Conversation Rooms. I love the concept. One of my favorite rooms is the living room in the movie It's Complicated. It is a Nancy Meyers movie and the living room has a bunch of comfy chairs and one sofa arrnaged around a largish slate coffee table that looks a little higher than the usual coffee tables. I love the natural fabrics and the color palette that is muted with some throws for pops of colors. I love the house itself as it is an adobe house in So. cal and the feel of it is gorgeous. If only I could capture that in my adobe home :) Here is what the set design notes said.. Meyers also took her design cues from the color of the rooftops of the idyllic coastal town of Santa Barbara. "What I like about Santa Barbara is the rich color that saturates your vision at every turn," she says. From cashmere throws and chair upholstery to a bowl of fruit on the dining table, the color orange (think of the orange/brown color of an Hermès box) is used as an accent throughout the film. The decor had to accent Streep's fair complexion as well, so Meyers used "creams and beiges that would capture the beauty of her skin." Rubino mixed high-end furnishings--Calvin Fabrics and Dessin Fournir and George Smith furniture--with antiques from 1st Dibs and items from West Elm. "My goal was to capture the essence of Meryl's character as someone who dances to the beat of her own drum, " she explains. This post was edited by GWlolo on Fri, Mar 15, 13 at 14:31

Laughable! I'm so glad to hear your thoughts:) . Especially about the fridge drop zone since I've never had a french door unit. Regarding your concerns which are the exact same as mine! 1. I don't know, which is one reason why we put the two 18" W x 15" D pantry cabs next to the fridge and another 18" w x 24" D by the wall ovens. Even with those I think I will need more for bulk things and less frequently used items but I'm still keen on your idea about two closets that I could build on the back Morning Room wall. It would require a hike around the peninsula, but hopefully that would be not often and still much closer than the trip I make to the basement now. Plus - it's pretty! 2. I pushed my current island to where the peninsula would be last week. I actually did it out of frustration of not being able to find a good layout! DH and I were shocked that we really like how it opens up the area in front of the basement door. It also had the unexpected benefit of making the kitchen feel bigger. Those two things coupled with the fact that I get better storage, better appliances, better prep space and better light in the kitchen are helping me to deal with the fact that I don't like how far the table is around the horn. But, I have figured out that it's actually easy to push food and dishes across the counter towards the table. Then you don't actually have to walk around carrying things. And vice versa for clean-up. Most meals it's just me and the 3 kids so we can do those on the peninsula. For dinner, we may keep the kids at the peninsula while we eat at the table so we can actually finish a conversation....ha!

After calculating what was written above me, it looks like you can fit the same size table I have in my dining room, which is 42" wide by 78" long with the leaf in. We can fit up to 8 people at our table with the leaf in. I also love having a rectangle table! I have two openings in my dining room - one to the living room and the other to the kitchen. I have a door on the other wall and a window on the 4th. Just place your table in the middle of the room and it will work.

Without an actual to scale plan of the space there is no way of knowing what will fit and I love the low cabinet with the art BTW. I think you might be able to put a round table in the DR but I need measurements of the spaces I never like fake greenery or flowers and the mirror is really not reflecting anything worth seeing twice