Hi shortstuff27, Love your colour choices already! With your budget constraints, I agree, go for the charcoal remnant, why not try to spruce it up a bit -,see if they can do the trim in the 'cherry blossom pink' to compliment the scheme! Splash some brilliant white paint on the top of your existing coffee table to contrast against the charcoal and add some matching (pink / patterned and textured) scatter cushions or a throw. It will be stunning! Good luck whatever you decide!

For the best tropical effect - nothings beats Monsteras - lots of them - overlapping, Consider a travellers palm in the background (they can grow very large) - the above options will result in little if any leaf litter into the pool. If you put in some large monsteras - I would suggest a few smaller ones as well to create variation and make it look more natural. The above plants are relatively slow growing and will only require dead frond removal (at ground level) a couple of times a year. Ferns would look great in between (or Taro) but they grow faster and more maintenance is required. Either a good ground cover, or thick black plastic between the plants with a good thick layer of stones/ wood chips or similar. beware of anything too light which may blow into the pool during a storm. Below ground retic is always the best - but sometimes its nice to have a spray onto the leaves (perhaps a separate system) if you want to simulate the tropical rainforest thing whilst lounging in the pool at night.

Hi Lindsey, I also agree with the comments regarding adding indoor plants to fill the gaps on either side of the TV. Some great, low-maintenance indoor plants are the Fiddle Leaf Fig, Monstera (also known as Swiss Cheese Plant) and Snake Plant (Mother-In-Law's Tongue). They're all beautiful plants and very ease to take care of. Another option would be to have some open shelving on either side, similar to the one we have used in this Living Room styling below. This could work really well, especially if you have limited storage for some bits and pieces you would like on display. A bonus is that including taller items like this will create a sense of balance in the room, and accentuate the height of your wall which will create an illusion of taller ceilings. Hope this helps! - Elena

It's always exciting to think about potential plans for a newly purchased home. However unless you have experience and knowledge in regards to construction, costs and understand how particular design decisions impacts these things, you'd be best to (a) take some time to develop a clear picture or "vision" of the type of home you are aiming for and then (b) invest in some professional advice to help guide you towards your goals. When you say you can't afford to spend thousands on drawings, I'd argue that anyone considering a significant renovation project should allocate a certain component of their budget to professional design as a no-brainer investment to maximise the project potential and mitigate potential issues such as cost blow-outs or worse spending money in ways that misses opportunity and doesn't add value. Investment in planning and design is arguable THE most critical and $$ worth spending in order to get the best outcomes. As you have brought up, there are a whole lot of aspects to work through and negotiate, such as levels and structure. In order to get any sort of advice (either independently or on forum) measurements are critical and the first thing to establish, as well as other relevant contextual information such as levels and boundaries. Any design decisions directly impact costs, and unless you know what you're doing you can potentially head down a path of relatively expensive and extensive internal reconfiguration. Sure some of this may be required, but as we find regularly with these types of projects, mitigating renovation scope and exploring opportunity for some complimentary logical "clean"/simple extension aspect can be often the better option on a number of levels: better value, increased living space & better investment return longterm Best of luck working through it - and even if you do minimal work, it's clearly a good property investment Cheers PD :)