Lisa (Montreal)'s Profile

Mirrors for sure. If you're on a tight budget, you can buy rolls of "funhouse mirror," which is sort of like a thick, reflective sheet of aluminum. If you hang it flat, you don't get the funhouse distortion -- it's just a regular-looking mirror.

It's so lightweight that you can tack it to the walls with 3M stickers or even thumbtacks, but it's nicer if you get some molding to go around the edges.

The photo is of the home of a professional stylist/decorator (Tommy Smyth), and was for a magazine. Like many magazine images, it has a plant in a location where a plant would surely die.

But I think the more-is-more aesthetic is actually better for most people's homes. Spare, uncluttered rooms only look good if every single item is superb. If the furniture and textiles are ordinary, the room is sad and drab.

The perfect California-casual home. Sigh.

Take 'em out to lunch. No one needs a $5 gift that's going to sit in a drawer.

I think these colors are pretty accurate of trends in clothes and accent furniture, but not wall paint. In 2008, every room was painted robin's egg blue. Then it was wasabi/chartreuse. Now it's dark gray/black.

I think the reason your kitchen feels intrusive is because the living room isn't visible until you're actually in the apartment and turn around. And even then, the sofa faces away from guests, so that exacerbates the feeling that you're in a kitchen when you come in.

From the floorplan, it looks as if two thirds of your living space is devoted to cooking or serving food. Is this truly how you live and entertain? Unless you have a family or regular dinner parties, you might not need such a large dining area.

With those windows and those floors, you can't really go wrong.

Have you considered adding chairs facing the sofa? In addition to adding color, they'd make the room more inviting. Right now, the room is only about watching TV. It's not set up for conversation or lounging. That might be why the room feels incomplete to you.

Curtains and art would also add colors, as others have mentioned. But the "bones" of the room are good. You're off to a good start.

Painting real pine is NOT like painting paneling. If it's not done exactly, exactly right, all the knots will "bleed through" and be like dark spots all over the wall. It can look absolutely terrible.

If you want a lighter look, add white rugs, white furniture and artwork/tapestries. Check out some European design magazines to see how people there deal with this type of interior.

This is gorgeous!