Area delights...

I'm curious: Do the rooms in your home have various functions? I know that creating various "areas" can be hard, particularly if a room is small. We currently have that problem in our little beach cottage, which is full of charm but incredibly small rooms. I figure it's a small price to pay to live so close to the ocean, so I've learned to deal with it. However, we will probably be moving back East at the end of next year, back to our great old southern home that has wonderfully large rooms. And that's gotten me thinking even more lately about how we'll decorate some of the rooms. (Dreaming about how I'll decorate when we move back has gotten to be a favorite past time. You should see the notebooks full of ideas. In fact, maybe I'll dig them out and show them to you in the future. Hmmm...)
Browsing on the Better Homes and Gardens' website, I came across this photo of a perfect little area in a room. It struck me for a number of reasons. First, even though I'm not much for black and white, I am in love with the runners they used over the chairs. It's a perfect pop of color. I love the arrangement of the chairs so close to the fireplace and I love the little table in the middle, and how it's set for a meal. I love the built-in shelves and the chandelier that's perfectly scaled for the space. But what I love most is that this perfect little room area could easily be adapted for a number of uses. Leave the table there and it could be used for games, or writing thank you notes. You could move the table out and just have a cozy conversation area. Pull up a stool and you've got a lovely space to read a little bit. It's a delightful little area, one I'm thinking I could easily emulate in my home back East. What do you think?

Photo from Better Homes and Gardens