Hi Nancy! Taco and Maggie are absolutely still with me. There was never a question about that. I was surprised how well and quickly they adapted to the move.

I am enjoying decorating - my purple bedroom is on the link above :) Otherwise I am currently *frozen* on paint selection. I don't have a 'great room', but all of the rooms are open to each other. This makes it hard, because all of the colors need to work together. I am thinking about flying house vixen out here for a consult!

The kitchen....well of course it needs remodeling! But I've decided to only do a facelift. The cabinets are original, so the insides are that yucky dark brown, but the PO had them refaced in a nice light finish, so it looks nice if the cabs aren't open ;) At this point I'm planning to replace the awful hunter green courtertop, changing out the hardware, and putting in a backsplash. Oh, and of course the cabs are framed, but for such a small kitchen, there is an amazing amount of storage.

Re: the countertop: I was going to do laminate, but then found some really great Formica solid surface. I really want it, but jeez -- from what I've found on the web, it appears that it's a pricey as granite!

Everyone's homes are so wonderful!
judithva - I love your livingroom colors. I tend to go for deeper (not necessarily darker) colors, as well.
weed - your dining room is absolutely one of the happiest I've seen!
flowerlady - that view is gorgeous...so serene, like a secret garden.
sunrochy - your kitchen is one of my faves. And I have to say that I love that fish. And so does my DH. Did someone in your family catch it?
mari - I remember pics of your livingroom, and when you first got your chaise, which I love. It looks like a room that anyone could curl up and relax in. You have indeed given soul to your generic 1993 cape.

Here's a few of our little home. How *do* I make those pics smaller? As you can tell, I am definitely not a whiz at this posting picture stuff ;o)
Nora
Dining area of kitchen...
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Living room...
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And here's the newest 'addition' to our little slice of heaven...

mrsmarv, thank you! Love your photos too -- you have the red counter in your kitchen, right??

Here is one of your photos resized:

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And here is the code I used: {{gwi:1537852}}

When assigning the height and width, you need to keep the aspect ratio correct. For your pic, the width was 1.5 times the height. Sometimes you just have to play with those numbers to make it look right. I also posted a 'how to' on photos on this forum.

Thank you, weed! That looks so much better. And yes, I'm the one with the red counters ;o)

It has been so much fun seeing others' sweet homes!

Flower Lady- wow, what a big difference a knocked down wall can make! I have been wanting to do something with my backyard but that will have to wait until the time is right (and money grows on trees -hee hee).

Mrsmarv does have the red counters in her kitchen. It is real neat! Maybe she can post a picture?

Mrsmarv- My DH caught the fish in a tournament. It is a 5 lbs largemouth bass (if I am correct of the name of bass fishes).

MrsMarv, I absolutely love your home!

There is an easy way to resize on Photobucket:

~Go to your photobucket album, and click the "edit" button above the picture

~scroll to where you can choose how much you wish to reduce the picture. Once you resize, you can't increase it again (you have to reload the pic from your computer to go back to original size), so do it in small increments until you get it to the size you desire.

~Once you choose the reduction percentage, click "resize".

~Click your "refresh" arrow on your computer's toolbar (sometimes you also have to do that the first time you post it on GW, etc), and you should see the new, smaller sized photo.

HTH!~

Okay...I'm going to try this a few different ways...but here's a pic of my counters for now ;o)

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southernheart - thanks for the compliments. I love the exterior picture of your home. It is wonderful! I really like how welcoming your entrance is.
sunrochy - that fish is truly a beaut! A 5 lb. large mouth bass is definitely hefty ;o)
I'm off to play in the garden! You all have inspired me.

I don't really consider my house to be all that small even though it's definitely on the smaller side of average, about 1900 sf. Actually some of the rooms are rather small because the kitchen is really large for the size of the house.

