Don't you just love that "Can a person get some PRIVACY around here!!??" look... Another vote for hardwood in a warm mid-tone, and a zippy area rug. I'd put your end table somewhere else, put a swing arm floor lamp there toward the back corner of the sofa, and move that wonderful safe in front of the lamp to use as the end table. Then I'd move the Windsor chair around to sit beside your school desk, and hang the mirror that is now over your other sofa over the two of them, but keep it much lower - about 6" higher than the desk top. (You can move the chair when you are actually using the desk.) I'd tidy up the bookcases, add some photos or pottery or ironstone or brass things or any combination thereof here and there. Then I'd put a long galvanized or copper plant tray filled with pebbles on the top of the bookcase and set lush plants in it, to take advantage of all that nice light, and warm up the wall and the room. I'd find a pair of big tall vertical prints you really like (repros of old travel posters, or beautiful black and white photographs, or botanicals, or whatever you are fond of), hang them side by side where the mirror is now, also much lower, with a pair of swing-arm lamps beside them.

LOL @fori! So glad my angst is providing inspiration for someone. Seriously! At the least, "Don'ts" provide cautionary tales for people to learn from. Sometimes even in fairytale form. :) Yes, my aunt's place is in Florida, so palms are a bit more suited there. It is interesting to note, though, that her palms are actually potted out on her patio, not in the ground. I wish I had current pics of the backyard, but oh well. It gives the idea, just think cedar wood tones instead of redwood and orange. Add an arbor and a big yellow structure. You are almost there. lol I did some checking earlier on code for outlet heights and spacing, but I think I might have just looked at national code. I suppose I should add that to my list of things to confirm pre-header. Gads, this is so backwards! *swoon* My original designs were going for that tall wall of storage with fridge, pantry and perhaps a microwave in the mix, but the dimensions ended up being really tight AND it made working with that corner of the L even more tricky. I really do love that look and envy those of you who are lucky enough to have it. I'm just not sure it's made for people with small kitchens like mine! It means having all of those other appliances crammed on one wall - or going back to a sink or stove on the small island. And now that we are looking more and more at having the fridge or the pantry on the far left of the exterior run and I'm open to putting in pantry in the DR area, I'm just not sure it's the way to go. I do like the stove having its own wall and how the latest options do open up the L with counter space. There's so many ways to go here. Hopefully that means I'll be happy with the option we eventually choose. It is just so incredibly difficult to lock in on the BS window location and height with all of these unknowns. I keep telling myself that pushing it into that corner will not lock me in and I'll have lots of options left if I want to tweak. Right now, it's the BS window height that is giving me fits. How the heck I can lock in on that when we don't even have any material decisions made, I don't know. This is dicier than I think is prudent, but I can't seem to stop this train. That window is going in. Soon. And I'm going to need luck + clarity or magic blue pills. I have these images of me being back 3 months from now, posting to GW about how the heck to make (fill in the blank) work given the window. :D

I don't think this registers with many of the regulars on this forum, who seem to believe that every online plan is evil and should be ripped to shreds, while any plan from a "person of design talent" borders on complete perfection. Neither is completely true. I've seen plans from architects that definitely are awful. There is a "top" architect in my neck of the woods who's name seems to be on at least 1/2 the new projects in town, yet I wouldn't give you two cents for any of his plans because they are more odes to his ego than they are collaborations between himself and his clients. However, I know the OP and Doug probably spent a lot of time hashing out what would work best for her and her family and that any compromises made, were discussed and decided on mutually. All houses have compromises. As for your comment about online plans, yes many are awful and too many use lipstick on a pig to try to get around the fact that they're just poor design. However take a look at some of the plans by The Bungalow Company or Allison Ramsey. The difference is the plans aren't bloated with excesses of gables or huge roofs. It just seems like such tradeoffs/compromises are only acceptable on this forum if made by an architect. Tradeoffs are fine if the person realizes they are tradeoffs and not just them trying to fit their lives to a house that won't work for them. The other problem is those who come to the forum with no design experience, but they learned how to use Sketchup or another CAD program and they think that automatically turns them into a design professional.

What a neat story, @Jilly! And what a precious find for you. Thanks for sharing. The poster intrigued me as well (first thought was electric cars and oxygen), so I did a bit of Googling and found out his work also inspired musician Jean-Michel Jarre (which YT reminded me of a few days ago when I stumbled on a video about the origins of electro-pop). You might have heard Jarre's Oxygene Pt 4 which was a big hit in the mid-70s. Granger did Jarre's album covers, including the painting that inspired his Equinoxe album. Silkscreen available here (with a cool concert story). Hope you don't mind the musical aside. :) Btw, in one of Granger's interviews from 2012, he says that he shows his paintings to his two sons and if his 8-yr old doesn't understand the message, he's failed.