speaker recommendations?

Ear speakers, better known as 'headphones'. This should be your first stop, no room treatment problems. After that, find a dealer that does speaker loans'. Most will do so if you are looking for something small. Invest in a good pair of stands, that should be filled, spiked top and bottom. That will give you a try to see if the headphone sound can be beat. Also, some dealers have 'room analyzers' which they loan. The latter can go a long way to telling you what room reactions are in the room.

How about a pair of paradigm active 20's or some other active monitor; I think quad and wharfedale makes some as well.
You may not get the deepest bass response but I think the system could sound very nice.
Are you running a pre amp,intregated, or a receiver?

Buy the PSB Stratus Mini's (now on sale here). Great value. Newly manufactured speakers of that calibur likely would cost 3-4 times more. They do need some power to come alive. (87db) Good luck.

If the first thing I'd been told on getting into this hobby was that I lived in the wrong sized room to enjoy it, I might have walked away. No, a cube isn't ideal. And, yes, absolutely buy some good headphones at some point to take advantage of the Bellari's (or an integrated's) headphone amp. (A used pair of Sennheiser HD580 or HD600s would likely meet your tonal preferences: I run my HD600s from my NAD integrated and, even having owned a good headphone amp in the past, I think they sound just fine.)

But sometimes there's just no substitute for cranking up a pair of speakers. The specific recs above are a great place to start, and some present you with options of how to set yourself up--i.e., integrated with speakers or a Bellari alone into actives. Macrojack's idea is a cool one. You live where you live, and you can still buy some good stuff and enjoy the music.

go listen to a pair of Paradigm Atoms, they would be perfect for you and only cost around 300.