As far as how I decorate it, one of the things I try to do is to add storage/shelving everywhere I possibly can. In my dining room, for example, my dad made a radiator cover that doubles as a buffet. It was VERY useful when we had 13 people over for a holiday dinner for table overflow. Here's an "in progress" shot, I've since put honey onyx stone tile on it and of course cleaned my floor (we were still under construction at the time):

I also used some narrow wall shelves (ledge ones) in my kitchen. Although my kitchen is not that small (huge to me, I'm used to 7'x8' galley apartment kitchens) I like the way ledge shelves allow you to display things in a 3-d way without taking up precious "air space" in the room.

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I also tend to keep my counters in my work area pretty uncluttered.

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but I'm also lucky enough to have a separate little counter that is out of the way where I leave my small appliances for ease of use, plus the mess they generate tends to be contained.

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The other thing I thought long and hard about was how to replicate some of my "big house" comforts in a smaller space. I really LOVED the functionality of a sectional for cuddling with a good movie but my living room is just nowhere near big enough for a full sized sectional. I know these things are trendy beyond words right now but it worked really well in my space... I got one of those chaise lounge sectionals. It created the comfy corner space where DH and I could cuddle and each have room to stretch out our legs but takes up a lot less space in the room.

{{gwi:1538453}}And finally in my bedroom I've come to the conclusion that in order to get all of the storage I want/need in a smallish room (a bit under 12'x12' with a king bed) that one larger piece (actually three pieces that "bunch" to look like one larger piece) would work better than a couple of smaller pieces. I'm used to having a whole bedroom "suite" with a tall chest, a dresser etc, an armoire... instead I searched for one piece that would do it all and not look like I tried to cram too many pieces of furniture in the room. Even though this piece looks rather large, it's only 63" high and the scale of it is broken down even more by the 3 sections (22" wide drawer stacks and a 38" wide door chest). The room is not done yet and the piece is not here yet but here it is:

I have also found that antique furniture, being of the era when houses were smaller, in general is more in scale for my smaller house. After being discouraged at how humongous nighstands were I ended up buying this pair of antique beauties that are roughly 2/3-1/2 the size of the average monster nightstands that are being sold out there.

I also admit that I indulged in a splurge on the tv for the master bedroom... we ditched the old 27" direct view tv for a 27" flat panel and it is definintely less of a presence in the room. So much less that we are going to put it on top of the armoire and use the armoire for more storage.

kgwlisa, I love your kitchen! What are your counters? Also love what your dad did with the radiator ~ very clever and handy.

I read your bedroom thread on the HDec forum - love your choices and the nightstands are just toooo perfect.

weed, my counters are just plain old square edged seafoam green laminate. NOT what I would have picked in a million years to tell you the truth. The PO remodeled the kitchen before we moved in and I've been picking away at making it "mine" for the last 2 years now (one project at a time with long breaks between). We just had so many projects to do and the money tree wasn't producing the way I hoped it would so I decided to work with the nearly new counters rather than getting my dream counters. Honestly now that everything else is done I actually kind of like the laminate and wouldn't have it any other way. Of course since seeing mrsmarv's relamination project I realized I could have at least changed the color of the laminate but I rather enjoyed the challenge of working with the color (my MIL thought it was awful so that made me want to keep it ;) ).

I'm including the link to the before and after of my kitchen. I also do have a kitchen table in there but left it out for the photos because I wanted to be able to see the floor and the radiator cover. In the kitchen the radiator cover is really more just decorative than anything else, although that is the cats' favorite window in the whole house and it allows all 3 to share it at once.

The bedroom is going to be a total utter splurge for us though. We were going to take a short trip this summer but I don't have enough days off for the kind of trip I wanted and we just decided to use that money (plus a lot more, ack!) to "go for it" and make our bedroom a true retreat so we could vacation at home for free.

Here is a link that might be useful: my

MrsMarv, thank you! I want for it be be welcoming, so your words mean a lot. I am redoing 3 rooms right now (isn't that insane?), so as soon as they are to a photo-point, I will be sharing pics as well.

