Q: While we're talking Round Houses, I could really use everyone's input. My husband and I just bought at geodesic dome house, and are finding making a decorating plan more challenging than expected. For years we've dreamed of having a place that we could paint and decorate to our taste - and now that we have the opportunity, we're paralyzed by options yet paradoxically feeling constrained by the dramatic architecture of the space.

We take possession in a couple of weeks, and we don't have to do everything at once - but could really use help in focusing our initial efforts, especially in the living room. (I'm including pictures of several rooms to give a sense of the space; it's the previous owner's furniture.)

Some guiding thoughts:

1. Priority 1 is things we must do before moving in, which we figure is paint and (maybe) floors. Most of the house, except for the bedrooms, is painted pale pink, which has gotta go - but there are no clear room divisions except for the downstairs bedrooms, so that means the same color throughout most of the house. (We can't change the color of the fireplace.) We both think wood floors would be an improvement; I favor dark wood but my husband is afraid it would make the living room look dark. Light wood looks like a gymnasium floor to me. We both liked a beautiful high-contrast acacia wood in a showroom but wonder if it would be too busy. Should we cheap out (not that cheap) and just re-carpet until we figure it out? (We have to do something; the carpet that's there now is full of dog hair.)

2. There are a lot of white oak built-ins and accents throughout - practical, but not my favorite wood tone at all. Is there a way of working with them to make them seem less "country" but not obliterate the beauty that is Real Wood?

3. Our joint style is eclectic. We both like the idea of spare but have lots of stuff requiring storage; he tends towards bulky, traditional furniture while I like minimal shapes as long as they're comfortable; we both have (and like) a lot of Asian-influenced things because of our personal histories - but neither of us is of Asian descent, so we don't want to come across as posers. We both like natural elements.

4. Our current furniture (not pictured) is wholly negotiable, because I know that our current mish-mash of hand-me-downs is unlikely to work. So we'd appreciate suggestions for eventual replacements that would be appropriate for the space, which is not as big as I think it looks in the picture(s).

5. Just as an FYI, the fireplace is freestanding: the ledge around it is apparently just concrete blocks and plaster, so we were going to knock that out to create more floorspace, though we may have to put down some kind of firesafe flooring below it, like stone or tile. We were thinking that some time down the road we might replace the solid stair wall with balusters for more openness.

Sent by Ann

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