Good Morning! Just thought i'd weigh in with my thoughts for you... I think that for the size of the room, you currently have too much furniture in it - in terms of seating. And the pictures don't quite show - but what is the relationship between the seating and the TV? Personally, I like a sofa and the arm chairs and would possibly consider losing one of the sofas. Pazz's suggestions are great and relevant. I would upsize the rug and purchase it in shades of blue/grey and bring out those colours in artwork and other soft furnishings such as cushions and lamp shades. Also change the orientation of the rug and coffee table to work with the room rather than fighting against it. I'm not a huge fan of wooden furniture pieces except if they are a highlight - If it was my room, i would paint the coffee table and the TV unit - there are plenty of paints on the market that don't require a massive amount of prep work - such as chalk paints. That would also soften the look. Overall - consider how you use the space currently and how that room interacts with the rest of your home as a whole. Good luck! Jo

These are all great ideas. Thanks so much. We're going to see how we "fit" in the space at first. I hate to cook and my boyfriend does it so infrequently that we may not need a lot of room for a pantry. I bought this place more than 2 years ago and it's almost done (yep they took their sweet time). It was initially going to be just me, but it will be me, my partner and my borrowed cat. Haha... But I always wanted to start afresh so about 4 months ago (when there was about a month to go, they've since extended the completion date), I had a huge garage sale and sold or donated pretty much everything I own. We'll be starting anew and won't have heaps to store. Only about 2 months to go.

I agree with strawberry47 but it just makes it like home. You will have to measure the area first your dining chairs have to sit on the rug fully when pulled out on all 4 sides and then add a bit more for good measure otherwise it will pull the rug every time you want to sit. What is really good option is to go to local carpet place ask them to show you what remnants they have and pick nylon if they have it. Rugs are about 4m wide so you only need about 2.5m and get them to overlook to the size you need . They are usually under$100 for a linear metre. It really won't break the bank. Try Carpet court and places like that. Good luck .

Over the years I have improvised Christmas trees depending on our circumstances. When we were living in the middle of renovations a surveyor's tripod became a quite respectable tree. Later, in a small apartment, a few evergreen twigs hung on the wall in the form of a tree worked fine. The next year we had an ornamental bamboo in that same spot so that became the tree.