Am I too late? : )   I was SO excited when I stumbled across your website!   I am embarrassed to admit that I have lived in my Condo for 4 years, and unfortunately have NOT focused at all on making it feel like "home".  I think I have a vision but NEED major help!  

Attached are pictures of my Living/ Dining room, which looks and feels more like a college dorm room!   I have not bought any new furniture and have many hand-me-down pieces (or shall I say, I volunteered to house things for my brother "temporarily").  I am READY to undergo a MAJOR transformation but am having problems "seeing the floor-plan, furniture spacing, etc.  I would love to make it have a relaxing chic beach house vibe.  My thought was to repaint all walls a shade of white, but that's as far as I got!   I am stuck in a rut and NEED major help to kick start things into motion.  Do I leave the brick fireplace and just change the mantle?  Or should I plaster over the brick?  How can I create/ configure the dining area (the shape of the room is a bit odd, sorry I don't have measurements but hopefully you can see it in the pictures.  Where should my "TV area" be (I am planning to get a ~42" LCD or Plasma.)  I know that lighting is very important, but I need help!  Ideally, I really need to do this with EVERY room in my place, but thought it's best to start here.  ANY help/ advice is greatly appreciated!!!  Your website is EXACTLY what I need and was looking for!!   Sorry if I post this twice....I think I marked it incorrectly the first time around (didn't mean to mark private).  Thank you! : )   Christine

My design dilemma is small, but pleeeeeeeeez help.  Do I get a second orange lamp (see the lamp featured in photo)?  I know lamps are often shown in sets, but to me it seems so "matchy-matchy."  Plus, will there be too much of a good color - orange?  While I love orange, our rug and pillows are orange.  Will a second lamp in orange be too much orange?  The lamp base comes in expresso and white too, would eithe of those work?  It's a costly lamp, so please help before I make my purchase!!! 

I have a small second bedroom (approximately 11 ft squared) with only 2 walls available for the placement of furniture.  I currently use it for storage, but it needs work!. I want to utilize the space for a desk, file cabinets, a bookshelf as well as a sleeper sofa or sleeper chair for guests.  I need lots of storage and prefer to have as big a desk as possible.  I'm not sure what I can fit in without making the room too overcrowded.  Thanks if you can help.

Susan

Our biggest design challenge: As you can see, our living room is pretty much a blank canvas -- it's entirely empty.  One of the reasons is because we have no idea how to best arrange furniture in the room.  The problem is that the room is in between our kitchen and bedrooms.  Any furniture placement has to leave a relatively clear path between these two areas, because it receives a lot of traffic.  However, we'd rather not have a couch on the wall, because then it will be too far away from the fireplace.  Another problem is that there is a sliding glass door to the right of the fireplace, so that limits furniture placement options as well.  Finally, we need to update the fireplace surround and the mantle, which is too small and narrow.