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Shawn Lagemann A bit more information would be helpful. What style are you going for, contemporary, traditional? What about the mouldings and doors? Do/will you have crown moulding? How high are the ceilings? The floorplan does not have the rooms marked, bedroom, kitchen etc? All white spaces can be beautiful if done well, or sometimes they can be uninteresting and cold. What about the flooring?

Daniela First of all I'd like to thank you for your prompt response. I'm going for contemporary style, I don't have crown moulding, the ceilings have approximately 2.4 meters. Rooms marked: 1= kitchen; 2,6=hallways, 4=living-room, 7=bathroom, 8= bedroom, 3,8= now there are closets(but 3 will become the fridge's place I think, and 8 will become the place for the washing machine, if I can't find the solution to put it in the kitchen or in the bathroom). Now there the floor is with brown parquet, but it is old and I have to change it too(no preferences on color or kind). Thanks!

Dytecture I like the direction you are heading with white walls and light wood flooring. It's not necessary to add gray and black tones.

Daniela Hi Dytecture!
Thank you for the suggestion, I like the apartments you sent me!
But I have a problem: all my life(in my parents' house) I had white walls and brown furniture in my house because of my mother, so I want to change a little bit, to put some color in my life ... :)

mrstinylady Love the apt and your Ideabook!
Hate the idea of churning laundry noise in the bedroom.
Could #5 be the laundry?
If you put the fridge in #3, you will not have a foyer closet.
Can you post photos (empty rooms still allow us a good view).

Anyway, here's what I would do.

Daniela Thank you for the advice, I was thinking the same arrangement for the bedroom and bathroom!
I was thinking that the washing machine can be put under the sinks in the bathroom, but I'm not sure that is a good idea.
The problem remains living room and kitchen: I can't break the wall between them(is a resistance wall). Do you have another opinion?

mrstinylady Yes! Let me play and I'll repost.

mrstinylady Qustion: Can the load bearing wall between kitchen and living be opened just in the middle? That would mean the sides would be holding up everything.

Daniela I can't break the wall between living and kitchen. I can't obtain the autorization for this.

mrstinylady Here's the easiest solution.

Daniela Yes, but if I can't break that wall, instead of the fridge will be a door(culisant door) and the fridge in the closet next to the entrance door?

mrstinylady Try this on.

mrstinylady Another idea.

Marie Hebson's interiorsBYDESIGN Inc. Once you have your floor plan figured out - here is some inspiration on the type of texture and attention to detailing you need to do for your furnishings. Black and white doesn't need to be start, it can be very interesting if you put some thought into it.

Daniela mrstinylady thank you very much for the ideas. I think this are the solutions.
Now I have to think how to use the colors,I'm afraid that the space will look smaller than it is.

Daniela Marie Hebson's interiorsBYDESIGN Inc Thank you for the advice!
It's an interesting combination, but don't you think that the room it becomes one loaded?

anumaura mrstinylady, may i ask which software did you use to make those plans? i want to draw a layout for my bedroom as well that i have in mind to convince my husband.

mrstinylady I made the templates to scale by myself. I am utterly remedial in math and DREAM of magically knowing how to program to invent software for my episodes in creative mental fun, but my magic mojo is wholly limited. Drat! I can't tell you how frustrated I had to be to get to this point in my life (and tried plenty of software to this point). I'd be happy to send you the thing I made. but it's useable only with PC and PSP. If that doesn't scare you, send your email and hit the PRIVATE option in this comment screen (at bottom). OR, if you can send the room deminsions I'll fabricate it for you. You'll have to direct me blindly with furniture. Once it's all on the same page, then you can rearrange to your specs if you have image editing software of any kind. Game on?

mrstinylady Daniela, as you can see by my name . . . well I am an itty bitty thing. The one thing I learned is that oversized furniture makes the room look bigger. It's some optical illusion you cannot convince another of until you are in the environment. BOLD lines and contrast with limited items to see (clutterless) work best. Yes, pillows and throws and smaller pictures can be used with some placement, color, pattern skill. We're here to help (in my case I am here to play).

