christinelouise's Profile

I'm glad to see Ottawa getting a little shout-out!

My design taste wanders more into curated eclectic, so that sofa is a dream find for me. I would use the sofa as a room divider. Slide it forward from where it is in the third photo and put your dining/kitchen table there. You'll still have room for a coffee table between the sofa and the window as well as a chair and ottoman near the window/radiator. You can line the remaining walls with bookcases and shelves for storage.

In terms of colours, I would keep the walls the same as they are and use accessories like a great rug and accent chair to bring out the ochre and/or blue in the fabric. Something like this could be a useful way to pull bike storage into the design of the room: http://etsy.me/PcmqIK

I think there's a lot of potential for the couch and the room. Have fun with it!

Definitely do it before. I've done both and painting before alleviates so many problems. You already have a rough idea of the colours you want and most home improvement stores are open late. I also vote for doing it yourself.

Here's the link the the New York Times article KKATMPLS brought up. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html