@Beth H et al.. yes, and I'm really thrilled with all of the recommendations, everyone has style and it's great to see varying opinions. So I don't want to think anyone has wasted their time, I think down the road in the near future, we will go with something built out pretty much like you were suggesting early on. As we just finished the remodel within the last year, we are not up for building anything out or even tiling the wall at this point. We don't need new furniture at the moment (kids will ruin it anyway). For now, we were looking for something minor / superficial, if that's the correct verbiage. While we know now, that it may not look "perfect", it's where we're at now. That said, we don't want to do anything (now) with the fireplace, what we are open to is: some type of shelving (which would have to be shallow in depth, I think), definitely plants (faux preferably), artwork or like I mentioned (which may have gotten lost), is maybe B&W canvas print collage (I'm a part-time photographer and we have zero photos of our kids displayed). We are also open to putting a small corner piece to the left side, but it would have to be very small footprint as we only have about 12" from the wall to the lightswitch near the slider, but after hearing/seeing some of the plant options, I think we prefer that. Another note, we (I) have a floor subwoofer to the right hand side, you can see my wife's aerogarden sitting on top of it until we find a home for it :) Hopefully, that helps, again, I really do appreciate everyone weighing in and taking a lot of time for the mock ups. -Matt

There is no chance of us redoing the floors. They were done only a short time ago and are of good quality. While I may not have chosen them myself, we do like them and they work with the ceiling and will be great for not scratching from sand brought in on bare feet. Cabins in our area come at a premium. The square footage cost is 5 times that of the square footage cost to build our home again and they often go into bidding wars. So you can understand that we have a very limited budget to make it our own after the purchase. That's why we feel so fortunate that the previous owner looked after things so well and took pride in maintaining their vacation property so that we're at least not having to put money into maintenance issues. Most properties we had looked at had a ton of maintenance issues to contend with first. Since the floors and ceiling work well together, that's why we thought painting the walls for a more lake house look and addressing the kitchen cabinet fronts to "demodernize" them were our best options to start for our three season get away. We will definitely put one good sized area rug in the living area, but with everyone coming up from the dock/beach all day long, a ton of rugs won't work well. If I paint, would SW Alabaster work in the living/dining area with the warm wood ceiling, fireplace and northwest daylight? Or do you have other suggestions for a paint color? And do you like the rugs in my links? jjam you said go light. They're light with a touch of navy, but washed out vintage like. I've attached the links again below. What do you think? Thank you to everyone for trying to make this an extra special place for my family... Possible rug? Another possibility? Rug with soft colors - have one in my home Much lighter than appears in picture

You can begin by showing us some pictures of the space and a floor plan. Tell us which walls are weight bearing, and which are needed for noise control or privacy. And, how old is the house - is it a historical structure that needs to have its "bones" respected, or something more recent? Then tell us why and where you want to change. Is a certain room too small for the way you use it? Do you find you aren't using a space, but would if it were opened into another room?

Yes, I'd get another rug for the dining space to "zone" the open space. And I'd consider getting a round table with leaves so you can expand the table when you have guests. I'd go for a 54" or 60" round table. Right now, your table looks dwarfed by the size of the room. I'd also get an electrician to put a j-box over the dining table and add a chandelier.