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!

Beautiful clean modern kitchen! You have a great opportunity to put your personal stamp on the space with a unique backsplash. As you've heard already there are some different approaches. I'd probably place the backsplash up to the wall cabinets and up to the base of the hood. Then continue the backsplash at the same height (18"?) behind the sink. Then place an inspiring colorful picture above the sink to break up the wall. Here's a picture with pendants that aren't too obtrusive. Having multiple levels of lighting at different lumens makes a more inviting feel to the space. I couldn't decipher your flooring, but you may also want to consider adding some nature elements like a type of wood flooring, wood stools, etc. Good luck! If you need software to plan out materials check out our Home Designer software: http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/

This is a kitchen going into a dog kennel building so I'm not too worried about resale. My dogs are raw fed and so I spend quite a bit of time prepping food, washing bowls, etc. I'm only 5'6" but I've been doing these tasks in our house... in our current kitchen which has counters at 35 1/2"... and my back is constantly killing me after I get done. I've purchased a long stainless steel counter top for the kennel (with built in sinks) but plan on the cabinets underneath being custom built. Just can't figure out what height. I was wondering... if I'm sitting at a table (which is comfortable for me to work at for hours on end) and I measure where the table top "hits" on my body and then stand and measure the distance to the floor, it's about 41". I'm wondering if that is an indication as to where my counters in the kennel should be! Seems awfully high! I may need to take the counter top I've bought and put it on some saw horses and varying heights and work on it to see what is best before I make the call!

We have a 900x900 shower and it's plenty big enough. Neither of your proposed layouts looks that great, to be perfectly honest, sorry! In the first layout, you could improve it quite a lot by swapping the toilet and vanity (centre the toilet under the window on the bottom right of the picture if possible), and having the shower door on the other wall (beside the door). Then, you could have a towel rail on the wall beside the door (i.e. behind the door when it's open), which would be accessible from the shower but hidden when the door was open. An 800x1200 shower might be a good size for your space. You'd have to choose a toilet that doesn't protrude too far, plus a narrow vanity. With that layout, you could have a long but narrow wall-hung vanity, with a big mirror covering the wall between the windows, which would make the room feel bigger and would give a good amount of storage. Also, you may find this helpful: http://www.houseplanshelper.com/small-bathroom-floor-plans.html?utm_content=buffer4aa20&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer