Hi Tavolla, As you didn't provide much information, I thought I would give you a creative layout to help you think outside of the box a bit. Your living and dining rooms are very "normal" layouts in the UK and many people tent to be very unimaginative when positioning furniture and laying them out ;-) Also, I don't know anything about you or your family and usually I woudl want to know how you live before providing a layout for anyone. But I thought, no-one had given you any help yet, so why not just do a fun sketch! I also don't know your level of knowledge or design aesthetic, so please don't be offended if I explained the obvious ;-) So here is your quick layout sketch. I hope it will help you set up a lovely home. My only other note, is if you plan on hanging pendants above the table like I have drawn, ensure that they align with the centre of the opening to the living room or very obviously off centre, so that they don't look like a mistake. Be deliberate with your choices and have a good reason behind their placement. If you chose this kind of layout, the lights and the table will "steal the show", so if it were me, this is where I woudl invest my money, as they will be visible from 3 rooms - all of the time. I'd love to see photos of your finished room! Jo x

We may not share artistic values but we do share one good thing... love and our life together - he's simply your typical man who loves to lounge around even when covered in dirt! We may have completely different ideas for our home but he is a good egg :) Anyway I do believe we have found common ground... surprisingly he really likes my idea of using grey with bright colours. We have agreed that as long as I stop forcing him to endure flamingos or similar, he will put up with me buying vintage and completely unnecessary furniture. He's said I can do whatever I want with those awful armchairs... WIN! I think we are going with man friendly greys meets pops of colour/vintage. It's pay day next week and I simply can't wait any longer!! Having said that... some ideas for what style of vintage and arrangements will be wonderful! Here is the photo from my kitchen door - anything attached to the walls were already there from the previous residents and will be removed... such as the mirror which isn't in line with that hideous folding table and the strange religious wall in the corner.... plus the half finished wallpaper on the chimney breast lol. x

Dear all, Thank you for your very helpful comments! I greatly appreciate it. My partner likes curtains (he always found curtains pretty and they would help with insulation as we have single glazed windows) although I also love the idea of blinds and see how curtains can crowd the place and get a bit lost behind the sofa. I think the idea of oatmeal curtains or blinds with a blue trim would be really lovely and I will definitely look into this. Do you mean a trim running the vertical length of the fabric? We had thin sheer white shades already that you can see now in the pictures. Carolina, it's great advice to make sure to get wider poles so the curtains flank the windows - I think this will make a big difference to open up the room. If we get curtains we would also probably replace the wooden poles with thin chrome poles. Bathroom Eleven, thank you also very much for recommending blue cushions to tie it all together and suggesting we switch the table direction. I followed your advice on both (I had gotten this cushion last week and didn't put it out yet) and I think it looks great! I will look at the links you sent. Thank you all very much again. Beks

Can you post some photos and give more details such as how light the room is and what aspect it is. Also, what time of day do you use it most etc.