Hi, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying summer (or winter). It seems odd for interior design to be my first topic here in such a long while, but on the other hand, it makes perfect sense for me to bring it here.

We've lived here in our 1200-square foot condo in Boston for over five years and only recently have I begun to think about really making our place warm and inviting. It's really challenging for me. Despite my apt sense of successful design in other homes, I am bad at creating it myself.

It's made harder because I am anxious about avoiding cluttered spaces (this is a remnant of living in a tiny Tokyo apartment for a few years right after college), so I tend to not want to stuff a room with furniture. But then I end up with a room that's kind of dull and empty-ish and lacking that organic feeling. It's like there's furniture pushed up against the wall and an open space. I realize I am particularly bad at designing the structural elements of a room. I mean, the bones, rather than the things that the eye would be drawn to. To me this means I could have beautiful decorative objects, but I need to figure out what type of shelving or sofa table or whatever to place them on, and how to space everything out. I'm just not happy with any of the spaces I've lived in all my adult life. I don't think they have dimensionality, if that makes sense.

I'm particularly wanting my living room to look better so people will really enjoy visiting. And it's where I spend most of my time when I'm home. It's not a big space, but it's open and connects directly to our open kitchen space, which you can't see in the photo.

I'm already hindered in that we have one wall that's completely filled with shelving and a flat-screen TV. (Which husband insisted we get when we moved here...and now we never watch TV at all....sigh). Across from that is, logically, our sofa. What I'm thinking I might be able to get rid of is the matching armchair and the ottoman. I don't even have a coffee table (hating that "clutter"--we use the ottoman. I just hold onto my drink.) No one ever uses that chair, it's too matchy matchy with the sofa, and it's just a question of convincing hubs that the room will look better without its bulk.

Anyway so we have the odd corner on the right with the shelving jutting out. And on the left, in the pic, you can see a door to a storage closet.

(Wow, this is turning out to be a novel!)

So I thought about putting a display table up against that far wall, that could hold houseplants and pretty things. I have a friend who makes gorgeous, industrial, steampunk-y artisan tables. I'll include a pic or two of them. One issue is that his tables are slightly long for the space, and would cut into the windows, which are very low to the floor. I also don't know how much it could liven up the space. Do I still need a coffee table? I guess, but something I could easily move because in winter I do my workouts in that space.

What else might help? I'm thinking plants on the top shelves, but there just always seems to be something essential I can't put a finger to. I had thought putting up pictures (after over three years here) would do it, but it's not been enough.

I realize I am mostly thinking out loud here....(if you have read this far--THANKS.) But even if you have no specific recommendations for me, perhaps you know of some design website.... I've looked at Apartment Therapy so far. It just seems like my room is kind of weird.

Or, as my artist, furniture-making friend said today, "You think too much." Heh.

Thanks for any advice and again, sorry about the extreme length (and about not being on here very much......) xoxoxoxoxo