For colors, neutrals are the easiest to to work with with the least emotional fallout and deliberation. Then accent with the wild plums and bright whites, zebra ottomans, or whatever. OR--and this is brilliant-- . . . cheat.
Copy bits and pieces or the entire room in the ideabook you already fell in love with. Post the photos after you get into it (or as you plan it) and we'll all chime in with ful gusto (as you can see).

Remove that kitchen door for me, okay?

All About Closets Mrstinlady came up with a few nice options. Whatever plan you choose I would rid myself from so many competing doors. I would try and remove the kitchen door and the door between the entrance and the living area especially if this is an apartment and you are not worried about creating an air gap to conserve heat/cooling.

I would also try to remove the door between the hall and the bedroom. If you can’t remove the doors I would think about a pocket door and spend some money on the rolling mechanism to make sure it is of high quality.

I have to agree with Mrstinlady, I hate the idea of the laundry in the master or the kitchen. What about placing the W/D it in the closet when you first enter?

-George

mrstinylady Daniela, here are the colors you ALREADY find most attractive (taken from your ideabook). These are the GRAYS collection. You can narrow down from this, or use several (more costly but elegant) for a monochromatic foundation in wall paint, furniture, backspash, etc.

Later on this afternoon (heading out to work this minute), I'll send up two or three other sets for you to zero in on and then we can paint your place, virtually. Sound fun?

Daniela Dear mrstinylady and George, thank you for the suggestions.
First of all, I'd like to say that I love the idea to remove the kitchen door. I love all kinds of kitchen combined with living,but, I'm from Romania(it's a lovely country with many beautiful places but with very low wages), and 90% of people in my country practice cooking of all kinds of foods at home. For 2 years I've been staying in a rental modified lovely apartment and every time I cook something (even if I had cooker hood), the whole smell goes in the entire house. That's why, in my apartment, I want to avoid unpleasant odors, and I won't give up at the kitchen door.
Instead ,I'll give up to the doors between halls (# 2 and # 6) and living room (# 4).
I hope you will not mind that I wouldn't take into consideration the idea to give up the kitchen door!

mrstinylady Yikes! PLEASE keep the doors (PLURAL) in the BACK and remove door to livingroom. NO ONE wantsa the scent of sleeping breath and the bathroom and steam to travel through the house.

OR, keep the livingroom door and ditch the kitchen door. Why not get an additional ventilation thing in there? Cooking brings love into the home. You could always open the deck by putting a screen door there and using it.

I've had Russian food, but not Romanian. LOVE that strange cheesecake-tasting cheese ravoli! So what are we cooking? Cabbage and sausage dishes? S O U P? Poppy seed rolls?

Your coloring is excellent for a high contrast and a bold vivid wintery color scheme. Why not take any makeup down to the paint store and get some swatches and post here. You will look good in any case, but just the right sahe of whatever will bring YOU out in your place more.

Marie Hebson's interiorsBYDESIGN Inc. Daniela,
I don't understand your comment - the room becomes loaded?
The idea of a neutral palette is to create interest and not have it flat line with same tones throughout - it takes an expert in interior design to do this look properly. If your happy with a flat line look then go for it - I'm not sure of what you are asking me -

anumaura hi mrstinylady! thank you for your kind offer. But i want to experiment with this myself as i don't have it all decided in my mind. but do have a lot of ideas in mind that i would like to try.. also another hindrance being that i don't have the exact measured dimensions of the room.. It's more of an experiment . your drawing software seemed an easier version to work with than autocad.. I was looking for something other than autocad..

b/w @ math, don't worry, Everyone has a different thing to struggle with.

mrstinylady Here is more of the colors you have choosen in your ideabook. The blues go very beautifully with the grays above and with your physical coloring, but the yellows don't really bring out your natural skin tone. The oranges are too warm, but if you really like these colors, they can be accent colors.
For YOU, black, grays, white, red and blue may be your best choice with some pungent cool greens.

mrstinylady By "loaded" do you mean too embellished? Too crowded with items?

mrstinylady Here's the color scheme I came up with for you. Hope you like it.

