bought this house or you want to copy this kitchen? Where are the arches?

To me, this house does not need redoing. Is this a house you admire or one you own (or will own)?

Sorry, I wasn't clear on that. Our house plan is similar to this one, it is being built. The arches are in between the living room and the kitchen/dining area. I think one will be less "floofy" for lack of a better word, and will look less dated in a few years.

Hi. We just tried to do what you are doing. We did not beef up moldings and we should have. That would be #1. We did arches in door passage areas, that helped. We did rounded walls instead of right angles it makes it hard to switch colors from room to room if the walls are all finished round. I wouldn't do that again.

On this site I found laminate soapstone that is great. It is dark gray. I had them cut the backsplash off so we can tile later. I wanted to do the checkerboard floor too but was too worried that it wouldn't work. Instead we did dark brown laminate. It is Armstrong's premium. The dogs can't hurt it. We did this ourselves, big mistake. It was hard to get it to lock and the corners do chip. The dark floor does add a lot of character.

Where you might have a french glass door try a solid glass piece with no mullions sp?. The bronze doorknobs look great on our painted trim.

In the kitchen we have bronze knobs and then the half pulls that are old looking.

Good luck!

Thanks for sharing your experience brookelizabeth
I just love those floors where they paint the chequers on the wood floors, but just can't justify doing that with a new wood floor, right? Same with cabinets painted in cute colors. You have to be completely committed and not concerned about resale I guess.
I wondered about waiting on the backsplash too.