Needin' a little decorating advice...

Hey guys!

So I mentioned to you before that I recently bought some dining room furniture.  And I'm in LOVE with it.  Really, I can't say enough about how happy I am to have found it.

I'm a little odd though.  By that I mean, I'm not in any hurry to get my house furnished.  I prefer to do it piece by piece by piece.  I don't want to buy anything just to fill it up.  I want to pick out items that just scream out to me. Most of the time these items are what you might call "antiques" (although I'm no snob, I'm not out hunting for letters of authentication to make sure the antique trunk or medicine chest came from King Louie's actual basement.)  No, I'll take any old piece that appeals to me, in a color I like, that seems like it has a story.

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Side Note: I was somewhat appalled this weekend when not one but TWO of my male cousins told me that if they had to choose a word to describe the decor in my house, that word would be "modern."  Whaaaaaaaaat?  Now, granted, both are probably a bit ill-informed, but geez... even with a little room for observer error I ought to be able to get a little closer to my goal than that!  (When you consider I'm going for an antique yet eclectic "cottage-feel.")  Forget hitting the nail on the head, I'd be happy with just being in the same realm of design as the one I'm going for.   Chime in, design-savvy friends.  Dispel some of my shock.

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Back to the topic at hand.  Here's what I found last week for my dining room.  Still no table.  But my dilemma is that most antique store dining tables are quite small and we're looking for one to seat at least ten.  (In a rich, antique-finish wood, preferably.)

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All the items below are from the Mid-Towne Antique Mall in Little Rock.  I highly recommend it... the prices are excellent compared to many other stores I've visited.  The the vendor for the hutch even took a lower offer than the ticketed price!

Here's my hutch.  I really like the texture and color of the wood a lot.  I was getting so tired of finding fake-looking "distressed" hutches when what I really wanted in my mind's eye was something that would look right at home in Martha Stewart's barn.  :)  (FYI: That's where she serves a big Thanksgiving meal.  It's not a trashy barn.)

I bought some various white dishes to display in it, as well as adding some items I already own.

I'm a HUGE fan of white and cream.

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My awesome sister-in-law and mother-in-law have my style pegged.  In fact, I'd venture to guess that half the decorations and antiques in my home were picked out by them as a Christmas or birthday gift to me.  Gotta love sisters and moms (especially the kind that can read your mind.)
My sister-in-law got me this lantern.

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Here's my dilemma.  The top of the hutch.

Most hutches need a little something on top.  This one definitely does because the top is such a simple, boxy rectangle.  No decorative detail there at all.

But I don't want it to become a display shelf for knick-knacks.  I don't want it to look at all cluttered and I don't even want to hear the words "fake plants" or "greenery."

I've done a google image search and almost every image I pull up of the tops of dining hutches, I hate.  They're all loaded down with "greenery" or figurines, or collectors' items.

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I have liked a few out there.  This one for instance.  I like the simplicity of the antique horse above the hutch.  It provides movement and shape... but it's not hokey.  I reeeeally like this one actually.  I like every part of the room (except the plants.)  If only I could find a white table like that (but larger.)

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This one is also neat.  I like that is is pleasing to the eye and "uniform" but not "symmetrical."  I'm not a fan of perfect symmetry.

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Another one.  Also good.  Clean lines.  Yes, it contains collectors' items, but it doesn't look junky or cluttered.  It's well balanced.

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And...

just to be clear...

THIS I hate.

With the fire of a thousand suns.

So don't even go there if you make suggestions.

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I really like the idea of displaying antique white soup tureens up there.  I think that would look uniform, yet not symmetrical, and not cluttered.  It would provide good lines and shape too.

Problem is, I have no antique soup tureens and my searches though the antique mall have not revealed any.  So let me know if you have an old wooden horse lying around or some of your grandma's soup tureens!  I'll buy them off you.

I'll have to show you the other furniture pieces I got some other time.  This post got way longer than I intended.

Oh, also, I need some thoughts on what color to paint this room.  The window wall is going to be white vertical boards, but what for the other three?  I'm probably the one person on earth who doesn't LOVE blue... but I'm actually thinking a light muted turquoise or teal would look really "Martha" behind this antique furniture.  Like a robin's egg framed by a nest of twigs.

Thoughts???