Thanks, lavender! We don't have a furniture plan, really. It had been a outdoor porch (hence the step down from the rest of the place) that had had the screens replaced by windows. It's heated by an electric baseboard heater that you turn on with a knob on the wall (and then hear $$$ flying out the dozens of windows...). There's a huge sliding glass door from the current DR/new kitchen area, which we pretty much keep closed in the winter, and open in the summer when it is our (my) gardening dumping ground. Making it into a real room is basically adding a whole new room on to the house, and we're not really sure WHAT to do with it. We'll probably put a table and chairs near the bumpout on the long wall, but that leaves a lot of empty space. Because it will be so sunny, I'd like there to be some plants, probably mostly herbs, in there - but again, it leaves a lot of empty space. Thoughts on how to fill it, anyone? :)

Thank you all for the great thoughts! It really helps to hear others' opinions. I do agree that I need something to hold the plants. I've been dragging my feet on this because I didn't know how I wanted the rest of the room to look, so I wasn't sure what kind of stand to buy. I also like the idea of the indoor/outdoor rug. I think that will bring color into the space and keep the floor a bit warmer (tile gets cold here in New England!). This is a high traffic room (since it's where we enter the house, as well as where guests enter), so I want it to look put together. I am thinking a sitting room is the way to go. I may consider moving some of my current living room furniture there and buying something new for the living room itself. I need to figure out the paint for this room also. I am thinking of a sunny cream (something like BM Windham cream) or perhaps a blue-green shade akin to BM Palladian Blue (have this in the dining room and it looks nice with the dark wood molding). Any thoughts on this?

Sounds pretty unanimous; we had better rethink the 2 separate rooms thing. Our original concept actually was to connect the two, but then DH had the bright idea to make the window into french doors, and having that entry into the sunroom seemed a better idea than having to pass through the nook to get there. Plus it allowed us to close it off for HVAC reasons. In addition, it made the roof a bit simpler/cheaper. But that's probably not worth the savings if it looks dorky. One detail I didn't include is that the nook will be 2 stories high, and the 2nd story will be a sitting room off the master with the same window configuration. The sunroom will likely have a radiant heated tile floor (we've got them in our master bath and kitchen and have grown rather addicted). SOOOOO, what if we modify as follows: --connect the two rooms by adding a wall parallel to the existing outside wall, making the far right window in the nook into a doorway (roughly 7' wide), so there's a hall about 4' long between the 2 rooms. --keep the existing french door from the FR, as that's the easiest entry. Open hallway on both sides? I don't really care about feeling like the nook's separate, but should I do something to make it more aesthetically pleasing? Perhaps columns? As for the advice on slider placement, I haven't given a lick of thought to furniture placement (we were just focused on wanting all those windows!). I'll mull that one over. Wouldn't a slider look odd if it weren't centered, though? Thanks to everyone. It sure helps to be able to bounce this off of others!

jane ny, I was in a similar situation last year. For me the sequence was paint first, then flooring, then baseboards, But it looks like you may have baseboards already installed. Painting first worked for me because I did it myself and there were spatters on the subloor before I was finished. You might want to check on whether your subfloor is indeed covered with plywood, because you may need an underlayment before installing your floor, depending on what you choose. Best to check where you buy the flooring. With some help from a friend who knew what he was doing and owns a Skill Saw, I installed a plywood underlayment in less than two hours. I too wanted tile with a slate or similar look, but the room was already over budget (long story) and I chose to spend my money on high end French doors because the floor could always be changed later. I got some advice from the flooring forum while deciding. You can always post a message there before you proceed. We narrowed floor choices down to either loose-laid sheet vinyl or vinyl tiles. My friend chose the tiles because the color and pattern seemed to fit well in the sunroom/porch. The original intention was to keep those tiles for about a year while I shop for tile and find a good tile installer. But the floor has held up well, despite some abuse like beach sand, rain coming in when some airhead (