Nice house! I think that golden oak and brass fixtures will soon make a comeback, because dark wood and silver/stainless have been popular for so long. I don't think the peachy wall color in your house looks good with the oak, though, because it makes the oak look so yellow. Before you paint the trim and window blinds, try painting the walls. Our walls are a pale khaki/green, so light it reads as a neutral, and it looks great with warm wood tones. I've also seen nice warm grays look good with golden wood. On the other hand, as much as I love wood, I think the bookshelves look odd in that spot, mostly because they appear to be floating above the baseboard heater. I think that would be the best wall for the TV, so you may have to change the shelves to make that work, or move/remove some of them. Can the dining room be closed off completely, with a big arched doorway? With such open space in the other rooms, it might be nice to have a more intimate space for contrast, and to have less sound bouncing around when you talk and laugh at the dinner table. Can the ceiling in that room be lowered? If not, I do like the grill idea suggested above for the openings to the DR. Lastly, before you shop for furniture I would make many copies of a to-scale floor plan and try moving little paper pieces of furniture around to make sure you can make it work before you buy it.

Home Interiors & Jodie White, Sorry guys. I'm new to this. Obviously, i need to create an Ideabook! I tend to go more towards muted brown, red, yellow/gold, rust colors (in past), but open to other somewhat neutral palettes. I actually love the console, but was considering an antique cream color (if I could make that work?). My tastes tend to be traditional, rustic, a little farmhouse (pottery barn, restoration hardware, ballard designs) but with so many current needs, all those in a TIGHT budget! Aktillery9, i do like all of those looks. My husband did just tell me, due to wiring, there is chance we may not be able to mount on flat wall as i hoped, so i may be forced to go back to corner console again. :( When I get a chance, I'll post some of my fav looks.

I helped my best friend in a clean up and we managed to get rid of literally dozens of boxes of stuff! The first thing to do is take everything out and start with a blank space. Like you said, a cleaning day first. And I mean everything. Just leave the furniture where it's at. Even take the computers out-because then it gives you an idea of how to set up the office in a way that works better. Then get out some cleaning products and dust, vacuum and freshen up. Next up, get some empty boxes and plan to put stuff in them-garbage, recycling (if you have that), donate/give away, and keep. Then you take the stuff you took out and start sorting into those boxes. Once you finally get all the papers and assorted junk sorted, then you make sure to deal with those boxes right away-like take them out of the house and get them out! Then have her sit at her desk and think outside the box as to how to set up the computers. Just because the desk is aligned a certain way doesn't mean it has to stay that way. In my office at work I set up my space on how I like to work, not what everyone thinks should work. For example, It's said if you're right handed, put the work you're going to work on on your right. That doesn't work for me, so I keep my working on files on my left, and my out box on my right. So just get her to think of how things work best for her and set it up that way. Next up decide how she likes to work. I don't like drawers. I don't put things in drawers that I use frequently so I use them to store things I rarely use and keep those I use often within arms reach on shelves or on my desk. Again-thinking outside the box as to how I prefer things rather than how they 'should be'. This gives her a chance to feel more empowered about getting rid of things too. With my friend I had her go through all her paperwork and we sorted it into keep, archive, act on now and shred. She used to keep all her bills, even years after they were paid. We shredded tons of paper! Act on now went in a basket next to her computer. Archive, which was stuff to be filed was just thrown in to a box to be dealt with later. This was long term storage stuff-like her mothers estate paperwork or her divorce papers (she was divorced nearly 20 years ago!). She hasn't used this stuff in years, so it can just sit in a box until she's ready to go through it. Into another box we put pictures-knowing full well that she'd never go through that box but it was ok to keep it, but knowing that ONLY pictures were in that box, nothing else. So do something like that for your friend. She could probably use a task light-I see that lamp on top of the bookcase-it's obviously not used, so she can either get rid of it or actually put it on her desk to use. Those are places to start. It takes a lot of time and energy and I dont' recommend thinking you'll get it all done in a day. But like I always tell my friend-you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Good luck!

Forgot the other picture. Where the bakers rack is for the breakfast table.