Lisa, I really do love your kitchen. My counters are laminate, too...the original butcher block ones that came with my home. My kitchen is more on the "cottage" side, so they still "fit the look", and look natural. And, I have a son in college and one who will be there in a few years, so they will do just fine for now! :)

Sunrochy, people mount deer heads over the fireplace all the time. I would think a trophy fish would be completely appropriate.

Nora, from those pictures, your house doesn't look small at all! Those are the best small homes, in my opinion -- ones where there are a few large rooms, instead of a dozen puny ones.

Ooh, everything is so pretty. I LOVE that red chair and couch. It looks like a big ploof of red down to sink into. Yum. And the red kitchen counters. WOW. I am dying for colored kitchen counters but they aren't keeping many of "my" colors in stock anymore so choice is limited. Red is one of my choices. Yours is lovely.
THAT PAINTED FLOOR is to die for! Now I need to go snoop at the links for photos!

GGG

I'm new to this forum but had to "chime" in. I love Victorian but it's a hard style for such a small house so I've really just accumulated things I love and created my own eclectic style. It's a mix of French Country, Cottage and Country I guess with alittle contemporary thrown in. I have included a link to my little country cottage, all 1268 sqft of it!
Marilyn in NM

Here is a link that might be useful: My little cottage home

Nora ~ I really love looking out the window now whenever I'm back there, not just when washing dishes. The view is peaceful and there are lots of butterflies to enjoy as well.

I just visited your site and your home is lovely. I love your orderly pantry and your kitchen's red counters and wonderful wood cabinets. Is that a small scrimshaw collection hanging over your bed? Love what you did with your garden too. That must keep critters out now.

Sunrochy ~ Knocking a wall down can make a difference that's for sure. You're right it is too bad that money doesn't grow on trees. The things we could do if that was true. I love your colorful place.

kgwlisa ~ I love how you've covered your radiators, giving you extra shelf space. Your chaise sectional definitely looks like a comfy place to cuddle. I think your kitties like it there too. That bedroom three piece set is gorgeous and I remember seeing this in another forum and you were wondering where you were going to posistion it. Your night tables are a real find too. I'm sure you'll love your bedroom once you get it all together. It's fun thinking about these kind of projects and then doing them.

Marilyn ~ I love your cottage and your gardens. You've done a fantastic job. I bet you enjoy sitting on your porch, and hanging out back on your patio. You mentioned wanting something to hide trashcans/etc. You could use white plastic lattice to make a wall/arbor between your house and garage. I think it was your garage. You could also put the lattice spaced out a few inches from your garage wall to have climbing roses or vines grow up it. Just my 2 cent suggestion.

All of your pictures here have really inspired me and given me ideas too.

Happy living and decorating/renovating to all.

FlowerLady

FlowerLady, thanks for the compliment! DH & I have been discussing the vinyl lattice for the area by the carport to block the view of the trashcans, cars, etc. I think it may become a project for next Spring. We're also discussing putting up the 6ft vinyl fencing that is solid and that would also take care of it. I could "hang" some plants off of the fence to make it look nicer.
Right now we are preparing all the sheds and carport for painting and once this weather cools off a bit we will start that project.
The house has vinyl siding so we usually only have trims & outbuildings to paint and this year everything needs it at the same time. Ugh!

Thanks again,
Marilyn in NM

Hi Marilyn ~ The solid vinyl fencing would work too and look really nice. One thing about owning our own homes, is there is always something to do to take care of it, or some project to enhance our homes. We are having horribly humid weather and it's just miserable working outside. We won't cool off down here until around Oct. so we've got a while to go yet. We try to do work outside in the mornings and even then it's horrible and we are soaked by the time we head indoors. Today we are having warm, windy, rainy weather, as a tropical wave passes over our area. At least it isn't a hurricane.

