I have a similar front door area. Mine actually faces west/southwest but since it's a fairly deep alcove, it doesn't get much sun. So, I usually put either Cyclamen or Impatiens in my pots to give my front door a little color. Here's how it looks right now: When my cyclamen are done, I just pull them out and plop them in some other area of my yard and plant Impatiens. And I don't hav any issues with Black Widows lurking in or around the pots, but then I put down poison around my entry for just that reason. Probably the rare non-organic thing I do, but way back, when I was raising my kids, I had a Black Widow scurry right across my sleeping daughter one evening. After that, I made sure I made it a deadly experience for any spider to lurk around doorways. I'm going to also replace my fountain with a 1/2 wall fountain, as I'm tired of looking at an ugly cord cover and plug. Just need to find a very shallow one as we don't have much width in our little entry area. Patty S.

Thank you all, again! Les-I love your idea...it was one of the first plans that I tried when we got the new furniture. The EC was a bit large for that corner unfortunately. (It's been in both corners and along the couch wall already!) I also tried the couch on the wall where the EC is, but that wall is shorter and the couch pretty much went from end to end (from what I remember), so no room for a table. But I'll measure and try again. While this is the room that we do watch tv, I agree with you...I do not like it looking as though it's the center of our lives, b/c it's not! I'm wondering if maybe I put the tv on a smaller table (I have one or two that may work) and put it in the corner you said, then move the couch, either to the windows or the back wall, if it works. Thanks for your help! kswl: I love your idea about chairs with legs, for a more roomy look. That never occurred to me. I like the idea of a slipper chair as well. I'm considering turning our DR into a reading room, since with small kids, we don't use that room much at all! We have a morning room with a table large enough for us and more, so losing the DR is not really an issue. So if we change the DR, the overstuffed chair would go in that room. I don't love the EC...it's a Sauder piece that we bought years ago. The *only* nice thing about it is that is has great storage for dvds/cds/kids puzzles & games and even the sides have tons of storage for books etc. Our plan is to send it to the basement, if and when we ever finish it. In this market, we don't want to do it, b/c we may move in the next few years and would never recover the $$. One more question?? Can I do decorative curtains on the two far ends of the windows? So the middle window would be open? I do want to add some color, softness, coziness, but it seems like curtains on all 3 windows is way too much. I've tried valances on all three, but they did nothing for the room and made it seem very choppy to me, if that makes sense? Thank you again, everyone...I wish I knew what I was doing...this is really helpful. At least I know for sure to measure next time before I make a purchase this big. :)

Glad it worked out. My first thought was "steps to no where" is a good reason to reate a patio.

It is generally stated that the rug should be at least big enough that the front legs of the furniture should rest on the rug, or the rug will look too skimpy. I tend to prefer a larger rug where the furniture will fit onto it, but each room is different. I'd look at 10X12 rugs, or thereabouts. I have purchased rugs online, but only if they have a great return policy. Returning a rug is not too easy, as you have to wrap it back up again, but there are ways to do it. Pottery Barn is a source I like to use since they have store locations for returns.