malleable fate's Profile

Great tour, what's the paint in the kitchen/dining area?

huge windows with a lot of natural light, and because our house is surrounded by nature you see greenery everywhere you look and hear birds and chipmunks all day long.

I think light grey would be nice and it is feminine/masculine

use it as a little bar area

i would suggest folding screens. they can be taken out/put away when needed.

what are the dimensions of the living room out of curiosity?

I think the layout is fine and would tie the room together by finding a nice runner for you table with colour and pattern that you like and repainting your desk one of the accent colours from the fabric. Also put a rug under your table to define the dining area. I had the same wide hallway effect at my last apartment and thought it worked fine.

Eveything has its place is the absolute key to being organized. As for tools: (if you can call them that) baskets, baskets, baskets!

I say you opt out of having a couch in this fireplace room altogether. A rug with 4 nice chairs and a coffee table would do.

Honestly, I wouldn't be in a rush to part with the sink or the hardware, or paint the cabinets. The open shelving will make a big difference. You could paint the walls a pale turquoise/blue which would make both the white cabinets and the steel shelving pop. If your countertop is in bad shape ( read: gross and beat up) you could change it to 50s style laminate as another poster suggested. Laying down some dark brown "floating floor" would also work with the color scheme I mentioned and, in addition to being incredibly affodable ( monitor Home Depot, etc for sales) it can easily be done yourself as a weekend project. It's hard to tell by the picture how much room there is to the left of the range, but if space permits it would be a good place to put a kitchen cart (additional storage and would make the kitchen look less tiny). If there isn't room there you could put one in the middle of the space ( 2 little rectangle carts pushed together make an affordable square island).

Anyway those are my 2 cents :)