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Every family needs at least one room where they can kick back and relax. For Associate Decorating Editor Anne Turner Carroll and her husband, Neal, that place of sanctuary is a cozy den just off their dining room. But this space wasn’t their room of choice―until Anne Turner gave it her refreshingly personal touch. A die-hard believer in balance and proportion, Anne

Turner had to grapple with a space where those things were nearly impossible to achieve. The first challenge: The den serves as a pass-through. Second: With doorways on two walls and windows and a French door on a third, there isn’t much wallspace for furniture. The room also isn’t perfectly rectangular; a large fireplace built diagonally into the space hogs most of the fourth wall.

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