FlowerLady

Thought I'd mosey over to this thread too--should have posted pics here rather than in the "smaller homes" one (oops!).

I think one can decorate smaller homes in any style; the key seems to be either a restrained hand and/or a very well-organized one. I'm not a collector, but I love when collections are showcased in a pleasing manner--FlowerLady's plates are a great example.

Most of my furniture is secondhand, and it tends to be smaller in scale; everyone's already covered that upthread! But I do look for pieces that are leggy/airy so the eye can see through them to other walls and the floor.

I also try to mix items with curves and items with straight lines together to keep the eye hopping around. [For Mari: damn if I know what category the Tree Table fits into, ha!]

But gosh, I'm very jealous of/impressed by KGW's radiator storage pieces; I need more "double-duty" things around here. And I'm working on it--in theory anyway!

One thing I like about having an older, smallish house with a very choppy floorplan? I feel absolutely free to have a Crayola Crayon house. Painting all the walls one color (as the PO did before he put it on the market) didn't make the overall space feel bigger, it just negated the sensation of each room being its own space. [Hope that makes sense!]

ps Weed, after the week I've had I'm ready to hop on a plane and play "color color on the wall, whose the fairest of them all?" with you. I was suprised to hear of your life change, but judging from your photos you, the new house, and the hostas are all thriving. Good on ya.

We have a 1600 sq ft home. I'll see if I can post some pics from photobucket -

HouseVixen ~ Your comment brightened my day. Some of those plates are from Spain (we bought them when we were newlyweds living there while DH was in the US Navy). Some we've collected over the years. I have a collection of teapots on a shelf on the other side of the plate collection. I'm not into collecting anything anymore, I have enough. Now I'm working on decluttering. ; -)

EileenLamp ~ Love your home and how you've decorated it. It makes me feel happy. Is that a bread machine to the left of your stove?

FlowerLady

EileenLamp - I love your kitchen island & your flower print furniture. I'm "trying" to do cottage style in my new house. It's about 1600 sqft and the front looks cape cod/cottage. Cute little front porch. Although it's in a new subdivision, I think I can give it that cute, homey, cottage look. I'm painting (slowly) and planting may have to wait until next spring. It's a big project in a small budget :)

Jackie

mrsmarv, thank you for your sweet comment. I'm sitting on the chaise-bench right now. :-) People do seem to gravitate to it when they come over - I think they like that they can nest in the five pillows I have on it - and _I_ like that it can seat two or even three people. I remember when people over on Home Dec were pushing a recliner really hard for that corner, this is SOOO much more practical! It was a big risk buying from a completely unknown company (SeatCompany.com) but I'm so glad I did.

Vix, the Tree Table is "organic" in style, of course. :-)

My mom just sold her tiny cottage (2br2ba,

Jackie, we're also in a new sub-division and yes, it takes time and money, doesn't it??
We're in the Phoenix area so the cottage look is a bit strange here. LOL!! However, we love the look and the feeling of it and everyone who comes in our house feels right at home.
Eileen

Eileen,

I see you have a parrot! What kind? I have 4 lovebirds and my brother has a Blue & Gold.

I just started painting my bedroom and master bath yesterday. I'm painting a little warm & relaxing colors, but will decorate cottage. I love Martha Stewart colors, but I'm no MS. I'm in the Atlanta Metro Area, but closer to Macon just south of Atlanta. Lots of little antique & flea market type shops around.

Jackie

Yup, that's a bread machine. I guess they are outdated now, but I use it a lot. I love to make bread and this is the easy way to do it.
We have an African Grey Parrot. He's so funny. He'll bark just like the dog and then yell at the dog for barking. Meanwhile, the poor dog has been sleeping and has no clue why the bird is yelling at him!

Eileenlamp ~ Why on earth is a bread machine outdated? I love using mine. It's so wonderful to get it going and to come in from working outside to smell of the bread baking. Yummy!

