Wow, I'm amazed by all the helpful ideas and comments! It took me a while today just to process everything - thank you, everyone, so much! I went to the local nursery today and bought some morning glory seeds to run up the front posts. Roobear - I LOVE the drawing you did!! And I love the look of those front posts; they are definitely going on the "wish" list if we can fit them in the budget, maybe for next summer. For now, we're going with some vines. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that picture; it really made me see the possibilities! Did I mention I LOVE it?! I'll either do a trellis around the meter box, or possibly get a nice tree to plant on the other side of the walk to hide it from the street, as rosie suggested. We dug down around the concrete walk tonight, and it goes down several inches...too far to break up with just a sledgehammer - we tried. So, instead of going through the expense and hassle of moving the walk, I think we'll just have to leave it. I'm also going to get a tree of some kind to place on the opposite side of the house (left side when facing from the street), and expand the front garden out and circle around it. Hopefully that will give some dimension to the front. I also love the red door in roobear's pic. I would not have chosen red if I hadn't seen that visual; it's nice how it makes the door a focal point. Thank you all again - in two days you gave me more ideas here than I've come up with in a year. I'll try to post some pics once we put things together!

Seeing your light colors and the soft glow, what about a filtering honeycomb shade? Maybe in a milky cream color. They diffuse the light, but don't block it (you can get blocking ones, but not needed for a bathroom). They give privacy (I've had them in bathrooms and always test from the outside!) You can keep them lowered and still get light, or raise them when not in use and they compress to almost nothing. Something similar to this: I just ordered/installed window treatments for most of my house. I was sort of set on shutters for a long time, until I managed to find a demo shutter and bring it home, and saw how much of the window view was blocked by the shutter frame. That was a deal breaker for me. I ended up going with 2.5" slat blinds and am happy I did. Just a note on the shutters. On a window that thin I think you'll lose a lot of light. If there's anything on the outside of that window that can see you, you'll want to make sure you get lined bamboo shades, if you go that route.

Hmm. Well, I would paint the walls a lighter white-ish color. That wall color is too dark. I would remove the wall shelves. I would remove the stuff on top of the table and put one large item in the center (something from the "living" family .... a vase with faux greenery in it for example). I would put down a round area rug with a washed out vintage look under the table and chairs. I would get a rustic piece of furniture to put on the wall to the left of where the shelves are now. And then I would install open shelving above it with your kitchen items stacked. I would paint the table and chair legs a distressed white color.

How much work are you looking to do? I would paint everything over. Possibly a warm white. Id add moldings to the wall either shiplap or regular moldings. A new material sectional you can probably keep your rug. I like it. I also like the coffee table possibly but I guess decide on that later on. I would also do new shades on the windows