Depending on if you have the cash to replace it, the futon could stay since it's actually about the right size for the space. A small corner desk to the left of the windows could be the perfect place to work and the chair currently to the left of the window could be the desk chair. To the right of the windows might fit your easel which would help to cover up the pipe. Place the last chair either in a right angle to the futon or maybe in front of the easel facing the futon. A small cabinet or bookshelf would look good under the window with a plant or two there. Now what to do with the large mirror, I'm not sure.

You have a lot of nice things to work with. Love the chairs. I think the problem is that there's too much going on and there's no places for the eyes to stop.

I would get rid of anything that can leave the room so there's less stuff to start with. I don't mind the futon and you could work around the tv, but if you don't want them, don't have them. Just keep the things that fill your specific needs in the room. I don't see your easel, and I think that should be featured in a corner with everything you need conveniently nearby. Remove something you don't need to make room for it.

You say you need a place to eat. Does that mean a table? Maybe a little table between the two chairs under the window. And you could work on it, too.

I think you need a large closed storage piece that will hold lots of stuff, so everything that's not being used at the moment can be concealed. A low, long buffet or used office credenza - places like Goodwill often have them or buy one cheaply on Craigs list. Or check Ikea. Put everything inside it and the tv on top, as a way of decluttering. Get rid of the 'entertainment center' it doesn't function well enough to take up that much space.

Then, paint all the furniture that's functional not beautiful, the same color - maybe white to blend into the wall. That will make the red chairs pop and highlight your easel.

The art and mirrors are also too scattered on the walls and they don't line up. The mirror on the floor takes up too much room and contributes to the snaggletooth skyline of the walls. So keep the art you like most and make a gallery wall. Maybe you can mix in some mirrors, too. If you want pictures on all 4 walls, make sure the tops of them line up around the room, so that there's a simple horizon.

In a space this small you need order and symmetry to rest the eyes and so that the best things stand out. Keep it simple. And you need furniture that allows you to hide all the stuff you need to have, but that isn't pretty.

The giant mirror looks heavy and I don't like it on the floor. You can build a support from 2x4s - just a rectangle that that lifts it to the desired height. You fasten to the wall with angle brackets and then fasten the mirror to the wall, too. You can cover the rectangular base with fabric, furniture, foamcore painted wall color.... anything.

I like your floor btw. I think it's lovely and warm and I kind of like the distressed/ missmatched places.

I say paint yourself some wainscoting! Painting your walls up to chair rail height would give your room some cohesiveness and, I think, tie in well with the modern/baroque feel.

The more you edit out items that add to visual clutter--even if you just box them up for a while, the more you'll be able to see your modern and Baroque pieces. W/o really knowing what I'm looking at, these look "clutter-y" to me: bottle on radiator; things on top of TV; box (?) under chair; blue tote by tufted chair; sheep skins; things on dresser. I love your huge mirror, but the mirror over the radiator doesn't add anything to the room. While a mirror might visually open up a room, it also "mirrors" (doubles) the clutter. Your wall art seems random. Experiment w/unifiying it, e.g. take down the prints and put all the paintings on one wall; take off all the frames; or paint all the frames the same color. Finally, in the photos, your floors look great. You COULD paint a large drop cloth and use that as a rug, but, again, that might add to the clutter.

I love all your peices, not to mention how lucky I think you are to have a place that came with the pipe and the cool bars on the windows...call me crazy but i think those things give your place a little bit of edge. the cheapest way to update any space is paint. my room has a similar layout, tons of stuff and little space...i went with a light gray and i am so happy with it....not too much color but just enough. i personally like the clutter of all the prints and paintings on your walls...but maybe find a way to connect them all together with all different frames painted the same color. i would keep the mirror on the floor, its cool, but maybe no so much the one hanging on the wall. once you pair down which furniture you want to keep just paint them all the same high gloss color and they will look more unified. hope i helped a little, good luck

I won't write an essay on the topic, but oh dear does that room need some new paint on the walls! A yellow will warm the room up and make it feel more airy or a green will be more calming. I like the idea of a wainscoting, or even just a chair rail, and a coat of green paint. I think that would look great with the chair in the corner by the giant mirror.

