Here’s a detail from Kim’s bedroom that I shared a few weeks ago…

Lovely black accents at risulinna’s dining room stand out. Oh, and I would kill for those chairs – brilliant! Also, she has a blog here.

Here’s one from simplyvonne. Also, her blog is here.

Here’s a lovely entry from uydurrrukcu. Blog is here.

This paint job at xojy’s house includes a Venetian plaster finish. I love the shine on it. Sometimes black paint can really highlight flaws in a wall that you don’t want to highlight – Venetian plaster is a great way to fix this.

…the latest issue of Nesting Newbies is now available online. Here’s a sneak peek:

Photograph by Dean Birinyi for Nesting Newbies

Earlier this week I was catching up on sfgirlbybay (she’s moved! She has an ENTIRE new place to decorate!), and I love her chalkboard dining room. She says she’s not done yet, but I’m loving it as is:

How different from that light-filled dining area she had in her old place. Doesn’t the wood table look like a completely different piece in this context? And I recognize that painting, and now it seems to have been made for this space – instead of some formal portrait of a great-great-great ancestor in a white collar looking stoic, we have the cool James Dean-ish dude. It makes me break out in a smile just looking at it.

Anyway, this image, combined with Ali’s image featured yesterday, had me scouting for black and white images in our Fresh New Spaces Group. I’ll pop in with some favorites throughout the day today. Here’s one from Flickr member J.E.N.:

and two more from Flickr member TheMatt:

I highly recommend checking out J.E.N. and TheMatt’s photostreams – it’s hard to choose an image to feature because there are so many great ones!

I found myself feeling really happy when I looked at this picture last night and then started scouring flickr for some favorite black and white (and charcoal) images to share with you in tomorrow’s “Flickr Faves on Fridays” post. Then I thought, why not share the image that inspired me in the first place as well? It comes from our very own Ali Beckford, who is a super-stylist and photographer (and hilarious, when you click over to her blog, make sure to check out this post). She and he professional photographer S.O. Cooper love to snag their neighbor’s toss-aside furniture from their hallway and they scored big time with this dresser.

As for some of the other pieces, Ali tracked down the camera print after spotting it in this Unison Porter bedding shot:

The artist is Rod Hunting. The vintage clock came from an old school in Olympia Washington. Doesn’t it remind you of being bored out of your mind in some high school class, praying for the second hand to move, thinking that the bell was NEVER going to ring!

If you’re busy getting organized, take a break for a second and check out this dreamy slideshow over at Wallpaper*. One project is by MPG Arquitetura, and it’s a total fantasy. Here’s a teaser:

photographs by Denilson Machade and Alain Brugier, as seen at Wallpaper.com