You could also bring in some texture with bamboo sticks or decorative branches and help balance a bit the height of your room with small scale furniture. Spray paint them if you find the perfect size and shape but they aren't the color that you need. Ikea carries white decorative stalks for a very good price. the ones in the 1st picture hold well with small kids around and you don't need a vase for them. there are washi paper or crinkly paper floor lamps with a soft beautifully diffused glow For a budget friendly version check ikea or target http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80028552/

This is wonderful how you opened the stairs - you get a real sense of the architecture and it brings in more light. I applaud what you have accomplished. I'm going to assume that the wall above is patched with quickcrete and the whole thing is painted (try to get the wall beyond under the stair too). If you have / want a flat screen, you might mount a swing arm wall mount for a flat panel television on the vertical wall element remaining on the right - just about 3' - 3 1/2' (around 1 meter) above the floor so that it is eye level when you are sitting. The swing arm support will allow you to tilt the television away from the wall ever so slightly across the nearby corner. This can help to eliminate glare from the nearby window and make it possible for more people in the room to view it / expand your seating possibilities. I reference something like http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Chief-Thinstall-TS318SU-Medium-Dual-Swing-Arm-Wall-Mount-18in-Extension/2555661.aspx?cm_mmc=ShoppingFeeds-_-GoogleBase-_-Video/Monitors/Cards/Projector-_-2555661_Chief%20Thinstall%20TS318SU%20Medium%20Dual%20Swing%20Arm%20Wall%20Mount%20-%2018%22%22%20Extension%20-%20_CIF-TS318SU You can even mount a television tlhat is wider than the wall behind as it can sit flat on the wall and extend beyond the wall to the left when at rest like another plane in your architectural composition. Since the upper stair is just behind, this should be fairly safe for the electronic. Determine precisely where the television will be at rest before you hang the mount itself. Then, look for a low height chest to sit below the television. Ideally a chest with one open shelf near the top to hold your component receivers. You may want to try to run electrical to the remaining vertical wall on the right (the support for the stair landing) to get power into the wall itself, while everything is open. Depending upon where the nearest source is, with concrete walls, you could mount the power junction box low on the wall under the stair and drill out small diameter cord passages through the wall after placement of your components. Or use the baseboard area to run needed cables and power to the area behind the chest, then conceal it with baseboard trim. The more you can hide the power and connection cords, the sleeker the look, to match your gorgeous architectural stair element. If you have a larger deeper television, put it on a sideboard chest under the upper stair where you have the depth. In the rear area, take care with putting cables together in a cord cover - ikea has a good one that is inexpensive. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20097954/ so it looks "neat" from behind when you come down the stair.

I am so happy to see you here! I will have to go back and see if i can retrieve my posts... thought I would make them into a little book for my daughter, with photos. Quick run-down on the bathroom (not travels, no time) - The kitchen has a rather elegant sliding door with beveled glass panels. Painted white, since this was the original colour. GD's new bathroom has the doors I had picked earlier; i thought of polishing them but decided sprayed automobile paint (on a resin primer) would wear better. Especially since it is such a small bathroom, and she is so splashy. I have this finish in my kitchen and it has lasted 15 years now. A tad chipped here and there, but only needs a wipe down once a week. Same finish for the balcony doors, also split like the bathroom. We have a new wardrobe, a study table with built-in shelves, and a small chest of drawers for her odds and ends. I want to re-tile the tiny balcony, more as a little statement. Currently we are looking at Portuguese tiles, though I did think a mosaic with a funky cat might be nice. Let me see the costing. The room will be painted a neutral adobe, with bright white woodwork and an off-white ceiling. This means she can go wild with cushions and covers. Other changes in the flat; We have changed the glass in the master bedroom and living room from small cramped panes to a single pane for each section with a 1" bevel all round. Doubles the cost of the glass, but looks so elegant! The air-conditioning is being re-located. The compressors were all mounted in the bedroom and living room balconies, which looked terrible and meant the balconies (very narrow, only 30" deep) couldn't be used for anything. Not even plants. So they are being moved so that the compressors can be mounted at the rear of the building. two down, one to go. Now we can put in some nice plants, fishtail palms etc. The kitchen counter on one side came out intact and will be reused elsewhere. I am planning overhead storage, cupboards, and a draining cupboard for plates and glasses. Right now there is no dish washer, though a place is earmarked, but for now I will put in a cupboard with steel racks for cups, glasses and plates, all hidden behind pressed glass doors. This is all in the planning stage.... Pictures in a little while, they are mostly on my ipad and don't transfer well to the mac. They come without numbers... so I have to rename the or something. Somebody tell me how to do this!

The layout doesn't seem as bad as you think. The sides of the wardrobes are part of the entrance-way and to your side as you enter each room. That's at least better than the side *facing* the doorway, another common layout. You could add some wiring to place an LED spotlight just above the door way, aligned to the middle of the depth of the wardrobe (ie, roughly 1'-0" away from the entrance door frame). This is assuming that the loft also runs over the doorway. You could also cover the side of the wardrobe with a full length mirror. Or you could paint it the same colour as the wall on the other side of the doorway. It is not really a tunnel like look when it's just 2'-0" deep, light in colour or reflective.