nimblefox's Profile

I want one!

I agree with most of the comments. However changing the orientation of the stairs and adding decorative columns could be costly but if you can swing it great!

I would go with what alyrae stated. Painting the door, adding house numbers and containers with a couple evergreens and colorful flowers in front of the lattice would make the entrance stand out. Adding a small outdoor bench in front of the lattice between the containers would create another use for the space.

I have a similar red sofa, rug and a black barcelona chair and the look is awesome. Any of the Eames chairs would look great too! As for a media center with some storage, I would recommend a credenza or sideboard. This will keep your tv at eye level for maximum viewing pleasure and provide storage for all the other boxes and some books. There are so many options for this that you'll have to look around and see what you like. You can go the expensive route from somewhere like Room and Board or go on the cheap at somewhere like Ikea.

Worst mess ever for me was waxing my ski's for the fresh powder in the mountains. All I had to clean up all the wax shavings was a wimpy hand vac. A nice cool blue vac like this would really help get the remaining shavings embedded in the carpet.

You can add a free-standing shelf as stated above or you could also move the sofa so that the back faces the kitchen and then add a shelf or a narrow table behind the sofa so that you are not looking at the back of the sofa.

There is a book by Winifred Gallagher called "House Thinking" that discusses this topic at length. In it she brings up an idea about how we should really rethink the way we use the space in our home. One example is someone who desires a large kitchen with all the latest and professional appliances but rarely cooks. No one can say that desiring this is a bad thing but it certainly is an inefficient use of space if you don't use it. I think we convince ourselves that we should have all this space in order to be in the same status class as our neighbors but we don't give much thought to how we actually live. If a family is continually utilizing 2500 sq ft of space then that is a optimal use of space. However, if the same family is only utilizing a fraction of it then it's clearly not.