A little while ago, one of my friends started talking to me about design.  She explained that her living room was in serious need of some TLC, but she didn't even know where to start.  Isn't that always the hardest part?

With Jen's living room, it was hard to know which was more difficult to work around - the strange floor plan, or the fact that the room also had to play a part as dining room, office, craft room, and play room! Using baskets to hide toys and multi-functional furniture pieces helped to solve this problem though.

For example, using a large chest for a coffee table gives you great storage for pillows, blankets, games, or the toys that your toddler likes to play with.  While their dining area was doubling as an office, they needed storage for files and other office-type things, but wanted to keep them out of the way.  I found this nice file console - it can hide the office supplies while functioning as a dining buffet table for decor or food items!

I had so much fun combining her style (traditional/contemporary) with her husband's (modern).  It's still a work in progress, but I love the way the design turned out.  More importantly, they did too!  :)  I wish I had some great "after" pictures to share, but alas, I don't... not yet at least. In the meantime, enjoy the design boards

Floorplan and Color Scheme

Living Room

Dining Room

A quick sketch of what it would look like