You need light and bright. Being rented is tough. First change out the drapes with to the floor length. Cream with a horizontal stripe of brown to match or furniture. This will 1. get rid of the horrid things hanging there 2. pull the initial visual to that wall instead of the floor. Tall and high colors ( mango, aqua, yellow) decorations on your mantel with shorter cream and brown items. Then a large square table in the middle, painted distressed cream, with high color items setting on it. DIY project or Ikea. Green is the number one calming color, just don't let it put you to sleep. :)

I would consider something light with some other colors to mix in like this. http://t.homedepot.com/p/Silestone-2-in-Quartz-Countertop-Sample-in-Mont-Blanc-SS-Q0220/203674451/ I like the wood paneling and would paint it a white with a warm feel to it. A white will reflect a lot of light from your large window. I wouldn't paint the window casing as it might tie in better with the rest of the house. Good luck!!

Hi There, Not sure if you are still looking for art/canvas for your space, but I'd thought id share my work with you. I'm a contemporary Aboriginal Artist located in Newcastle NSW. My works have been commissioned for a number of personal and commercial spaces including John Hunter Hospital, OPSM (Luxottica) Australia, St Vincents Hospital Sydney and Taronga Zoo, to name a few. My artworks have also won a number of prizes including Singleton Art Prize, OneSight Global Ray-Ban Wayfarer Indigenous design which saw my artwork produced on Ray-Ban Wayfarers and Wild at Taronga where I painted a full size rhino. The following artwork is a 2 panel piece and tells the story of our nations’ journey and the coming together and sharing of culture. Large red meeting circles, central within the design, are connected reflecting unity and reconciliation across cultural diversity. The continuous unbroken smaller circles woven throughout the piece are symbolic of community, Government and Corporate and the commitment to work together around shared vision to create better futures for our children. Linked to together the circles are also representative of the inevitable flow of future generations and a passing on of the baton to our youth. Size: 600 x 1200 x 2 http://www.saretta.com.au/collections/online-gallery/products/cross-cultures-series-2 I also have a number of other artworks at www.saretta.com.au. All the best with your design. Saretta

Thanks for the replies! My wife suggested we talk to a local real estate agent, so i think that is a good idea... just that Im not sure how helpful they are likely to be if we arent selling yet :) As for saving for our dream house, I dont disagree, however if doing this up nicely over the next ~5 years or so while we live here nets us some extra in the eventual sale, then that of course will help us as well. Interesting thing happened today actually. I got a knock on the door and one of the older neighbours asked if he could take some lemons from the tree. I of course said yes. Anyway he was telling me he had lived in the street for 40 years. I asked him if the house had always looked like this, and he said no that ~30 years ago the old old owner did a massive renovation and pulled off the timber and put up the bricks and gutted the inside of the house. Interesting stuff!