thanks, that's reassuring about the obstruction issue with the door. and I do go through the french doors quite often, to the point that I'm seriously considering putting tile in front of the doors (the rest of the floor will be wood flooring). but only the right (south) door gets opened unless we're having a party (not so often but that could change when the kitchen remodel is done). desertsteph, do you really mean having the fridge on the northwall to the right, as in Kitchen Plan 2 above? mereanne, is setting the door swing something that is done to the refrigerator? and I can definitely see my husband swinging the door into the single pane french door. I'm surprised it didn't get broken with the old refrigerator (that just died). I'm counting on a "stopper" preventing that. I'm ok with the door not opening all the way as long as it's enough so that it can be cleaned. good point about storing the dishes, plates, etc. right now, most of it fits in the cabinet above. storage containers go in the island across of the D/W and stemware in the cabinet by the french doors which won't be available if the refrigerator is there. I suspect that I'll be put lots of drawers in the island. hmmmm. bmorepanic, thanks for pointing out the lazy susan issue. with the proposed shallow wall, having a 24" counter there does seem awkward. the problem is that there is a supporting post that comes out 19" from the wall. if that area is reduced to a 12" depth, the post will stick out. not sure how I would address that, aesthetically. also, because I have the bottom of the stairs going up on the wall over the stove area (there's picture towards the top of this post), I don't want to move it too north. the rise stops at 57" out from the wall. that puts the stove in the location where it is in the drawing. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. :)

The contents of closets inherently add color and texture to the space so IMO the most sophisticated closets have very neutral features. Wood floors and white walls would be my pick. You can add interest with a fabulous light, great hardware and an area rug.

So I am going. to read through all of these suggestions afain! MIL is coming back in town so we want to just order something for the dining table so its already done and she doesnt try to talk my husband out of it (he is a pushover, lol) I actually saw some chairs at tuesday morning as a for now fix, do you a fhink the actual table is that bad,? because I guess we are just trying to find the right thing and dont want tocwaste tons of $$. do yall know if paint is expensive? have any of you done it by yourself.? I saw an article about how to save on smaller stuff like rugs and coffee tables I am going to look into! Dining table is a biggie. But I def want to keep the room so that it could match any paint color (like a white maybe, or grey) a coffee table and area rug. so whatever we bring in will work. i am going to re-look into ikea and post some pics too. I actually found a lot on pinterest too!

Here are photos of the some of the sets, and my bedroom (formerly my mom’s, so still her style). I’ll include a photo of the living room. I have two living spaces to fill. Mine (living room, bedroom and kitchen) and a basement apartment i just had built (same rooms to furnish). It’s likely that I’ll end up living in the basement apartment at some point, so i designed it for my tastes. I also have a lovely renter coming, and she has great taste. I will probably mix and match a bit, but it’s really hard for me to upset the way my mom had things. In our home growing up, we had a matching set of more formal furniture (Henkel Harris) in the living room, a bedroom with furniture from the same collection, another bedroom with a darker cherry set, and the more simple shaker-ish style of the von hohen in the family room. It was all very intentional. The ideas here are very helpful, and make me excited to look around, particularly for more modern rug choices, curtains, lamps and so on. Thank you for all the replies! First up, the HH, bedroom set and end tables. I also have a tallboy to match, and there’s a desk that’s currently in the bedroom. I’ll consider moving that to the living room. There’s also a coffee table in the LR set. I also have some more eclectic pieces to throw in the mix, like an antique corner cabinet and a chinese cabinet. I think they could be a good addition to keep things interesting, but i have to figure out if there’s room for them!