Daniela Sorry for my late response(I'm going to a little holiday for 6 days and I have to put in order everything at work) !
Marie Hebson's interiorsBYDESIGN Inc. By "loaded" i wanted to say crowded with stripes(my opinion). I'm looking for somethings simple and elegant :)
mrstinylady - thank you for the color scheme and ideas. I'll think about what you said and I'll be back as soon as possible

Daniela Hello! I'm back from my little holiday in Holland with some new ideas :) - first of all, they don't have curtains(have only shutters/blinds - maybe for not to be beat by the sun), it was very interesting to see what locals do in their houses, nothing special compared than the rest, but it was funny :)
Dear mrstinylady, you are right with the ventilation system: In this rental apartment where I'm staying I don't have one; but I have a friend with ventilation in the entire house and every time I go in a visit it's not a nice smell in there... maybe she has an undersized ventilation system, I don't know, or maybe I have a problem with the smells in general(for example I don't like most of the rooms perfumes, scented sticks, car air fresheners - I feel sick , maybe I'm allergic to them). My big problem is grilled meat or fish(it's different than American one) that makes a lot of smoke/smell in the kitchen and the entire apartment. Maybe with a good ventilation system, my problem will be solved, but first I want to try it with a door at kitchen, and if it's OK, I'll renounce at that.
I don't know what Russian food is like, to tell you something compared with Romanian one, you have to try it :) , but in Romania(because a Romanian Restaurant in America is very different than authentic one). I've travel in almost all countries from Europe, but I can't compare with something...it's different
I guess that Russian food is high in fat, because they drink a lot (vodka and other strong liquids) :)

I think the idea with black, grays, white, red and blue it's a very good choice. I hope next month I'll start the renovations!

mrstinylady Maybe you should consider writing an authentic Romanian cookbook? Cookbooks make about 7mil.
So PLEASE hunt doen a new and powerful range hood for your stove!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so door in kitchen is ON, so can we get rid of the door to the living room?
Which direction would you feel most comfortable facing if you were sitting on the sofa to watch TV?

Welcome back! I'd really like to see Leiden/Leyden, Holland one day! Bet Holland was pretty cold this time of year.

Daniela Yes, NO door to the living room :)
You asked me a very good question and I don't have an answer yet, because my husband wish to put a sofa on the wall, which you first told me to break it(between kitchen and living room) and the TV on the opposite wall and I want to put the sofa in front of the window and on the opposite wall the TV (because I saw many houses in Ireland with living room like this and I love it) + the fact that in this way I can put something else besides the TV(something like this:
)
I've attached my husband idea, but I think mine is better :)
Regarding Holland, it's a very nice country, it's the second time for me there! I love the windmills!
It wasn't so cold, we had some beautiful spring days (I heard that were the first ones, after a long winter!)

mrstinylady I'll be on your apt this afternoon!

mrstinylady Daniela,
The very FIRST thing I found that made me go gaga is this
http://www.55downingstreet.com/products/246/w7952.aspx
I worry that it's too feminine, but my heart grabbed it for you anyway!

mrstinylady Starting with the entry and kitchen, here's some inspiration. Black sleek kitchen with modern backsplash.

mrstinylady Backsplash ideas.

mrstinylady Foyer. Lighting balls. Elegant table & Mirror in a portion of the closet space (or somewhere else).

mrstinylady I love this sofa, but it may be toooooo much. What do you think?

mrstinylady Eureka! I hunted down pictures of just about everything (lights, rugs, doors, art, furniture, etc.) from the entry to the livingroom that I'll share with you this entire week. Here's what I need you to do (today, if possible) find 3-5 different floors coverings that you and your husband are passionate about (color, texture, etc.) that will go throughout the apartment (or most of the apartment).

