Q: The front room in our new house is really big (30 feet by 25 feet). There is a fireplace in the center of one wall, but the other long wall opens to the hall and the end walls have big windows.

My point is, we will have to float the sofa toward the fireplace. What should we do about lighting? There would be a big tangle of extension cords. We have children and dogs.

A: Stop trying to fill new space with old furnishings. Houses don't like wearing hand-me-downs any more than people do. Besides, they are almost always an ill fit.

It would be better to relocate your current sofa wherever it can do the most good. Then invest in a couple of matching sofas or love seats, depending on the width of your room.

A traditional solution to a center fireplace is to position the seating pieces so they face each other across a coffee table. If there's enough space — you want to leave room for traffic to circulate around the seating group — add small tables at the ends of both seats to hold table lamps. If not, back both sofas/love seats with narrow tables and put a lamp in the center of each table.

What about the wires? Your electrician can help untangle the problem by running a couple of new outlets through the floor within easy reach of the lamp cords. Chances are the wires can be brought up through the floor from the basement below, so the rewiring shouldn't cost the mortgage.

Ideally, you can also install a ceiling-hung lighting fixture centered over the coffee table, such as the large chandelier in the pictured living room. The designer obviously delights in lots of lighting — don't you love that quartet of tall carved floor lamps standing guard at each end of the love seats? By the way, all the furniture is from Restoration Hardware, including those classic Corinthian column floor lamps and the equally classic column capital that's been repurposed as a coffee table (www.restorationhardware.com).

Q: We have downsized ourselves from a four-bedroom home with a two-story family room to a small ranch with a tiny den. The house dates back to the 1960s, and the den is paneled in what seems to be plywood pressed and stained to look like pine paneling. There are also overhead pine beams.

It's obvious that this is where we'll do most of our living — the actual "living room" is too small and formal. Since we feel smothered by all the dark paneling, is it OK to paint?

A: In a New York minute, the answer is yes! If the paneling was real carved hardwood, we'd have to think much longer than that before committing it to paint ... although the 18th-century look on naked wood paneling is a sign of excessive thrift. However, we have to remember that in those days paint was expensive and hard to come by, while wood was cheap and readily available.

By all means, paint the faux paneling and the beams. You'll be pleased by how much larger, brighter and more gracious that little den will appear.

What's a New York minute, you may be wondering? Here's my favorite definition: It equals the time between the moment the traffic light goes green and the cabbie behind you blows his horn!"

Quartet of imposing floor lamps sheds light on a mirror-image seating area arranged in front of the fireplace. Photo courtesy of Restoration Hardware.

Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Manhattan Style" and six other books on interior design. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Website at creators.com.