Now it's beginning to work! Luv the rug! A few more red showstoppers, and I luv the post about matting your family pic, and larger frame for it. Looks like you might be a bit uncomfortable with the great post idea of moving your sofa out into the room away from wall. If so, could you accept putting it diagonally from the entrance doorway, across that corner where it is, stopping at the edge of your window? That's a bit of a move outward, still can see the fp and tv, and show off your new rug, which could go diagonally in front of the sofa. Then, if you like that, after a while you could move it on out as Deb K suggests. Sometimes intermediate steps are more doable for us than those big changes.Same with painting; if you could first paint just the fp wall, then later paint other walls...seems some color would really make it more homey. Would you cosider a quite contemporary fixture for the light in the center ceiling? Maybe a bit of red could go there!

Oh so cool you noticed that we're trying to achieve a french country/industrial look or did we write that somewhere? I've attached some other photos of a bedroom and the foyer (of those we've taken so far), but are absolutely open to suggestions on a "beachy" feel as well or instead of. Although because its a beach house we don't want to go over board on expense and hence keeping what we already have, and just adding personality to it, if you get what we mean. Kingsize Black upholstered headboard to come in that bedroom.

Mona you have seen exactly the dilemmas I'm facing with this room so I really appreciate your comments. I was focusing on no1, but really 2 and 3 are on my mind too. In terms of getting some continuity between the rooms I was planning on recovering the dining chairs in a fabric to tone with cushions/throws on the white couch, ottomans in a matching tone, and pulling this colour scheme through into cushions in the formal lounge. I love the spring colours at the moment (greens, blues etc) which you can see i'm playing with at the moment but you might be able to see the painting in the formal room which is orange, red and yellow with a blue/purple base. So I'm very keen on colour and so tired of the brown carpet and neutral walls. I was also going to restain the dining table and chairs to a dark mahogany colour, and change the bar stools to something more modern. re: rug closer to sofa, I've done this and it looks off-balance with nothing else in the space. It seems to work better in the middle of the carpet area at the moment. Perhaps thats because I haven't ordered the ottomans yet. I don't want to add a coffee table to this room as prefer Ottoman to put feet up on. I've attached a pic of a rug, do you think something like this would work better? re the wall: yes this is the major for me at the moment. It is a TV room so tv and speakers stay and I wont be adding any custom cabinetry. The idea was to increase the space in this room by removing all of the cabinets and they are now in the adjoining room. The speaker covers have not been painted as I needed to work out what wall covering to apply, and colour etc. so once they are painted the wall colour they will blend in better. The idea of shelving has merit, I'll have to have a think more about that... Any other thoughts you have are appreciated.

An entire wall of built-in cabinets and hooks and cubbies for your crafting stuff (and perhaps filing-type stuff and printer for the office). Take a good look at what you have and think about how best to organize and store it and what could be displayed to be pretty and what should be hidden behind curtains or doors. A fold down ironing board on a wall or back of a door somewhere would be great. A nice desk and filing cabinet for the office side... or perhaps a great big table in the middle under the window, wide enough to function for both of you facing each other? A nice curtain rod would make a big difference too. Preferably just about floor to ceiling. I'd put a splash of colour on the walls and keep the curtains simple, but you could go vice-versa too. Something like this: [https://www.houzz.co.nz/photos/modern-bungalow-phvw-vp~4999540[(https://www.houzz.co.nz/photos/modern-bungalow-phvw-vp~4999540)