Daniela, are you and your husband able to dit it yourself for painting or construction or anything? Can you hire a contractor for one-three day's work?

Daniela I love all the picture you've send me! hope to find&buy some of the items from Romania.
About the floors coverings... I don't know...in general I think I'll go for wood...now depend on what color I'll choose for the walls....
For bedroom I think , I'll go for dark grey walls , white furniture and light gray floor( light brown floor - I'm not so sure if it's OK this combination!)
For living room , we were thinking to make it very lighted, I'm not sure for colors yet...
I'm afraid that I'll associate the wrong colors...
I think we'll hire 1-2 men to help my husband...but not only for 1-3 days...because it's a lot work here...maybe 1-2-3 months.
I have 2 problems which may delay end of renovations: 1. in Romania if you don't stay with workers when they work, they don't make a good job and it's complicated to redo/rebuild. So they must come after 17:00 when we 'll be home...it's hard this way, but it's sure that the works are going to be the way I planned.; 2. the warm season comes and in weekends and some of the weeks we'll be on our holiday house or in another corner of the country, because I'm an authorized guide(besides being an engineer the rest of the year) and I own a little family business(based on tourism: I'm guiding tourists from the airport to the places they want to visit, help them to live authentic Romanian life in a mountain village, test the traditional foods and so on). So...I hope I'll finish this apartment till the tourists contact me :)
I need to decide on all the details and start work immediately after signing papers(maybe it can take 4-6 weeks because the seller is not in the country and it's a little bit hard with local authorities and to sign the papers)

mrstinylady Hopefully you will discover that workers in America are more motivated . . . or are you actually IN Romania now? What we do here--sometimes--is to give the workers the job and contract for the amount for a specific time period. Usually they start the job AFTER everything has been ordered so it comes in during the project and can be installed within the time frame. MANY people will offer an incentive amount if the workers finish faster (with perfection in the quality of workmanship). Maybe that plan will work for you any where you are!

SO GLAD you plan on workers for the duration of the project! I'll have to post pictures when I return home and create some drawings for you as well when I am at home, but I can share what my thoughts are so far. PLEASE find 3-5 wood floor pictures online that you two love and post. I'll work the color scheme around the one I think works the best. And you may have access to things in Europe that I would never know of being on another continent!

Okay, so here is what I have in mind for your place:

FOYER:

1. Wood floors throughout apt. Black steel windows and window doors throughout apt. Pictures to come later.

2. Closet and maybe built in recessed area on left as you walk in and kitchen door on mirrored or mosaiced wall as you walk in. See type of kitchen door, below. Also, this entry will be filled with light sconces and chandelier-type globes or pendants hung above. I happen to love those big white balls and felt like hanging them like floating bubbles all over, but wouldn't do that to you inspite of myself.

KITCHEN:
1. Steel window barn door sliders in the kitchen. Easily opened and closed and see through so that the kitchen doesn't feel closed off when it actually is (or can be).

2. A "U" shaped kitchen or a single-wall kitchen with island with range hood, stainless appliances and black cabinetry very much like pictures above. Metallic gray tile backsplash. With the black and gray already there, the accent colors are in beige, red, and turquoise.

3. Is there a window in your kitchen?


Oh darn! My client arrived already, so I will continue later as the day progresses or when I return home. Have a great day!

mrstinylady Here's what I had in mind for your dining room table.

mrstinylady Or . . .

mrstinylady Or . . .

mrstinylady I hope you love all of them as much as I do!

mrstinylady Here's a floorplan that might work for you.

mrstinylady At the front door . ..

mrstinylady Front door from inside looking out.

mrstinylady Type of kitchen door hung on the inside of the kitchen.

mrstinylady And . . .

mrstinylady Living room concept.

mrstinylady Windowless area adjoining living room.

mrstinylady Kitchen range hoods for ventilation.

mrstinylady More.

mrstinylady Here's a kitchen that might be perfect for you.