Chrissybeau, when you post pics of your place also include a little summation of how you intend to use the space. Do you need a desk for work or studies and plenty of lighting? Is cooking and relaxing with a meal part of your everyday lifestyle or do you eat all of your meals out like many apartment dwellers do or just eat in front of the TV? For instance if you don't use the dining nook (if there even is one) you can re-purpose it to an office instead of having to stick your computer desk in the bedroom. Do you intend to entertain and need seating or is the space just more of a cacoon to shut out the world? Is the place a dark basement apartment and you need to make it cheerful, or do you need to block out glaring light can be a problem with a highrise? If you already have furniture, indicate which pieces MUST stay and which pieces are negotiable to keep in the place. Give an idea of your budget for decorating and most important list the landlord rules. Some landlords allow any color paint, even wallpaper. Some say beige walls only. Some insist on compatible window treatments for a uniform look outside. Some places even have rules about putting TVs and stereos on interior walls so sound does not vibrate the neighbors. Ect. Ect. A lot of decorating dreams are crimped by the landlord rules.

Excellent thread! I am a person who turns to books when I want to understand something, so I have a number of suggestions to throw out: First, I'll second what another poster said: Make Your House Do the Housework (Don Aslett) is a great book. Written by a man who's made his living as a custodian, he points out ways to design your house so that less cleaning is needed. I've incorporated some of these things into my current house, but other ideas are really only practical during a new build or remodel. Incidentally, I have not adopted any method of keeping my chairs off the floor. To give an example of his ideas: He suggests that you should limit the number of entrances to your house; the theory being that it's easier to sweep one really dirty entrance than three slightly dirty entrances. Also, he says that every entrance should include a good, long doormat -- one that'll require 5-6 steps -- this keeps the dirt at the entrance rather than allowing it in the house. He wrote a couple other books, which I also read, but this one beats them all. Most recently I've been reading Designing Your Perfect House by William J Hirsch, Jr. I'm not done yet, so I can't really give a complete run-down of it. It's about typical pitfalls and mistakes that people make in design planning. He begins with a good bit of philosophy of architecture, which is new to me, and I'm still digesting that part. It's a good book, and by the time I'm done I think I'll say that it's well worth the time. Not long ago I read Better Houses, Better Living: What to Look for When Buying, Building or Remodeling by Myron E Ferguson. I highly recommend the book. The author is an engineer who worked in the construction field for decades. This very informative book helps with basics like how to decide where to situate your house on a piece of land, and it also discusses details that'll annoy you forever like dishwashers in the corner, doors that open across one another, and light switches located behind doors. He has attached a multitude of photographs to illustrate the problems that you want to avoid (or the proper scenerios that you wish to create). You absolutely should read this book; if it helps you zero in on just 2-3 details in your house that would've caused you trouble, it's worthwhile. In reality, you'll find more. His book isn't particularly easy to obtain; I read about it, but I couldn't find it in bookstores and Amazon was sold out. I had to wait for them to restock. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can make the waiting easier by reading his blog online. Being a teacher, I have to say, however, that this book deserves an A for content and a D for the writing. Mr. Ferguson knows his stuff, but he is tremendously disorganized in his writing. The book could've been 100 pages shorter, had he chosen not to return to the same topics over and over again. Also he tends towards wordiness and frequently makes grammar mistakes. I know that I read one particular sentence a dozen times (it contained multiple negatives), and I never did figure out what it meant. He really should've employed a writer to help him. Earlier this year I read The Construction of Houses, Fourth Edition on my Kindle. Author: Duncan Marshall. It was a free Kindle book, but it helped me understand things like foundations, trusses, support beams, and so forth -- things that really matter a great deal. Now when I look at floor plans, I understand why things are drawn as they are and why certain things really can't be moved around here or there. It's dry as dirt, but I do recommend it. About two years ago I became enthralled with the The Not So Big House series by Sarah Susanka. She also has a blog online. I bought her entire series (used from ebay -- they're not new books) and enjoyed them all, though they do become a bit repetitive. I agree completely with her main theme, which is that we should build houses only after considering exactly what we need and want from those houses. She advocates building well for your everyday needs rather than stretching your budget to include seldom-used formal living rooms, dining rooms and their ilk. She also discusses in detail how human beings like "cozy spots" -- spaces within spaces -- such as window seats, nooks, areas with dropped ceilings, etc. And she advocates the concept of having "away rooms" that will provide for quiet. Much discussion on trusses and garages and how they've led to houses "looking bigger". I like the exercises that she proposes in her books; for example, she tells you to come up with a list of adjectives you'd want to describe your house. When I realized I was writing words like cozy, homey, light-filled, cottage-like . . . I knew I should stay away from modern, dramatic, show-y and so forth. Another exercise tells you to make a list of all the activities you expect a certain room to support; this helps you decide how you want to use your space. For example, some of us might say that our bedrooms are JUST for sleeping and dressing. Other people might say, no, I want to include a spot for drinking morning coffee and watching the news, I want a small writing desk, and I want storage space for a collection of music boxes. Thinking these things through helps you get your rooms right. Warnings: I find it ironic that her "not so big" floorplans are all larger than any houseplan I've considered. This is a definite must-read, though you should not come into this book thinking that smaller house = less money. Her ideas are expensive to incorporate. Okay, I'm branching out a bit, but when I looked at my house-building shelf, I saw Landscaping With Fruit by Lee Reich. I do recommend this book as well. The author gives a very basic run-down of how to go about choosing trees and bushes that'll provide you with shade, seasonal color and also food. Good discussions on just what will/won't grow in your location. Now that we've picked the site for our house, I am planting pecan trees soon (because they take so very long to "take hold" and begin to produce). I recently bought Designing Your Dream Home: Every Question to Ask, Every Detail to Consider, and Everything to Know Before You Build or Remodel by Susan Lang. I'm not into it yet, but I think it's going to be much like Ferguson's Better Houses, Better Living. That is, descriptions of pitfalls and mistakes that often occur simply because people didn't think things through. I look forward to reading it. One last book on my bookshelf deserves a few words here, but this book I do not recommend: Eat In Kitchens by Catherine Warren Leone. You might enjoy this book if you are completely unfamiliar with kitchens and want an overview of what might be included in such a room. On the other hand, since you very likely are familiar with things like ranges, islands, tile, windows and sinks, you are not likely to actually learn a single thing from this book. She presents many pretty pictures (though not nearly so many as you can see for free on Houzz or similar websites), and she gives mind-boggling facts such as sinks are available in single, double, or triple bowl models -- but she doesn't give any help on why a person would choose one over the other. You could literally learn just as much by walking through Lowe's Home Improvement. I bought this book (used for $3 -- waste of my $3) thinking that it'd help me with appropriate choices and dimensions for an eat-in kitchen. Nope. I think I have a couple other books that might be helpful, but they're not in the right spot on my bookcase, so I can't locate them right now. When I find them -- probably under my bed or sofa -- I'll come back and give you a description.

