Okay, before all the color geniuses chime in, I (lowly color-challenged village idiot) am wondering about going with something deeper such as that middle strip on the pillow that looks to be a darkish teal.

cyn, you're not alone at all.

The room has so much going on in the bottom half, I think a "richer' color will balance the room a bit better. Your furniture is gorgeous, sophisticated, and I sophisticated color would make that room "to die for". With all the artwork and the white drapes and woodwork, the sunlightâ¦.with the greens and the blues in there now...

Believe it or not, the first color I saw when I looked at the room? Something like this:

BM Rusty Nail

Or something like this:

BM Etruscan

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Mon, Jan 19, 15 at 18:16

What in the room do you want to keep or remove? Are you willing to switch out art? Do you want to significantly move away from the traditional style you have now toward something different? Or are you looking to keep everything essentially and just change the color scheme?

I think the thing that is working for me the least is the sheer window coverings. With the rich fabrics already in the room, the sheers feel too ephemeral...I'd like to see some draperies in there. It looks like a couple have a cornice and a couple don't...

I could also see swapping out the art over the fireplace with something bolder and more unexpected.

Thanks for the ideas. I think that a more dramatic color on the top half would make much more of a statement. Nothing is written in stone, but the budget is limited. Some of the art work has already been moved to a gallery wall in the hall. I do prefer an updated traditional style, think English Country without the extreme clutter or rampant patterned chintz and heavy fabrics.

The windows are 5 huge floor-to-ceiling windows the size of French doors, so new drapes are not in the budget. I've used simple window treatments as much as possible to let in the light and views. I can swing simple unlined panels, but lined and interlined custom drapery would cost thousands.
Has anyone found a paint color tool for uploaded photos that actually works? One that I tried recently on a magazine website didn't really work very well. I've played with color using Paint, but selecting colors to try is guesswork for the most part.
I'll try out some of the color suggestions.

Love the room. Love the color on the walls. Here are some rugs that might be the right touch for the room. The burgundy doesn't work at all.

Love the wood tone of the dining room. That wood tone would work for the coffee table too. Golden tone would look great with these rugs.

Lamps could probably use an update. The room just needs to be tweaked.

I think you should also consider using the white of the trim on the walls. Normally I find white rather startling, but in your room it might work. Oh, Cream Fleece looks fine to me.

Personally for me cream colored or beige rugs can give an expanded look with clean looking ambience so these rugs can be placed here. As far as texture is concerned wool made rugs would make a decent option which is environment friendly as well. Try this.

Just for fun, in no particular order are some pics with color on the wall...in some of them, I changed the color of the solid sofa pillows too.

Some may require changing out the rug too to reinforce the new color

Another

Maybe this

Maybe baby blue with coral

You may not like these colors, but here is an example how selecting an accent color and reinforcing it with drapes can help add life to the room. Drapes need not be expensive if you get ready mades... I put the color on one of the chair seats too.

Wow, lots of ideas! The dining room furniture is in the LR because the DH took over my office because it has a wood stove. So I put a tiny wood stove in the dining room and made it my den. Bwahahahaha.

For context, here are two of the adjacent room colors. Hall is painted stripes, Office is RL Mountain Sage, a beautiful discontinued color. Dining room/den is Nantucket Gray, not shown, and a small foyer off the LR is BM Tree Moss.

{{gwi:2139281}}

Lots of green going on, I love green, blue, blue-green, cream, pale gold.
Beverly, the rugs are gorgeous. I really should shop for a rug first, but why make it easy on myself?

I really like that deep blue. Will have to do some experimenting and rug shopping.

I've used the Sherwin Williams color visualizer. I'm not sure how easy it will be to paint around your furniture and accessories. I used it for the front of my house so manipulating it for that purpose was pretty easy.

Love your room!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sherwin Williams

This post was edited by deee on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 8:18

Thanks, dee, I'll check it out.
Annie, yes I see what you mean about the drapes, they would really tie everything together. The room is very disjointed because the sofa is newer, the rug was in the MBR, dining room furniture in the DR, stuff added and taken away over the years. ending in the mish mash you see here.
And burgundy is perhaps my least favorite color in the world. I had help choosing the rug, and am way too easily influenced even when I know what I want.
thanks for all of the great ideas.

Annie - I really like the first color mock-up that you did.

Saypoint - your rug is DTF & your sofa is great! I hear what your saying about going lighter but I think that Tibbrx pointed out that it would look bottom heavy as is and I would tend to agree.

But you're open to tweaking so I think that lightening up the lower half would be easy enough to do to be in harmony w/ lighter walls.

Will try to go through my inspiration pics and post some later today.

What a beautiful house you have.

Yes, I see deep, rich, sophisticated color in that room, and I'm also seeing some version of orange.

Here are some more examples.

Another (wish we could just post photos w/o having to type something)

Another

A brown ,maybe?

A cool brown

Brown, so underrated IMO

Rich green

Blueâ¦although I kind of prefer the sofa being the blue thing in the room.

On to yellows

double post

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 9:16

An abundance of wood furniture in this room, which disappears in brown paint.

SW Hubbardton Squash

Amber

Another green

You are all so nice.
thanks for the compliments.
I adore green. That very dark green is awesome, but the office, foyer, den/dr, and powder room are all green of one sort or another. And that's just on the first floor. Dare I use another green? I was afraid of going overboard with it.
Thanks for taking pity on me. I agonize over choosing wall color. I do my own painting, and having to repaint over mistakes is my part time job. DTF? Doomed to Fail?

go with what you love and what you want to be surrounded by. If it's green, then it's green. At night, with the lights on, that deeper color will also be incredible.

Check out Ben Moore's Colonial Williamsburg collection, in particular: Windsor Green, Colonial Verdigris, Palmer Green.

So I was thinking maybe you could take a look around this blog and see if anything appeals to you. I love her home and could see your furnishings in a setting like this. She lists paint colors too.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: For The Love Of A House

Navy blue! I love my navy blue living room and we get tons of compliments (SW Naval). I think it is unexpected and bold but navy is still a neutral so it works with most other colors (even light blue like your couch). I would go darker blue than what was posted. Your room has enough light and enough white trim to carry it off. I would do heavy off white drapes (maybe even velvet!) and all white accessories on the fireplace. And maybe some white elements on the hearth. With dark walls the black fireplace will disappear so you need to lighten it up. Your home looks beautiful! That staircase is gorgeous.

I've changed some things since these pictures but you can get the idea. If my house was clean I'd take new pics but it's a mess right now!

Sorry for the multiple posts. Never did learn how to do this right.

Last one!

Foxes, thanks, I've seen that blog before, and actually have saved some photos from it. It is a gorgeous house, and I love that she supports dog rescue. I'll take a look around it again, there are probably some posts I haven't seen before. Her colors are very restful, and show up the warm woods nicely. Her tablescapes are beautiful, too, but I wouldn't want to be in charge of dusting.

louislinus, thanks for sharing, your room looks very comfortable and warm. I see your goggies are not too spoiled. I'm looking at deep blue as a possible color.