Running Amok

This is how I want my house to FEEL. How do I explain this to the alternately baffled-or-indifferent 22 year old Ikea or Pottery Barn or La-Z Boy holiday help clerk, or anyone 'in the field' who is completely without my points of reference? Kitchen is hearth, history, heart, healing, core, center. I don't want modern, but neither do I want rustic. I want the FEELING of this rough-hewn mortar & pestle. I own one of these, a gift from a long-ago known friend named Rey. He and his mother spent considerable time 'starting' it, that is turning the pestle in the bottom of the stoney & pocked & rough mortar to begin smoothing it out. That's what family time in the kitchen does to the kitchen, & mostly to the family! Creates the GROOVE. & you realize I have major undertakings for 2008 -- we're talking creme brulee! Beef stroganoff! Edible French Toast! I need all the groove I can get!
A svelte sort of livingroom [some earlier blogs explained the colors I like, & introduced my lusted-after burgundy recliner!], but I want more than just colors and pieces. I want THIS feeling ... of texture, travel, openness, outdoors, modern-meets-casual? Almost like chic camping. YEA! And LIGHT! And AIR! And not a bunch of 'stuff' on every surface, in fact the opposite! [You cannot believe what a turnaround this is in my design style, after years of country & shabby chic & salvage drooling along with hours of alley trolling (Dad calls it 'Dumpster Diving')]. But I want comfort, my art on the walls. NOT formal! Easy to change around, mix up.
And a bedroom (top, below) which is muted, inviting, a backdrop for the only two worthwhile bedroom activities: sleeping (including napping), and romping with Double BB. [Come to think of it, romping with Double BB is the singular worthwhile bedroom activity, for which sleep readies me!]
[I googled the mortar/pestle photo. The rest are from Domino magazine's Galleries.]