FlowerLady

What a great site! I love the smaller home forum. We just relocated to a smaller home and I'm trying to fit everything in.....it's like a puzzle. Eileenlamp, Love the hanging lamp over your table! I just purchased the perfect companion area rug for it.If I knew how to upload pictures I'd show you. Can I ask where you bought it? This is my first post. Everyone has such great ideas!

I used to fill every available space, now I'm much more into simplicity, and have emptied out much of my house to our local Goodwill. Clearing out the dining room and laying one floor covering for both the kitchen & dining did wonders to make the space feel larger (wall was also removed between the two rooms by former owner). This is our largest space in the house.

You will find only one white wall in the entire house, and it's a bright white in the bathroom. Everything else has lots of color, sometimes several colors in one room! I tend to be more modern, or "nature" oriented, not much in the way of excessive accessorizing, or clutter.

I don't think a bread machine is outdate...I have one...but one of the posts mentioned that they got rid of outdated stuff....bread machine was one of them.
I only use the bread machine in the winter and love it! We're in Phoenix and it's 115 degrees here. Nope, not the time to make those great cinnamon buns!

Eileenlamp ~ I hear you about it not being the time to be doing any bread baking. Your temps are so much worse than ours. Although our humidity makes our temps feel even hotter. It is 89 but with the humidity it feels like 107. That is MISERABLE!

FlowerLady

DH and I settled on a nautical / lighthouse theme. He likes dark woods, brocades, etc. I like light woods, cottons, etc...I guess contemporary countty! Our accent wall is more pink than rose...but DH is okay w/ it. Whew!!

PianoLady ~ Your dining room looks very nice. DH and I just put down canyon oak laminate flooring and that really made a difference in how our place looks too. Larger somehow.

janengland ~ Your place looks very light and airy. The colors are pleasing too. Is that a canine family member I spy in the bottom of the picture? If not, what is it?

FlowerLady

FlowerLady...yes, that's Lokai, one of our 2 schnauzers!
Here's the view from the other end of the room...

Oh my!!!!! All your homes are so beautiful. I really need to get off my butt and use more colors indoors.

mrsmarv - I LOVE that red couch. I LOVE how you painted the walls green and accented with red. Looks so perfect.

Edna

Hello everyone! This is my first post. I have enjoyed looking at your beautiful homes! Eileen I have the same rooster light fixture in my craft room off my kitchen. I have about 1500 SQ feet and love to use COLOR!!! I think with a small home it's ok to use larger pieces, and my style is french country cottage. I love anything with a rooster on it.I try to use pieces in my home that have size. As a decorator i have found smaller pieces tend to make my rooms look "small" I use the same styles in my small home that I have done for others in much larger houses. I also have A pot rack and island in my kitchen duel function decrative and space saving! I am so glad I stumbled upon this site, hope to trade ideas and post pics soon.

Oh, ALL homes are so beautiful!

EileenLamp- The yellow floral set is really lovely. I know that if my mother was still alive, she would go crazy over them.

Janengland- I have a mini-schnauzer! After seeing a few pictures with pets, I have to share one.

sweettea - I love bright, rich colors also! I also love French country style and have a lot of the ivory painted pieces which really "pop" against my colorful walls. Color makes me feel so good, and like the house is much richer. I, too, love roosters - hehehe funny how so many of us have so much in common! And I am in the process of remodeling my Asheville house where I don't have many kitchen cabinets, but have purchased a pot rack and a beautiful and very functional island - it will be the best kitchen I ever had!

I love seeing everyone's homes - they are all so beatiful and cozy! When I get back up to Asheville in a couple weeks to finish remodeling I will take some pix so I can post them here.

OHHHHH...Eileen! I love your island in the kitchen! That's the type of cupboard finnish I'd like in our new house along with some barnboard. I had been thinking along the lines of sage green, but I love the red! Did you do it yourself or buy it?

