Hi I love the lounge colour and your coffee table. I think if space is an issue and you need the study area go with the ply wood suggestion on the storage drawers and decorate with cool stationary accessories like bright folders and storge files etc. I love the teal green idea and also apple green cushions. I feel like with the lounge and coffee table style you could get away witth introducing some almost industrial accessories. I think metallics are great to lift a room and there are so many colours ranging from muted neutrals to bright gold and silver. I also love playing with texture and you can get some great metallic wall art, lamps, vases etc mixed with cosy throws and rugs. I love metallics teamed with neutral especially your grey walls and colour of your floor boards. Good luck and Happy decorating Kind regards Alison

Timandra knows best, I believe, and has the experience to back her up. My comment is not plant-related, however. You have a front facade of door after door, and nowhere to go, except a narrow horizontal path. How about some front terraces, where you can burst out of one of those front rooms onto a sunny sitting area to have your morning coffee with a neighbor. Why not leave some doors open or change to glass, so the front terrace becomes an outdoor room, and extention of the interior space. How about a pedestrian walk out to the street, or over to the pictured tree, evergreen and plant bed, where you could have a shady terrace. Enjoy the outdoors, don't let your family become nature-deprived, with all the electronics that occupy our kids lives these days. Get them unplugged and outside - you too! You have a wonderful opportunity to achieve great things. Analyze first, then plan.

Ask your family what they would like to see, not designwise, but plant materialwise - color, texture, fragrance. Even ask your mother-in-law. You have provided some architect's dream, with the bold geometric forms, the bold palms and cycads. How about something warm and fuzzy. Something to rub your hands on as you head to the door. Some color and fragrance beyond the white and palm trunks. How about vines to soften the hard edges of the planters, fill them with ground cover plants so you won't see the mulch in a couple years, add bulbs of all seasons to bring cheer, glossy leaves to brighten your day. Bring nature to your entrance area to warm up the arrival of your mother-in-law. How about saving room for a couple chairs and small table, to sit out and prove that people actually live in this piece of marvelous sculpture, and add the warmth of an outdoor room. Spend some time at the library with books about the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. He is the one who introduced the architectural design idea of the outdoor room. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing a garage door in any of the photos. Guess I'll have to take another look.

It looks like it's one of the Alocasia, Colocasia group of plants. There are many varieties and your local nursery will be able to help you.