beverly, I had been trying to figure out how to keep the piano away from the windows (supposedly bad for the piano) while also needing to keep the piano's opening to face the room (to allow the sound to carry). so your placement is brilliant, thank you!! the only thing is DH and I do need extra seating in there so that our whole family can hang out, otherwise i think this room may never be used (like our last living room). justgotabme, i finally drew my room and furniture to scale. the chairs and the piano are a lot larger than I had drawn before, unfortunately, so the chairs on either side of the bookshelf will not fit and piano in the lower corner will jut out too much. inspired by all the layout changes, i played around some more to try to squeeze in a chaise or sofa. what do you all think? will it feel too crowded? i was wondering what the minimum aisle space is needed to access the sliding doors? nosoccermom, thanks for the link to that loveseat. it is really nice. the lorimer chaise also caught my eye and is also on sale, so i will stop by westelm tomorrow to check them out. thanks! msrose, the duchateau floors have held up fine. we have been using them for 3 months now, prior to that, our sloppy contractor installed them too early IMO and they got a lot of abuse by his crew. we have not oiled them at all yet. i am not sure how easy it will be, but my understanding is that it is just like mopping.

Dee, I'm in the Great Lakes region, and I bet your parents house was probably built about the same time, 1960s. I always thought of it as somehow Pennsylvania-looking, and when the original owner stopped by not long ago, she said the developer's name for this model was "Pennsylvania Farmhouse". So there! (Developers do have to take some liberties with their names, right?) The front walk does serpentine in front of the plantings over to the driveway. The bushes in front of the triple window are fronted by a curved bed of pachysandra (did I mention it's shady?) but something more interesting would be nice. We lost a flowering crab at that right-hand corner, it was so pretty. Regarding the lighting, the original brass fixtures by the doors are really pitted now, and I want to replace them with something smaller, and put flat, flush lighting in the porch ceiling for a "downward glow" instead of "light in your face". (I had a short thread about that some months back) I have a guy coming by this week to help determine what the posts are (do they encase a metal post?), how they are installed, whether they are holding up the porch roof, etc, so we can figure out whether to raise or replace the concrete floor. I have a closer-up shot of the house I've been playing with in Paint, I'll upload it later when I get to that computer. It shows everything better but the garage is cut off. Anyone know of a subtle, pale (but not pastel-y) sage green that might look nice on the siding?

When I see your rooms I think of the old Laura Ashley or Ralph Lauren decorated rooms.. the worn leather suitcase under the table, the little decorative frames all over, items under different styled tables, the heavy drapes,... And I must agree with d_gw... your room will never look fresh while it is filled with so many things. I wonder if you took all the brick-a-brack out for a while. Bring all the tiny decorative pieces, items on/under the tables and put them in the garage and just remove them while you imagine your space. Pair down to almost nothing. For me, I would update to new sleek lamps and repaint the walls. Sometimes when you repaint a room you have to take items out of that room to protect them. This is when you get to see the space without all the stuff. You get to rethink the shelves or space and refresh. After you paint and you rethink the tables and space keep in mind that a clean look focuses on 1 and at most 3 different colors. Keep the green sofa so use a few items in the same green color, the brown everywhere is a color so chose a 3rd color to go with the green and the brown. Maybe white? Love that gorgeous green sofa!

If you're keeping your countertops, I wouldn't paint the island white. I think it will make the countertops look dingy. I like the color your valance brings to the kitchen. Perhaps pull from that for accessories for countertops. I agree with clearing off the refrigerator if possible. Since your island has an unusual shape, perhaps you could replace your center fixture with a track fixture that will conform to the shape of the island. Then you could attach 3 pendants to it. Changing the red wall to the same color as the other walls will brighten things up a bit. The plant shelf is a great idea. You could also add upholstered stools in a color that coordinates with your valance. A change of hardware would help as well. Perhaps a brushed nickel in a transitional style. I like Jeffrey Alexander hardware. I find it to be a very nice quality but reasonably priced. Mine were about $6.00 each. Hope this helps!