If you want to provide other seating in your living room, you're going to need a different couch. Is there another room it could go in--for instance, if you have a kid's room, he or she would probably love to have it be their bed/reading nook/play area. Also, ask yourself where people congregate in your house when you're entertaining. If everybody always goes in the kitchen anyway, why spend a lot on living room seating? If you buy a smaller couch, then bring a couple of dining room chairs into the living room when people want to sit there. Not every occasion has to be filled with comfy, sink-into-it furniture, and dining chairs are really easy to move around. Don't have a dining room? Great. Buy a couple of dining chairs in good structural shape at the thrift store, paint the frames, re-cover the seats, and have them stay in the living room for extra chairs. They don't take up a lot of visual or physical space. You are at an exciting point, Judy! You now have the chance to exercise your creativity in a big way. Here's the good news about moving into a small space: there's lots of decorating help out there. Try these blogs/sites as starting points: http://www.mydomaine.com/small-space-decorating-mistakes   https://www.bhg.com/decorating/small-spaces/   https://www.southernliving.com/home/decor/small-space-decorating-ideas

I would go with gray comforters and then you could add a little pink for your daughter and a little color for your son as in shades of gray, blue or a green. Are you keeping the dresser? Maybe paint the bunk bed the same color and it will make the room appear larger. A multi colored rug and some artwork and lighting.