Home Improvements (Or, Carly's OCD is flaring up again)

My OCD has been flaring up and this time, it's causing me to do a lot of furniture rearranging/tweaking/reupholstering/purchasing/selling, etc. It has also influenced me to paint my bathroom. Above you'll see the antique books I just got. The one with the girls singing is called "Arts and Music" and the one with the sheep is called "Science and Industry." They are from 1939 and they are supposed to instruct children about art, music, science, and industry. It seems clear that girls are intended for art and music, while sheep are intended for science and industry--sexism!
Here's where I put the yellow antique cupboard that used to be our overflow pantry. Now it is our telephone/message station. What do you do to hide ugly modems and phones and wires? besides spend ridiculous amounts of money for attractive phones from Pottery Barn? Thoughts? Also, you will see one of the original paintings I bought from an artist in the Piazza Navona. It looks like Hazel, no?
The view of my mantle. I feel like everything looks makeshift and haphazard. I think I will always feel this way about the things I do. Question: would a fresh coat of golden yellow paint (Benjamin Moore's Golden Honey to be exact) look good on my walls? And if so, what accent color should I use on my fireplace wall? Dark blue? Gray? Green? Red? Orange? What what what?
We finally got an armoire to store our dishes so we can have more cupboard space for food in our kitchen (no pantry). I've been dreaming of this thing for one year.


I recovered this bench. It took ten minutes and wasn't hard at all but I thought I was the coolest person ever when it was finished because it seemed like such a big deal.
Our basement stairs were inspired by the internet and were painted by me but taped by Mike (he's the expert at precision measuring).
I stenciled numbers on the risers. Sorry about the glare. You can't see them very well, which is good because they are not very well done. Can you see two eyes at the top of our stairs? Those belong to our new dog, Leopold. He's awesome. I'll post about him soon, but right now I am too obsessed with my home decorating to do him justice. Suffice it to say, he came trained, he's a black lab, he never barks, and it's fun saying "Leo" the way Bill Cosby used to say "Theo" on the Cosby show. Try it: "LEO! You need to stop listening to the rap music and get into the jazzzzz"
We still need to do some touching up and trim.

Tune in next time for when I post pics of my bathroom and the totally retro lima bean couches I bought off craigslist for our basement. I bet you can't wait.