A Shopping We Will Go

Hello friends!  I hope I didn't sound too depressed in my last post about the house deal falling through.  I was a little bummed of course, but I realize that whatever the Lord's purposes may have been in all of that, He is good.  I trust that He will provide a buyer for us when the time is right, and guess what - even if He doesn't, He is still good.  

I've just returned from a day of shopping in Huntsville.  Well, I guess you can call it shopping.  I didn't actually buy anything, but I picked out a whole lot.  I had a list of several stores to visit to begin choosing materials for the home we'll build.  Once our plans are complete and we have a list of materials, we plan to let a few builders bid it out for us before settling on one.  To say this is a little overwhelming would be an understatement.  Choosing every single thing that will go in your house takes a lot of thought and time.  While I'm loving it and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to build, I'm a little nervous that everything I pick out will look ridiculous together and I'll botch the whole thing.  I had to give myself a reality check today and remember the verse, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy..."  The truth of the matter is even if everything I pick out is hideous it will still be a nice, warm home for our family and that's all that really matters.  Still, it wouldn't hurt if it looked good too ;)

So dear bloggers, I'm hoping you can help me with this process a bit.  The biggest difficulty I ran into today was choosing lighting.  I have decided to use brushed nickel on my hardware inside (I'm using black iron on the outside I think).  However, I'm not crazy about most brushed nickel lighting.  So, I'm trying to figure out how much variation will look good and when I cross the line of looking like the items in my house were chosen by seven different people who never met.  So, here is what I'm thinking for the kitchen.  I like these kitchens and I'm choosing similar colors/materials...

Today I found this pendent light for over the island that I like.  It was actually just about the only satin light that I really, really liked.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  They have a larger version as well depending on how large our island ends up being (the plans aren't finished so I'm not sure).

So I'm pretty happy with that one.  Next, I was thinking I would do a light with a big drum shade in the dining room.  The place I looked today could order this one...

 with a different shade.  Probably one of these fabrics... (it would be solid fabric without those lines all over it)

I like that one ok, but it's a pretty pricey and I don't absolutely love it.  Maybe because I couldn't see it in person.  The light I had most trouble with was one for the foyer.  I picked this one out for the front porch in front of the door...

 I couldn't find a nickel light that I loved for the foyer.  Seriously, this was the best I could find.

The metal is actually kind of cool because it's kind of hammered (or something), but I'm really not a fan of the glass.  What do y'all think?  Since I have the black lantern just before you walk through the door, could I get away with a darker metal in the foyer?

As for bathroom lighting and fans, I need to pay more attention to what I like.  I've never really noticed these lights.  I guess that's a good sign that it won't matter too much if I don't pick the perfect one :)

Thanks for your help, friends!