Sometimes, things just..... "Make sense" ...whether they are part of a series of Decorating Rules, Feng Shui, Granny's Gems of Wisdom, or Your favorite professional painter's observations while painting 25 different houses. Seriously. For example....dark colors CAN make an already low-light room look dreary and depressing. (That's why you need lots of light sources to offset the effect of using deeper colors) Or.....Using the same nice color throughout the main living spaces creates "flow". Well, of course. Anytime your eye doesn't have to stop to take in a different color, things tend to look more organized and seamless. And Sweeby made an important point about the use of color that also makes sense. She said, "I've come to the strong conclusion that there's absolutely something about the quality of light coming from different directions that influences how different rooms handle color" But will certain colors bring you Good luck? Will hanging mirrors in your bedroom bring you Bad luck? Will breaking a mirror bring you 7 years of Bad luck? You can call it anything you wish........but some things make sense and some things do not. I have only enjoyed just over 50 years of a very, very happy and good life thus far. My bed was placed (according to one friend who quoted Feng Shui stuff to me) "Coffin Style" with the head of the bed visible from the doorway, for many, many years. That's Many, Many, years of a great marriage, wonderful, obedient, respectful, children, good friends, nice job, and thousands of "good hair days". Currently, I have a gold, not blue, bedroom, with mirrors on most every wall. My bedroom desk has nice square corners, as does my dresser, tv armoire, and nightstands. I watch t.v. in bed and type on my computer a few feet away. I think a lot of people are looking for some sort of guidance or principles or direction in their lives, but sometimes, all this stuff just obscures what's really important. Red

Oh my goodness, I came back from work today and was amazed by all your creativity! I see the advantage of having a strong "end" to the hallway. I checked CL and visited some used furniture stores. I found a table and a small chest that may be possible, but I will hold off for a few days because they are larger than the space really permits. mo13 and patty cakes  Ledges may be the way for me to go if I cannot find a piece of furniture to anchor the space. And yes an assortment of smaller mirrors GumbosoupÂI will tidy the books, but they canÂt ALL go away  because there is no other place in the house! Bookends and painting the shelves are a good idea. My sense that is that multiple small round rugs will feel cluttered (because the hall space isnÂt as long as it looks in the first picture.) calicocat1967Âyes, I like this. Do you have its dimensions? Teacats  thanks for the source for mirrors caminnc  This looks beautiful and I see what you mean about making the end wall dramatic. The challenge is that size of furniture really shouldnÂt be much bigger than 30 inches wide by (an average of ) 10 inches deep. I found a rectangular chest (not as pretty as the one you have) that is 32 by 11 1/8th and has an off-white stone top. It is at a second hand store and could be stained ebony and I could change the hardware to be like the one in your pic. I also found a two tiered demi-lune table that is 13 inches deep at its widest. This still feels too big. ideefixe  My leaning at this point is to tidy up the bookcase. elizgonz ÂWhy thank you. My LR improved dramatically after getting suggestions from the kind folk on this forum. In terms of color, most of the rooms that fall off this yellow "spine" of the house are vividly colored: two red, two dark blue, one teal, and one brown. We are not adverse to vivid color, but were trying to have a more neutral core to the house.

My preference would also have been NOT to have the staircase descend into the foyer (as if guests needed access to the private areas upstairs) but as it turned out there was nowhere else to put it. One complication was that we also wanted a basement (which will never be finished as it's my husband's workshop), thus the most space-efficient arrangement was to have the entrance to the basement staircase directly below the top of the main staircase. We started with one long flight descending into the living room, but my husband was concerned about getting drywall and furniture around the tight corner at the bottom. Plus the wedge-shaped wall would have made the TV and furniture placement awkward. Then we opted for a U-shaped staircase with a landing, also ending in the living room, but both the first two designs meant the door to the basement had to be in the foyer - which would have been even more weird. So this was what we ended up with (similar to ILoveRed's actually, but with all the private spaces at one end): I still don't like the narrow passageway between the bottom of the stair and the entrance to the living/dining area (about 30") but there don't seem to be any viable alternatives short of cutting into the ceiling and/or covering one or both front windows, and these would still leave the question of the basement staircase. We could simply eliminate the landing and have the stairs descend directly down another few steps, which would open up the space but this would put the bottom of the staircase behind the door, with just 2 feet to spare.

Your house is terrific. If you lived on a city street with sidewalks a "front" door would be useful for visitors. Looking at your home you have a country lot and guests will be driving around to the back where you have an amazing porch. I would just add windows for light in the master. Unless opening the windows for airflow is an issue, I would add non-functing windows ( 20x60) near the ceiling so the light would flood the room but the road view and noise would be limited. This also allows for better furniture placement in small rooms. Forget about Feng Shui unless she pays rent you need to worry about room size. ( By the way - This is my opinion and not worth much : ) Items to address - Moving the door into the mudroom as far away from the fridge as possible - look like a traffic jam is possible when cooking and the family is coming and going! The door to the second bedroom opens right into the closet wall making the entrance into the room tight. Would you be willing to sacrifice a little space in this bedroom and make this a full wall length reach in closet?