I'm so happy I'm going a deep treatment and don't have to break down the kitchen this week!

Instead, I'm faced with the super fun chore of making sure I'm really happy with the floor plan in the living room. I said I was, but then, there are a few minor issues. The first being that the space behind the red chair (which I'm sitting in right now!) always seems to be a logjam of side chairs, stacks of books, occasional tables, etc. No idea why this is the case, or how exactly to fix it. I also have residual fears that the room somehow manages to have both bowling alley AND movie theater syndromes.

any advice, from looking at my pictures in the group?

Opo, How about putting the red chair (reading nook) by the window next to your bedroom, and put a tall bookcase on each side of the TV? And maybe a plant where the bookcases are? I'm doing the Deep Treatment, so I need to start on the kitchen. Will catch up with before pics and the floors later.

The bookcases cannot be moved, because they act as one of the 4 walls of my bedroom (it was originally a dining nook, back when my roommate could afford the place on his own).

Moving the red chair over there might be an idea, though. Then the dining setup would go in the corner where the couch is now. And what about the couch... Unfortunately the TV has to stay over there, because it's the only good spot close to sufficient outlets.

It's also possible that a mere tweak of table and chair positioning in that area will fix it, and the furniture can stay largely as is. It might just be a matter of the chair being a touch too far back, and the dining area being a little too far over (we've had a tendency to scoot it out of the way of the window AC all summer).

Hmmm, opoponax, I know you said you're not planning on getting new furniture, but maybe you could get a love seat to position near where you currently have the red chair? I would put it perpendicular to the futon. That way it would form a more substantial "divider" between the living area and the dining area. It's hard to get a sense of the space from photos alone, so it may be that this wouldn't work, but there are some really compact vintage love seats out there...

But you know, it could be that in the process of "curing" and getting rid of things you might find that it works just fine. Maybe stuff piles up in that corner because you have stuff that just doesn't have a good place. Finding a good place for that stuff might just solve the problem.

Moving the chair more perpendicular to the couch might be interesting...

So the first thing I did when I got home from work was to pull the red chair towards the couch/coffee table and away from the dining area, and angle it more perpendicular to the couch (it has a habit of facing the TV more, gee, wonder why that is?). Will experiment with this. Later on, when I have a bit more energy, I'll also scooch the table and chairs back into their pre-dog days position.

That area collects cluter because it's a cul-de-sac in the room. It's bad flow. I'd also suggest that the little cupboard in the corner is suffering from the same problem.

It's hard to tell the scale of the floorplan from the photos, but here's a radical idea: move the "dining area" across the room to the bookcases. This will make the room's traffic pattern snake through the dead areas. Of course, for this to work, there has to be enough space so that snaking around to your bedroom isn't too much of a pain (i.e., the curves can't be too sharp). Which means that you have to have chairs that will tuck snugly into the table.

And speaking of chairs, do you realize that you have seating for nine people in this room? There are four "dining" chairs, one armchair, and a futon that can seat three. For only two people. No wonder it feels a bit crammed.

Could you remove one chair? Not the awesome school chair, and I know this barely counts as a chair because it's pretty low, but judging by the rest of the furniture I'd vote for removing the modern upholstered dining room chair. It looks out of place.

Or, if you don't use the school chair for seating, how about hanging it on the wall as art? Could be really cool and funky.

Done: some decluttering (still have to tackle the bookshelf); style choices and floorplan; some research into furniture.

Advice, anyone? I've got a door to a built-in cupboard that gets in the way all the time. Will it look really horrible if we remove it? I'm thinking either a curtain in it's place (preferably with a similar vibe to the felt "doors" in Maxwell's place) or maybe leaving it open but putting some colour on the back wall.

Also, does anyone know of good alternatives to filing cabinets?