The graphic art was purchased online through www.artthatfits.com along with the chrome seats were picked up at an Atlanta flea market, then reupholstered with brown leather.

A Great Room That Lives Up to Its Name TV executives Matt and Jodi Arden and their rescue puppies, Baxter and Teddy, relocated to New York City from Atlanta. They worked with an interior designer to maximize their 120-square-foot multipurpose great room for a living room, lounge, dining area and room.

Coffee Table for Casual Dining To package as much multipurpose be possible in their great room, Matt and Jodi chose a coffee table with a top that pops upward to make an informal dining surface. This allows the living room to also double as a place for casual dining.

Gather Round A dark wood dining room table using a 42-inch round shirt allows Matt and Jodi to seat four to six people for meals. Round tables in small spaces would be the best solution since there are no hard corners to audience space required for seats. To ground the region and delineate it from the family room and office zones stair glass railing system . a shag rug in the exact same colour of peacock blue was centered in the space.

New Meaning to the Term "Bookplates" One facet of this apartment's bookshelves is committed to open storage of Matt and Jodi's plates, bowls and glassware. This retains items in arm's reach of this table as opposed to saved in the kitchen -- an especially handy design for when guests are already seated and enjoying meals.

Big Dogs In small spaces, scale and ratio of art to furniture are important in maintaining the rooms from feeling cluttered or busy. Matt and Jodi needed a picture negative of Baxter and Teddy framed and printed 6-foot-by-30-inches tall, so in check with the scale of the sleeper couch.

Quite a Pair Matt's Emmy® awards are on display front and centre on bookshelves confronting the office area. Every night when he arrives home after a long day of work, he is instantly greeted by the pair of statues and by his other favorite pair in the house, rescue dogs Baxter and Teddy.

Room to Lounge In its preexisting condition, Matt and Jodi's family room area had strange dimensions that made it hard to place a couch correctly. To optimize seating within their family room and lounge area, Matt and Jodi picked an L-shaped sectional with a left-arm chaise. The seating arrangement required full benefit of this corner space along with also the 8-foot wall behind the sofa. The area has been delineated in the nearby dining room by an 8x10 grey jute boucle carpet which helps mask Baxter and Teddy's fur.

Floor It To eliminate the need for end tables, and to allow for more seats, the family room is lit by a floor lamp with an adjustable arm.

A Craigslist Score So as to make the most of storage for their video components, Matt and Jodi had a 7-foot 1960s dresser they shopped for $35 on Craigslist outfitted as a press console. By removing the drawers, then reattaching the drawer fronts with hinges, their electronic and video components can be readily obtained or concealed.

Pillow Palette To break up the area's dominant color, peacock blue, small touches of different colors -- apple green, various colors of grey and robin's egg blue -- were brought in on custom throw pillows and other accents.

Sleek Custom Shades Since draperies along their window wall could make the space seem closed-in, Matt and Jodi needed a custom Roman color created in an inside-mount design. The colours from the cloth had been the inspiration for the room's color scheme of peacock blue, white and apple green.

Swinging Swag After Matt and Jodi first moved in, the corner they wanted to become their dining room had no light supply. In order to use it as an ambience space to host dinner parties, they chose to have a plug-in pendant set up with swag hooks over the table. Since Matt and Jodi reside in a rental, they had been not able to possess light fixtures permanently installed. By adding swag hooks into the ceiling above their dining table, what was previously a dark corner free of lighting is currently perfectly lit from above with a classic 1960s plug-in pendant made from stained acrylic and stainless steel.

Office Space Matt and Jodi sought the help of a designer friend to give purpose to the open area off their apartment's entry. To be able to use this as a personal office area, the area needed to be separated somehow from the dining room and living room areas.

Vintage Modern Style The overall decorating design of Matt and Jodi's apartment is classic modern. The graphic art was purchased online through www.artthatfits.com along with the chrome seats were picked up at an Atlanta flea market, then reupholstered with brown leather.

Divide and Conquer To provide the open area just off the entrance a purpose, yet keep the middle of the area open for traffic flow in and out of their flat, two pairs of ready-made bookshelves bought from an office supply store were put back-to-back to act as room dividers. On both sides, Matt and Jodi have a personal office, independent from the formal dining room and family room on the other side. The flat's walls were painted peacock blue, which aids the walls recede so that beams of white and apple green stand out.

Back-to-Back Bookshelves In order to give the ready-made bookshelves a custom, architectural appearance, Matt and Jodi had a contractor install the two pairs back-to-back. After the bookshelves were attached to the walls with L-brackets, the vulnerable sides were clad with luan and trimmed out with 1x3 MDF (medium density fiberboard) paint at the exact same shade of white as the melamine shelves.