I'm sorry I have no pics to share (no digital cam til christmas maybe...:^( ) I'm definately rustic, eclectic with some arts and craft style thrown in too. I made our cupboards from barn board and the kitchen sash window frames are painted burgundy. The window frames above our table are barnboard. Our florr is K3 particle board with a varathane finnish (sorely in need to be refinnished) which was cheap and the tone is very warm. Our main inside wall is still unfinnished, but I would like to paint it a soft sage green. The rest of the walls are 6x6 timbers as that is what the cabin is constructed of. Would love to put chinking in the cracks for a real rustic look, but its hard to work on the cabin when we should be working on the new house!

I love the color ideas being posted!

Pianolady, I think your puppy says it all! Very relaxing tones in your dining room. One color I've seen and really like on a wall is a burnt orange. Your rich yellow reminded me of it. Very cozy and warm feeling.

kgwlisa, I like how the wall color in your bedroom and sitting room really sets off the mahogany wood furnishings and framing. Good match!

Gypsyrose-
I am in Morganton! Read that you have a home in Asheville. :o)

Your homes are so beautiful!!! I love all the rich colors. When I first started reading about decorating small spaces everything said light colors...um, no thanks! I decided I wanted to feel "hugged" everytime I came home. My living room and master bedroom are a rich tan and my kitchen is a deep red with white beadboard. While I am trying to create the comfortable, cottage feel, I'm avoiding the use of pastels and beachy colors. I decorate with the things and colors I love...tan, taupe, red, black, greens, etc. It may be a hodge podge, but it's mine.

I really need to get new pics of our house in our photo album...then I can show you all what I'm creating!

Sunrochy - I don't really know anything about Morganton, but on the map it doesn't look too far from Asheville. I just LOVE North Carolina! The only problem is we can't move there full time for several years because hubby wants to stay at his job here in Fla. to build up his pension. So I get to go up to my little Asheville pad for a month or two at a time and we come up together for long weekends, etc. It has been sooo much fun to be remodeling this little house - it's so easy to do when you have a small space to do over. I think I spent less on the whole remodel than some folks in the kitchen forums spend on their cabinets! When I get back up there and finish the remodel I will post some before and afters. This was just a bland little prefab house that was built in the 70's, no personality at all, and a lot of funky old carpets and chopped up rooms. We opened it all up, put hardwood floors and sparkly chandeliers, and painted bright colors (different for each room) and it's like a new house. I think I will name it "Birdsong Cottage" because each morning there are hundreds of birds singing around there. Can you tell I love it - hehehe

xtreme_gardener, if you have a CVS or Ritz Camera around, you can get disposable digital cameras now! The good ones (about $20) have a little screen to look at your pictures and you can delete the ones you don't want. You get prints and a free picture CD with jpegs when you have it developed. It's a nice stopgap while you save up for a camera-camera.

I love the pictures everyone! I know I'm an "outsider" since my home is large, but I find such inspiration in your decorative touches. These rooms are only a tad smaller than mine are, and some of them are actually bigger I think!

Gypsyrose-
Morganton is about 45-50 minutes from Asheville. I like visiting the downtown when I am able to. Post the befores and afters! I love seeing them. Birdsong Cottage sounds nice. I sometimes call my house "Sunny Cottage" since it is painted in goldish yellow, is very cheerful, and gets sun almost all day.

We've been on vacation so I'm late in answering questions...Sorry!
We bought the Rooster Light at either Lowes or Home Depot...I think it was Home Depot! Couldn't believe it when I saw it. LOL!
We bought the Island at a Bare Furniture Store....all the furniture is unfinished. You can either finish it yourself or have them do it. We did it ourselves. Barn Red paint over a walnut stain and then we streaked it a bit with a large paint brush. Then we stained the top with walnut stain and put a good poly finish over that. It's great and everything just wipes off the top. The bottom of the island holds all our pots and pans...and I have a lot of them!We don't have a lot of cabinet space, so this has been a livesaver.
Eileen

Eileen,

Thanks for sharing the island info, love the color. Am going to blame you for my shopping and buying a similar one. Without an eating area in my kitchen, found one with a lift up leaf for bar style eating...or someone to hang around with me in there. Could hold four people eating when open. As time passes there seems to be less and less family dinners, kids grown with hard work and relationships. Formality went away long ago, they'd rather just hang around and relax...so this works.

