Family room shelves

These are the family room shelves right now. Excuse the mess, but after the upper kitchen cabinets came down, my bookshelves became the storage center. The shelves don't show clearly in this picture, but they are a yellowy color(and shiny!) that clashes with the beams.


This picture is the way I want the room to look. Light dove gray for the walls, white for the trim, mantle, and shelves; with dark gray backgrounds. Because I keep the reference books above and the novels in the cabinets down below, I want to frost the glass on the doors so nobody can see the high-fructose brain candy. Right now we have crummy windows hidden by curtains but we want to put a patio outside with a door that leads into this room. The windows next to this door will be frosted with shelves to let in more light while keeping the privacy. The couch and chair we already have (from Phoenix Retro Metro!), currently they are out in the front room because of the IKEA boxes.

Mailboxes

This is our mailbox. Ugly, yes? And it's only barely functioning. The latch is broken so most of the time it is left hanging open after the mail is delivered.

These are two of the styles I'm interested in. Both are from letterboxes, a New Zealand company, but reasonably priced even with shipping. And both are locking in the back. I'm thinking the second one because the black with look better with the dark trim on the house.