I thought our 2300 sq ft. house was just perfect for the 3 of us... - then we decided I traveled too much for work and opened up my own business - in the house - then things grew and I added an employee - in the house - Then hubby took early out from the University and expanded his tax & consulting practice - in the house - then his practice grew and he added a part ime employee - in the house - then things really got successful and some parts of the year he can have as many as 3 employees - in the house!!! Net effect is that our 4 bedroom house some days feels like a 1 bedroom office - we no longer have a home. We are building on 20 acres in the country - house with a good sized office wing. I've redesigned about a dozen times and can't seem to get it down below 5000 sq ft. So, for us (and the assorted clients, employees and visiting relatives) I guess the perfect size is 5000 sq ft.

saprek, I love it now! Yes, There's a disconnect between the style of the coffee table and the other furrnishings though, as others have mentioned. An iron and glass table would be more "invisible" and would let your rug shine through. Something transparent would be much better there. Does that white chest your using now come off its base? Maybe you could use it elsewhere as a storage piece at the foot of a bed or a toy chest. As for fabric, I was at Calico Corner and they have lots of sort of contemporary fabrics in the colors of your rug. I think they're expensive but if you need only a few yards you'd be okay. I think for curtains I would look at something light, like cream, with banding made of one of the colors in the rug that you really want to pull out. I'm in love with grey and amber/gold right now. I don't like the dark colored curtain there and I don't know if you should go with pattern. It will really lock you in too. If you keep it simple and bright you can switch things up when you're bored. For basic curtains, You can buy cream ready-mades and band it yourself then get extra banding fabric to use for pillows too. The curtain you have up right now is too dark, IMO and closes the room in. If you want light blocking, what about a natural bamboo type shade under curtains? I've seen nice cheap ones at the mass marketers. You can get them lined to really darken the room. But I don't see doing a really "patterned" fabric. I'd say keep the pattern in the throw pillows, a nice plush chenille throw with a little shine, a big shiny platter on the glass coffee table -- what I'm thinking is right now the whole texture looks very matte. It could use some gleam and also shiny things bounce light around and make a space much more interesting and bigger feeling. It's really looking nice. And I think you're brave to buy HDC chairs without trying them out. Glad they're comfy. I actually need two new chairs for my family room.

We added an addition and converted a half bath into a master bath suite and we love it. Our shower is huge. 5x7. We have floor to ceiling glass, hinged door with a transom over it. Although it is not a steam shower we waterproofed it as such and tiled the ceiling. The important thing we did is to put the on/off controls on the opposite wall of the shower heads. Otherwise we would get wet and cold. The shower is plenty warm and not drafty with the door closed and the transom open. However, when the door is opened you can feel the temperature change. The shower is plenty large for 2 people. In fact, I think it would be fine for 2 if it was 4x6. We opted to get a teak bench. We like the flexibility to move it around. We also went for a full length niche. Once we completed this. We had our main bath redone. We did not have the space or money to indulge in a large shower. We took out the tub and replaced it with a shower. The location of the bathroom door concerned us that if we moved the shower out more, our teenage boys might swing it open to hard and hit the glass shower door. The shower is 33" x 60". We panicked that it was too small, but it was too late. We put in a full length niche that is perfect for extra elbow room. I do think that 3 inches wider would have been better. It would have been thousands more to move walls, pocket doors, electric , moving pipes ect. Besides myself and my husband don't use it. Just like our shower, we put in a rainhead. Both boys just use this and not the showerhead. The pictures of the smaller bath are dark, but it is light and airy in reality. It has a beachy feel and we love our drain cover and glazzio glass bubbles on the floor.

Oooooh, I like that!! We had window benches in our last home and that was a favorite spot for the kids. This one won't have the lovely window light, but I could see it being a good use of space! The only tricky thing is that I had tentatively planned to put 2 barn doors here... my thinking is if the room happens to be a little messy or we need quiet from the rest of the house we could close it off. (Please ignore the mess that is there at the moment!!) But if we did the built in, obviously we couldn't do barn doors. That might be fine though. I really like that bench you posted! But how would we recess the shelves? I guess you just build out and it creates the recess? I need to show my husband that picture. Do you think there's enough room for it? The wall that you see there to the right of the opening is 42" from the back wall to where the trim begins. And the length of the wall is 76". A chaise was one of my choices... this one that I like is out of stock, and I'm debating how useful it would be for more than one person. Whereas the built-in you showed could easily fit both my younger. Thanks so much for your ideas!! Do you think there's space for the built in nook idea? I really love that!