Linda Castle of Decorated Designs, a frequent video contributor to About Home Renovations, gave us a good piece recently about the importance of thinking outside the box with wainscot.

Wainscot--partial paneling that ends less than halfway to the ceiling--is often beadboard and often white.  That's the norm.

But colored wainscot adds another dimension of character, too:

• You can leave the upper part of the wall neutral, painting the wainscot a darker color, as shown in #3.
• You can stain the wainscot (#4) for a very formal, "gentleman's club" look.
• You can even dispense with the wood altogether and use stone (#2).  Castle recommends that if you decide to use stone, you do so sparingly.

Upper Left: (c) B. Tristan Denyer; All Other Images: (c) About.com

If you want solid color kitchen cabinets, you can paint them.  The wood grain will not show through.

As an example, here is Martha Stewart Mourning Dove Gray.  Make sure you use 100% acrylic, not latex, paint.

If you want kitchen cabinets that have more of a stained wood appearance, kits can help you with that.

This example is from Cabinet Transformations:

See Article:  Painted Kitchen Cabinet Ideas

Images:  (c) Martha Stewart Home (Top); (c) Rustoleum (Bottom).

Review of the book Sabrina Soto Home Design.

Image:  (c) John Wiley & Sons

Retro doorbells range in period from Victorian to Mid-Century Modern, with numerous periods in-between (Deco, Art Nouveau, Craftsman, etc.).

I find it interesting that you can have an electrical, back-lit, LED Victorian doorbell.  But whatever.  It's all about the look.

The "Press Here" bells (#7) are everywhere and inexpensive.

The plain, round doorbell found in #1:  I've featured the pricey one from Rejuvenation, but you can find cheaper elsewhere.

Starburst (#2):  you have to buy at Rejuvenation.

Most are not historically accurate.  For that, you'll need to spend time on eBay and other auction sites for doorbells like the amazing Deco doorbell shown in #8.