juanital I am not sure what settings I used, been fooling around with the settings lately, but I do darken the pic with the camera, +1 I believe, zoom in, no macro, well I have macro but I prefer the zoomed in pictures. I have a canon IS 2S and used the C setting [custom] with 100 ISO. Hope that helps, I don't pay much attention to the names of the settings, just remember where I turned the dial. Valerie

So much creativity and so many good ideas. And I love seeing pictures. Susan Davis's of the way the orange was pulled throughout the room was helpful. On that note, her comment made me realize how much the rug in that room has faded. The rust used to be more red than it is now! I love the idea of moving a shelf. Never occurred to me. And the suggestions of where to look for art and rugs. I hate to confess this, though — this morning, before I went to work, I moved the sofa back to original position. Please don't hate me! I think Anele's comment about her living room arranged that way looking better in pictures than it did real life points to something. I thought the pictures of with the sofa floated made my living room look the best it ever had. The reality, not so much. From the pictures you just can't see the broad green Berlin Wall the back of the sofa makes. But don't give up on me! I may even float the sofa again before I go to work tomorrow at this rate. I'm mulling curtains (keep or change?), rug and art ideas, and maybe something less boxy that I could use as a media stand.

A general location would also help as well since my zone 5 in central NH may have different soils and precipitation than your area. If you want to add it to your profile to that it posts automatically next to your name so we don't have to ask, here's how: Go to Your Houzz in the upper right of every page, click Edit Profile, and on the left side click advanced settings. Well down the advanced settings page is a blank labeled Climate Zone for Garden Forums along with a link to find your zone. If you add info on your state or the nearest large city either here or on the profile page under the name posted, you will get even better information since zone only relates to average coldest winter temperatures. Then return to the top of the page and click Done Editing.

Hi Suzanne I haven't read any of the comments and I will give you my opinion from a personal standpoint not a design one. My husband and I recently built a downsized home leaving our large family home behind. We converted our formal dining room space into an office as , like you, the space was just never used. That said we made sure we had a kitchen eating area that could house a table that sat 8. Sometimes I wish we had gone larger on our table. I had one custom Made to fit the space and didn't do one with extensions. This coming Thanksgiving will be a bit tight but we will make it work. We also have a large island. We use the island a lot. Currently with Covid as my husband has taken over the office space my work surface has spilled onto the island. However I would never forgo that dining table area. We do still eat there. If friends come over we play cards there. If the kids come for dinner we eat there. It is used several times a week still. We also eat at the island. We use both. However our favorite spot is our screened in porch area which is right off the dining area. We have another table that seats 6 there and weather permitting we eat our meals out there. Our island has a sink. Makes for easy clean up. If I could have I would have had my sink under a window with a bank of windows and left my island free from sink or cook top. That isnt a complaint just something if given the choice I would have done. Our new floorpan is very close to the second one you've shown. It is perfect for us.