And I'm really concerned about the mirrors. I know that many people think they help expand a small space, but if you're not careful with them they just double the visual clutter. If you really want a mirror in there, I would pare it down to just one.

Wow. Thanks all! Lots of great stuff here, and I can't tell you how much your comments help me look at this objectively. Please keep them coming - they're awfully encouraging!

The walls are a very pale pink (they were UPS brown when I moved in, with a dropped acoustical ceiling to boot). I'm loathe to paint again, but will consider it. I realize the mirrors are adding to the cluttered, "snaggletooth" feel, but there's very little light in this room. Will work on editing and rearranging over the weekend, and look forward to posting an update soon.

Thanks again, with best wishes for a great holiday weekend!

1)Get rid of the futon. Find a fabulous neutral (or something retro with orange in it) couch on Craigslist. Make sure its bed-bug free.
2) Put the large couch on the wall where the big mirror is. Put the two chairs in a U shaped configuration with it.
3) Paint all the mirror frames the same color (perhaps the orange of the chair you painted? or black, or white, or glossy chocolate, or the same color that you ultimately paint the walls...) and cluster them on the wall where the futon currently is. They'll bounce the light from the window. Fill in the spaces between them with little mirrors you pick up for nothing at thrift stores and paint them the same color. (or ditch the two smaller mirrors and just have that one floor mirror. But I'd paint it that lovely hermes orange you have on the chair. Fun.)
4) Get rid of the little rugs and flokati; get somesthing large and square and neutral. Let your clear love of orange rule the day here and paint the walls a pearly grey or cream, or bright bright white.
5) Reupholster the seat of the wooden arm chair with a fantastic and expensive patterned fabric. You dont have any pattern in there.
6) Gather all your paintings on the wall above the new couch. Hang them salon style, covering as much of the wall as you can. I'm not a fan of glass covered prints, in general - I don't like the glare - so I'd get rid of them. Leave the other walls, except for the mirror wall, blank. Give the eye someplace to rest.
7) Get an old coffee table -- maybe round to soften all the angles in the room -- and either paint it a pale robin's egg blue - orange's complementary color -- or another color drawn from the new seat fabric, or the wall color (in high gloss) or if it's got a great finish as is, leave it alone. Any furnitrue you have that you need for function purposes but that doesnt look great, paint it the same color as the walls. I'm convincing myself that you need a an icy grey. Stone Harbor from Benjamin Moore? There's an Apartment therapy post
8) Look for something steel or metal to put the tv on. You need something a little shiny in there.
9) Frame a small square of the leftover fabric from the arm chair, paint the frame the same color as the mirrors, and hang it on the mirror wall somewhere in between the rest of the stuff.
10) Lamps lamps lamps.
11) Go to HGTV's design gallery and see what you like. That can help you make some decisions and refine your ideas.
11) Read this for some more ideas (and very didactic direction: http://howtorunyourlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-decorate-your-living-room-from.html
and let me know where you are located and what your absolute budget is for the room. I will surf your local craigslist and post suggestions and links on the blog above...

1. After telling you to declutter, I did some decluttering myself. Thanks for the inspiration.
2. I looked up a word "pamh" used, "flokati." It really IS something, but I think it's perfect for describing junk floating around a room, like flotsam.

Huzzah! I've actually just removed the rugs and a few other things - it feels great to just have a place to begin. Thanks to all for the advice and support, and Pamh, thanks for the specificity and offer of help. I may have to wait on a new sofa for a little bit - how can I paint the wood on this one without it getting natty?

