Are you allowed to paint? We rented a housein Belize that had bright white walls with blood red trim. We painted the trim bright, clean, fresh white then painted each room. The living room was a soft beige (the color of sand), the kitchen a soft yellowish-gold (the color of morning sunshine), our bedroom was the soft blue of the morning sky, the office/2nd bedroom was watery green (like the ocean) and the bathroom was midnight blue (like th enight sky). It had old harvest gold fixtures, so this color detracted your eyes from them. You can do basically the same thing. Use the colors that are in the tile, but use different shades of them. Go lighter or darker depending on th eroom and the amount of natural light it receives. I wish you all the best!

Hi definitely remove the x bars on the deck balustrade. Landscape close to the house so it grounds the house. Trees will make it look less bare. Chose some that work for your area, that are evergreen, and are not going to grow really big. With a really plain house - dark colors will make it look better. Dark Grey, or black with a warm tone so it doesn't have a blue undertone in it. Make sure it is a warm grey or black. Use green foliage around it. Paint out the pergola in the dark grey too or white if you want a different look. Fill in the balustrade where the x is removed with plants in front of those areas. Grow a vine up the pergola that is nice.

We got the IKEA shelves that are pictured in the butlers pantry photo I posted when we were on holiday in Melbourne, Australia. We don't have IKEA here in New Zealand! Hubby is going back over in May/June so will get him to get more of that sort of thing when there. We would pay about 4x the price for that sort of thing here in NZ. I need to work out what I will do now where the fridge was and there is the angle change (does that make sense?).

Hi Calypso. We would need a lot more information to be really useful, but to start with I suggest you look at as many rooms as you can to see what you like. I've put, for example, two very different ways of using it below. What's your style? Crisp, romantic, girly, quirky? Maybe start with whichever of these two rooms you like best and then think about what you would like to change in the room to bring it closer to being right for you. Then look for other styles of rooms, either on Houzz or on Google images or in magazines. Work out what makes you say, "Yes, please!" Then determine what furniture you have that needs to stay -- if the colour's not right, can you paint it? If you could give us a couple of pics of the room as it is now, with that information, and an idea of what kind of room you dream of, you could get more useful help. In my opinion, a reader needs good bedside lights and a well-lit reading chair, as well, of course, as bookshelves -- and there are all kinds of great ways to fit shelves into a room. Do you also need homework space in your bedroom? There are all sorts of super ways to accessorise your room to reflect your love of reading, too. But first things first ....