I also have a coffee table with 2 fold up/down leaves. It takes up little space, but a lot of room when open. We use it to play games on or eat casually....sit on floor with pillows.

The more I read and see photos from everyone, the braver I am getting in choosing colors and ignoring the "interior designers" with their trends...what's in/out.

Sandy

I am new here and really enjoy looking at your lovely homes. We live in a old old house it looks huge but the rooms are small especially since we moved from Ariz. to Minn. and not use to the little seperate rooms use to open rooms. I had to get rid of the large couches and replace with smaller ones. Don't like white,so painted the TV room with the Tuscan color with Acorn Squash molding painted, didn't want the Living room to be that dark so painted 3 walls with the Acorn Squash color, wall going to the Dining room Tuscan. Have lace curtains with brown drapes. There is a large stain glass piece over the living and Tv rooms. The dining room is a yellow, and kitchen also yellow with hunter green cupboards and red counter top with red black splash. I know this sounds really wild but it is so comfortable and when people come in the comments are its so beautiful so I am not that crazy. I will try to get some pictures put on here so you can see it too.
We have pocket doors in the living room and lots of wood over the windows and doors. In the DR we have a black pellet stove to keep warm.

Here is a link that might be useful: That Home Site!

Here is are pics of my Eat-In kitchen. I placed an armless couch here instead of filling up the area with a dining room table. This makes the kitchen feel much more open. In addition when I entertain everyone seems to hang out in the kitchen, so this makes for more comfy seating. Since I live in Tucson, AZ we enjoy our evening weather by dining/entertaining outdoors. If weather doesn't permit and it's just me and the hubby we eat at the island. If we have guests and the weather doesn't permit - we pull out the banquet table and use our eat-in kitchen.

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In my Great Room I don't use a coffee table. This makes for a much more open room and makes the space feel bigger. Instead I use TV Trays if needed or serving trays on the cubes.

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This is a wonderful thread...what a pleasure to see such pretty homes, inside and out! I see quite a few names I recognize here, I'm sure glad I wandered over.

I live is an approx. 1500 sq. ft. home, so it's pretty small. We lived here for five years before we did any renovating....we let the house tell us what it should look like. Since we're situated on a bluff, facing northwest, and the back of the house is mainly window, we get quite a bit of light, especially late afternoon/sunset light. The light has a golden amber quality, so I let that guide me in color selection. The living room is Laura Ashley Gold #4, the entryway is a striped combo of Golds #2 & #3, the den Olive #6, Kitchen a faux based on Olive #3, and the dining room is Burgandy #6. Our other rooms flow off the main colors....guest room is a Behr warm yellow, the hallway Laura Ashley Firewood (a dark reddish brown) and our master bedroom is a faux using LA Gold 5. I love how the colors work together to create an organic, warm look. Here's a sample:

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What a great thread. Everyones homes LOOK Fabulous and Sound wonderful.
At Our old house we went for a romantic cabin look in the great room and cottage in the rest - in these pics note the fp and hearth we did that ourselves and laid the floor also.

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This pic is of our guest br at old house
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These pics are of our mb at our old house

And this is what we did to stage it for sale
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There is a link to my photo bucket the first 12 pics are of our old home. Here at the new home it's still a work in progress and is a casual country cottage look except for the guest room ladies library that is romantic/victorian cottage. None of the rooms are done and we still need lots of case goods- ie book cases etc ... etc. I actually have been working on switching out lamp shades- making new ones and making pillows for the lr recently.
RaNae

Here is a link that might be useful: my photo bucket