Just bought a pedestal tv stand to use as a place holder for the *expensive* flat screen in the future. Here it is.

And here is a sample fabric that I'm going to use for accent pillows. It's silk and expensive. I like the frivolous look of the polka dots. I'm hoping if I upholster the Asian style ottoman in orange with pink piping it will match the frivolous look. That will tame down the start white and more modern furniture like the sofa, tv stand, and flat screen tv.

Also on the wish list is a 12-24 gallon Nano cube salt water aquarium with a cool modern stand.

My coworker came over last night to give me some decorating advise. She was very good actually. She mentioned that large-small-large-small furniture or art heights help the sight/vision flow around the room.

Here are her suggestions::

Velvet fabric with piping for the ottoman (could do orange/hotpink piping)
Foot of the bed, narrow console/sofa table
Art grouping over bed using favorite picture and 3 smaller matching frames
Good store for cheap small orchids
Curtains around the bed and fabric to make a lowered ceiling (mirroring the sofa nook ceiling)
Shades that pull up from the bottom (to block view but let in light at top) LOVE this idea!! And found a good DIY article using small tension rods and fabric!

Here is my apartment layout









And here is my apartment. First four pictures taken from my bed


A(Bedroom window & door)


B (Main Window & Door)


C (soon-to-be-orange-nook)

Pictures from the couch...
D (TV stand, gas radiator, & closet door & kitchen door)


E (TV stand & gas radiator)

F (TV stand & bed)









D (Bed window, door, & main window on left)



The IKEA shelves are floor to ceiling poles, and 50" wide, same as the windows actually. The chest drawer of the shelves will go right under the window and the shelves will be staggered like on the cat tree. There will only be a few small plants on the shelves so they will still be very see-through and let in most of the light. However they would distract people on the street from looking completely in.

I do have blinds on the windows : ) The dresser in front of the bed will go it's just a tv stand for now.

Well, I have a coworker coming over tomorrow to help but I'm not sure what would be best here.


I have the awesome shelves I can put on either side of the front door. But I do need a landing strip "bench" that I'm going to make out of IKEA white shoe cabinets. It's going to be an MDF box with shoe cabinets mounted on the sides and an upholstered top. Like Angie's upholstered storage ottomen.









However, it won't be nearly as pretty as the wood table I have their now. The walls around the couch will be orange and I could just paint orange around the window too. That way the no-so-pretty "bench" will not blend into white walls.

***OR***

I could scrap the shelving (which will definitly go somewhere else in the living space - I love it so) and do this cool shelving from IKEA which I really like too. This way the shelving is open so light gets through but sort of prevents people from looking in. They will walk by on the street and see the shelving with plants which will distract them from looking past the shelving. Here are some examples of the shelving set up different ways.





















Now do I balance it out with a unit on the other side of the door?






I'm thinking white shelving against the orange wall for the left side of the door (facing door). But what color for the right side of the door? The "bedroom" side? The bed is dark brown. I'm thinking dark brown shelving to go with the bed, thoughts?





Here is cool Cat Shelving made out of this shelving. It's in another language but the pictures are good.



http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/search/label/pet%20furniture Past half way down the page


http://www.niksa.net/kuvat/kiipeilypuu Great Pictures of it


http://www.niksa.net/kiipeilypuu.html Forgin site


http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/ Ikea Hacker site, neat things to make out of Ikea furniutre