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/

A thick concrete wall can keep your house cool. Steel will make your house hot unless you insulated the walls well. Insulated walls don't work very well in a flood zone. When they get wet, you need to tear them apart. You will need concrete for the foundation most likely unless you are driving steel pylons. There is probably a combination of the two that will suit your needs best. It would be helpful to know what you want to achieve by using steel. There are advantages to both. Steel floors can be cantilevered further. It is easier to make bigger window openings. Floor and roof spans can be lighter and quicker to build with steel, but the roof will get hotter and therefore need good insulation and need to be well ventilated. These are just general assumptions of certain building practices so that you know what to ask people where you live. The practices and resources vary from place to place and building something for a specific purpose can change the benefits of one material or the other. My best guess is that you will probably want to use both.

Its a really lovely room! what a great place for kids to share. I like kids sharing rooms. I think you need another colour to tie it together. I would suggest a blue tone.... teal, navy blue, duck egg blue. to tie it together. Its a little to pale and looks sparse, but actually isn't. I would leave everything exactly as is, BUT, paint the back wall behind the bed teal and find a simple navy blue wall decal that is fun and kid- like maybe one with a sillouette of a boy and girl playing. I would paint the wall behind the sofa duck egg blue. Then I think it would suit both kids more and look more kid friendly. the blues will balance the pink and cream, but because you have a pale carpet i don't think it will look too dark. don't worry about making it totally kid like, its a room they will grow with, not a kindergarten, and it also needs to peaceful and restful for sleeping. besides with their art on the walls and bright toys everywhere it soon looks bright and kid like. Good luck!

Love the armless sofa-bench! Try using it in the center as a "cross-linking" piece between the sofa and chairs. That way people can sit on both sides of it, conversing with the sofa people and the chair people. Put the chairs where it is and use the side table from the left of the pic, or the one with flowers, between them. You'll need one huge rug to anchor the space or two smaller, and very similar ones, to put on either side of the blue sofa-bench. The other two side tables are too tall and too short for your seating pieces, so ditch them. Use your coffee table between the sofa and armless sofa (18" away from each of them.) Here's a chart for judging table and lamp heights as you'll need to work on that for balance. Please try this arrangement, and post by commenting and using the Attach Images button to add pix of the update. We'll tweak it on out from there.