For many years I used a trunk painted Chinese red as my coffee table. When I moved to my condo, it no longer seemed to work. If it sat too close to the sofa, you couldn’t stretch out your legs. When it was pushed more to the centre of the room, it blocked the path to the balcony.

I experimented with several smaller tables which made the room feel more spacious. However, with more than three people visiting, serving drinks and snacks was fussy and annoying.

After much agonizing, I chose a lovely 19^th Century Chinese bench and it feels perfect for the room. I wish I had seen this new book in our collection. It would have made the decision easier.

Good Bones, great pieces: the seven essential pieces that will carry you through a lifetime is the new title by designers and bloggers Suzanne and Lauren McGrath. They identify seven essential pieces of furniture that can be used in many different ways and move successfully from house to house along with the owner.

Those seven pieces are loveseat, bench, side table, slipper chair, occasional chair, dresser and demilune. For each piece, they demonstrate multiple uses. They also provide a glossary that shows nine versions in different styles, such as traditional, modern or country.

They show a bench in an entrance, on a porch, in the living room, dining room and at the foot of a bed.

The demilune table snugs up against the wall in a tiny kitchen to provide a charming breakfast spot. It tucks into a hallway or onto the landing of a staircase. A pair of them flanks a fireplace in a living room and another works as a lovely little desk for laptop use.

This is a great source to help you plan major furniture purchases or rethink the use of a favourite piece that you already own.

When I was living at my previous house, I purchased black shelving for my home office. At the time, it was a new style at IKEA, it looked fresh and trendy and complemented the office furniture. But, what was I thinking?

The room it occupied had little sunlight and the black furniture sucked out all the light from the room. I compensated with vivid striped curtains and a good overhead light fixture.

In my new condo, the home office (aka guest room) is also the darkest in the apartment. Pretty striped curtains are out. Condo bylaws dictate that you can have any kind of drapery you like, as long as it is white. And the overhead fixture is located in a corner in front of the closet.

Time to play the furniture game. This is my optimistic label for a home sport that requires a serious amount of grunt labour.

I moved the secretary from the dining room into the master bedroom. The white shelving from the master bedroom went into the home office/guest room and the black shelves from that room are now relocated to the dining room. Here an enormous, east-facing window provides enough light to balance the dark volume of the shelving.

What I like best about the new arrangement is that it supports the other uses I make of the room. The shelves hold my cookbooks, bird and gardening books. I have added an easy chair to the corner by the window where I like to read the newspaper in the morning. In addition, the dining room table offers a nice long work surface for sewing and painting.

When you move to a new home, you need to live there awhile to determine how best to use the space. I'm still fine tuning. When you no longer have a basement or garage for messy projects, you find another spot or abandon messy projects. Seriously, who's going to do that?

Next blog: More from the collection on small space decorating and multipurpose rooms.