Thanks so much for all of the ideas and input! The opening between the dining room/kitchen area from the living room we really love. This is a small house and it really opens up the area. Not to mention that there is no natural light in our dining room kitchen area so this allows the little bit we get from the front window into that area as well. It's not used as a pass through, as we have a long sideboard on the other side that we can use for serving dishes and such. Here is a picture of that side of the opening: (this was taken during a cookie decorating party we had at our house over the holidays) Moving the sofa to the other wall is an interesting idea. For some reason I never thought of it over there. I guess becuase it honestly isn't the longer wall of the 2. The room is more narrow than you might think. These pictures might give you a better idea of the space in the room. These were taken in our final walk through of the house before we got the keys. So, as you can tell we've changed a lot of the finishes. The view when you walk in the front door: (disregard the red cabinets and the floor and wall colors, all have been changed) Continuing around the room: So as you can see the far wall isn't that big. I'll have to measure but I don't even think there would be room for side tables beside the sofa if we put it on that far wall. Also, my husband and I are contemplating these chairs from craigslist: We can get them this evening for $50 for both of them, and I think that they might work in the color scheme of the front room. If not we could always slip cover them. We have no TV in this room to deal with. The tv is in our back den. Dilly_dally - you are right that there is a built in bookcase on one end of our Den, not the front living room. Here is a picture of the back den right now (obviously still in the process of decorating and moving in): Do these pictures change any ideas ya'll had? :) Or give you more ideas on how the room could be used or set up? Here are some inspiration pictures I had for the room originally: Obviously our room isn't just like the room in the picture and we want to make it our own and are limited to the furniture we already have, BUT I love the feel of the room pictured above. Thanks again!

I lived with my folks for a year before I got my current apt. during a relocation for a job, so I know how that goes. Here's what I suggest. Find out if you can get a storage box at the local U-Haul place or rent a storage locker. Pick a clean, well lit, well attended place that you won't mind visiting from time to time to get stuff you need. That will help with the decluttering. Do everything you can to put your stuff in closed storage, that helps make the room look restful. I store a lot of my teaching supplies in clear plastic boxes in shelves, organized by project. Is there an unpainted furniture outlet near you? That's another source for basic storage and office furniture. Check out IKEA's Web site for inspiration, but also definitely peruse the "Apartment Therapy" Web site too. Once you get it de-cluttered in there and narrowed down furniture wise, you can work on editing and displaying your art. First things first. Get a friend to come and help you edit your clothes and other stuff. I have a friend with great taste, she helps me edit out what is no longer working for me, clothing-wise.

Benjamin Moore used to have stock colors that you could just pull right off the shelf pre-mixed but those days are gone. You need to have most everything mixed these days. I don't know if Super White is normally made in a pastel base though. Also, because your trim has shine to it, it's going to look different than walls and it's going to look different just because it's a different surface with different shadows as well. Also, it's oil based so it's going to yellow over time but this should take a long time, not right away.

Also, kitchen cabinets: tradition raised panel or shaker?