While I'm at it, and since I have a room full of brilliant minds, what are your thoughts about painting a small, dark room gray? I like the concept, but fear that the execution will leave me feeling like I'm in Sing Sing...

As for painting the futon wood, there are quite a few good tutorials out there that I'd encourage you to look up, but here are the basic steps to get a great, hardwearing finish: sand to remove the shine on the finish, coat with an oil based primer, paint (the hardest wearing would be an oil based enamel), and top off with a few coats of poly. Make sure you wait all the proper drying times between coasts, and make sure you let it sit for a week or so at the end to let it really cure up before you start using it.

I like grey, I love dark grey -- but if you are going to go that route really commit to it. Don't know if it is your style but Freeman's restaurant has a pretty cool interior done in all grayed-down colors. And lots of taxidermy, which I love.
As for couches: There are free couches -- I'm checking manhattan free listings but if that's not your borough, let me know. Educate yourself on the tell tale signs of bed bugs before picking up something free.
Couches are really hard to unload -- so if you find one that you like that costs something, make an offer.
Here are some promising recent ads for free couches (also search sofa):
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/zip/1926290257.html
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/zip/1925532379.html
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/zip/1924962215.html
This one is $50 bucks in Brooklyn
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1932826229.html
You should also check out shophousingworks.com -- the Housing Works Thrift shops online store. Or just haunt those stores to see what comes in. Getting it delivered will be your biggest pain in the ass. but its worth it once you do.

here's somethingn from housing works on the upper west side -- particularly fun, in an 80s way, if you went with grey walls:
http://www.shophousingworks.com/lot.cfm?lotID=58825
currently listed at $95.

Nicole, this free grey sofa and easy chair just posted -- do you have strong friends?
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/zip/1927184040.html

You've got a very cozy room. I actually lived in same size space (a single-room house) for 10+ years and loved every day of it! I'd:

-first do a little declutter for the frames. After reviewing which one to keep, etc. some basic re-framing and / or passepartout work may add a lot visual quality and integrity.
-Fix a counter-table (if you can) along the window-wall. The other chair can find its way there, this way...
-replace the large mirror with the bookcase: after having TV, entertainment & the large mirror gone you'll have certain space, why not use for the books?
- you may even merge the bookcase with the counter-table, maybe by first placing the bookcase on the side to the window (if fits well) then measure the table top shape.
-keep the futon and place it next to the lamp. With that you'll have a cozy spot between light & along-the-wall desk: good for working with laptop, reading and or tea time ;)
-what about painting the walls in a warm/bright color you like?

Oh, I just read your latest comment/question about having Grey as wall paint. I'm skeptical about that, because grey-tones might be very tricky in changing lights through the seasons and you may end up in darker room than you imagine at first. I'd recommend going for bright tones. Good luck :)

I'm not a design expert or anything, but since you love modern style so much, there are some great modern-looking futons out there that look more like a couch than a futon. We just bought one to replace a couch and will replace our other couch next payday. They look AWESOME! And no one knows they are futons until we unfold them and then they are amazed! Most people think they are new, cool modern couches. :)

First of all, your room is really cute and has lots of potential!!! I really like it.
The first thing that came to my mind was to paint the wall behind your futon in your favourite colour (I personally would do maybe some kind of dusty "lavender" to help the orange chairs to really pop out). I'd hang the silver-framed mirror over the futon (horizontally) in order to catch some of the light coming from the main window. Add some throw pillows to the futon in coordinating colours. Maybe you could arrange your artwork and pictures around the mirror...make it sort of a gallery wall. Swap the coffee table for something with an elliptical shape and use a bigger single cream-coloured rug instead of the sheep skins.
If you plan to get rid of the entertainment centre, maybe you could put a small desk and chair into that corner (e.g. MDF and trestles). I'd put the easel into the right corner, opposite of the futon. These are some ideas that I think could be realised if you' re on a tight budget. But still I think that you have great stuff to work with and I'm looking forward to see what you come up with ;-)