The house looks very livable. I love that you have concentrated on creating one nice bath with separate walk in shower and a windowed tub! Since you have already thought of it, I'm going to assume that the attic is for future expansion and cannot be adapted for use as the current "away room." We are also in the process of designing a small house, and we've designated our study as the "away room." Ours will open off the dining room. If you switched the locations of the Study and Bed 1 on the same side, you could put french doors or an extra wide door with etched or decorative glass from the hallway into the right hand corner of the study. This would give you a really long diagonal view through the lounge and out the french doors, and from the lounge through the study to the window at the far end... The study window should be increased in width to match the neighboring window in Bed 1, and it then becomes ripe for a small window seat, either a clip on bay bumping out, or a "built-in" bay using narrow built ins on either side. Or both: build "in" for now, putting file cabinet drawers under the window seat, and angled corner units in for storage, and add the bump out bay later when you know whether your offspring would prefer a really cute desk, or a window seat, or a bed nook. You would, alas, lose the door from Bed 1 into the bath.... but honestly, there are lot of doors into that bathroom already, and that one has substantial collision potential. It might be best to make the single access point that door from the laundry. Either a glass panel set high in the bath room doors or a transome would make it easy to tell when someone is in the loo. Other ideas would be to split the nook under the stairs, so that half the depth opens to the lounge, and the other half to Bed2... with the wall thickness, you probably get close to 600mm or 2' on each side. Add a deep bookcase or other built in, and you're easily at a depth that makes both spaces very tucked in. Lastly, if funds allow a shallow bay window over the kitchen sink would visually expand the kitchen, particularly if you could arrange it so that the counter runs right into the bay.

Thank you so much for your comment after all this time. The colour you have suggested brightens the front door area beautifully and if the two red pots were painted in a tone to match, we think it would look great. Not sure if you can get Crestview doors in New Zealand but there must be something similar. We like the idea of going away from another cedar door - mainly because it would stand out too much while it was weathering. I don't know whether we would have been that brave but the tangerine works so well with the jade green of the joinery. I have re-laid all the stones and put a new wider front step in. The timber colour will soften down in time. I put a big pot in the garden to draw visitors to the front door and have added some colourful bromeliads to the garden alongside the house to make the area a bit more cheerful. We can't make a decision about what to do with a larger 'overhang' to protect the front porch yet - it is a project in progress. Thanks again for your post.

Try this. Hang the television to the right of the wood stove on the wall opposite the french doors. Use the wall with the high windows for a looong sofa and add two chairs across / angled slightly - low back so you can look over one to television. use console / sofa table on entry /bed door wall just past where entry door opens so you have a lay down surface. Forget glass, it isn't for this era and won't make it feel bigger. Paint ALL french doors inside and out and small windows and entry door same color and trim same color too. Try a charcoal rather than a black - something in the blue-green-gray shades like new providence navy. do all the walls in kitchen and living in a warm white - this tone has the wood as an undertone - http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/woodash then, for the cabinets . . do a bungalow thing and go deeper on the cabinets to a classic drabware tone - with the wood walls and floors / try bm bracken biscuit http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/brackenbiscuit these will all go together like gangbusters, keep it light and bright but interesting and work with a new blue green gray back door in a tone like bm beach glass http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/beachglass templeton gray as a counterpoint on some craigslist piece of furniture . . add warm undertone tan and oatmeal nubby tweed upholstery to start . . the teal navy gray will work with the black iron stove and accents without going black. start keeping the left door to the kitchen closed and get a door stop to hold the other one open permanently . . this will work because you need a little more wall to make the tv work well - in the kitchen, pull your table away from the wall just a tad - consider a padded bench on the wall to provide a kind of sitting space in there and put the chairs across - if you shift your television to the wall (high enough the heat is not an issue , you can still have big speakers work well - and remote the media equipment - run the wire and patch the holes. Hang it mid-height - eye level when you sit plus 15 degrees . . check out the amazing sconces you can put on the entry wall - shades of light petersik pendant with home-made trim wood brace to pump it out from the wall since the power is high? over the console? round wood table in middle - even a hd butcherblock round on a painted drum base in trim tone? With those tones - teal gray, biscuit, creamy off-white, muted blue-greens - paint your white chairs and a hand me down bench wythe blue and find a graphic sunbrella print with a little blue green, chocolate and orange for cushions and pad skirts with velcro at the table . . make a galvinized pipe leg / plank 1 x 12 / clear finish console for behind the door . . now you are cooking with gas . .

Hi nikki. This post has my creative juices flowing. The vertical space you have in abundance is seldom seen in regular interiors, and I will impart some ideas that I have implemented in commercial spaces. The bookcase is an amazing idea, it will not only solve a storage problem, but will add instant personality and style to your space. Bookcases don't dictate a style, so they are timeless and seldom date. They can be interpreted and styled in many ways so they have flexibility most other pieces do not. The flatpack bookcases come in many sizes, height and widths, so using this to advantage, I would measure the wall to the right of the door, and then mark that distance on the left side also. This is the area I would shelve! Only I suggest full height for maximum effect, and designer conviction! Floor to ceiling, in smaller widths is often featured in your trendy mags, Milans furniture fair loves to set up bookcases that emphasize space and light, the higher the more dramatic and the more customized they appear. Flat pack shelves mean you could afford to do this, and cleverly sort out your best fit scenario. I would even punctuate some of your bookshelf backs wi your accent colours with smaples of wallpapers that feature your accent colours. Places like masters offer free samples of them, or you could even colour photocopy prints offline. Simply temporarily set them into. Backs and display your face objects in these ones. The remaining wall left without shelving, upon entering the room, I would either paint a colour, or line it with horizontal timber planks. ( engineered flooring planks) are cheapest and most effective as their surfaces can be cleaned easily. This will add major wow factor and lengthen the wall visually, it will also clear the entrance sufficiently and allow the bookshelves even more effect. I myself would mirror this section of wall, which would be expensive, but would open the space dramatically, and look super clean. Just remember to leave a shelved area open for your tv, and forward think for another objects like lamps of entertainment units that may need housing. Lastly, depending on your style, I would track down an old painters ladder with cross bracing on eBay etc, and paint it black or turquoise. Lean it (fix it) against your shelving or even blank wall to tie in your amazing new library. Good luck!