If you don't mind my making a few suggestions:

--the first thing I would suggest is to collect photos of rooms that you like. After you have a collection of photos (from online or magazines), go through them and try to figure out what elements the various rooms have in common.

--while you're looking at rooms in general, also pay attention to the styles of furniture that you like and why. For couches, focus on the kinds of back pillows, legs, arms, etc. Do the same things with fabrics and window treatments that catch your eye.

--think about the colors that you want to use in your house. (I personally think that rooms should flow color-wise from room to room but there are no rules.)

Once you have an idea of what you like, then I would go to some furniture stores and look around. In our area, we have about three or four large furniture stores that carry different manufacturers, and these stores also have in-store decorators or designers. At the first store I went to, I didn't feel like there were enough options in the style I like. At the second, I didn't really click with the salesperson. At the third, I met someone through a referral and it was a perfect match all the way around.

Bring your collection of photos and fabrics with you and discuss what you want, your budget, etc.

As far as furniture brands, we too like traditional but not stuffy furniture. We have pieces from Sherrill, Drexel Heritage, Ferguson Copeland, Jessica something (??), Bradington Young and others. We started with rugs and worked our way up from there, and have been very happy with what we have.

Good luck and enjoy the process!

Shoot. I also meant to mention that, for us, comfort and function were just as important as how it looked. So we refused to buy any upholstered pieces that we hadn't sat on. The store we bought from has 100,000 sq. ft of showroom so we could test drive everything.

Meg711, Thank you for taking the time to make suggestions and for your kind words. GW members are a great help!