Oooh lala, Chicory! That's awesome. I like the first more more monochromatic, neutral scheme with the browns and some green. I think there's enough going on with the angles and accessories without having the eye jump around with color pops.

jmo!

What a nice spot to spend some time at home!

You've given me some really great ideas Chicory. I'm going today to look for some artwork and accessories (plus do Christmas shopping)! So wish me luck! I'm really stumpled on the large wall behind the sofa but the ideas you've given me the rest of the space really help. I'm hoping to find some good bargains today.

How about a large tapestry behind the sofa, Acla?

I think you can re-arrange a bit, and make better use of the space, then add in all the great accessories that Chicory has shown!

What bothers me is that all the pieces in the room seem disconnected - they all feel like they are floating in their own little spaces. Since you need to leave access to the door, and pathways to the hallways, etc. I would do this.

Put the couch where the loveseat is now, and pull it foward just a bit more. Put the loveseat at a right angle to the couch, and use the round sidetable that is back by the corner in between the couch and loveseat. This will allow you to have an easy path behind the loveseat to the door, and an open swing to the door with the shorter loveseat there.

Once you pull the two pieces into the same area, your coffeetable won't look so lost and tiny in the middle of no man's land. A colorful area rug might be a nice addition there to define the seating space.

Move the tv to the wall where the bench is. This might mean putting in a new cable outlet, but that is not expensive to do (we had it done here twice in different rooms). That puts the tv on the same wall as the doors, where no one can really sit easily because of the door access.

MOve the bench to the wall where the TV is (with a couple of pillows as Chicory shows), and put a floor lamp there. Ideally, a chair would be great there, maybe down the line, but you need the lamp now for lighting in the room. You should also add a lamp on the table between the couch and loveseat. YOu can run the cord under the couch and down to the end wall where the bench is.

I would add a nice floor plant with an uplight in the corner by the wall that opens to the kitchen and the door to the bedroom. It will fill the space, bring in some more ambient lighting, but not take up valueable floor space and block the walkway.

I would get trim to match the doorways and frame out the rest of that kitchen opening, too. It will look more finished and polished. For fun, think about something surprising like a grouping of art below that opening.

Your large wall is a challenge, because once you have the loveseat in place, you likely don't have tons of room on the wall to place a lot of furniture. I think you could fit a small comfy chair down in the corner with a lamp, kind of a seating spot for reading and getting away from the TV. On the rest of the wall, I would think about a couple of tall, not deep, bookshelf units, with a console table between them. Put a lamp on the table, a plant or a couple of small ottomans that could be used for extra seating under the console table. Hang a great piece of art above the table. Fill the shelves with books and other items of interest to you and your family, but be sure to leave some open space on the shelves so they don't look overdone.

If you don't want bookshelves, or they are not in the budget for now, consider getting three pieces of fabric in interesting, colorful prints and patterns that relate to one another, and stretch them over frames. Three of them, each 30" wide by 5 or 6 feet tall, would fill the wall space, bring in color and softness to the wall, and if you buy remnants or look at places like IKEA, it can be a very inexpensive solution.

Squirrel, I totally agree - also there's the taupe and yellow issue. The red and yellow really clash with the cool, neutral colors in the room, and not in such a good way. The more neutral doo-dads made the room feel larger and more calm.

Les, I'm not going to try to rearrange the furniture, but that sounds great. I love cozier seating arrangements and while the room won't feel huge, once it's accessorized, it will feel comfortable and friendly.

Oceanna, I edited the objects in photoshop, then plopped them into the room in pain. Once everything is set in paint, I open the whole thing in photoshop and clean up the edges, adjust the colors to almost reality, etc. It's not perfect or seamless, but it's good enough for squinting.

Chicory, you made me laugh - "It's good enough for squinting." ;^)

Thanks for the advice everyone. Let me see if I can take this all in...

Les, you are basically saying to swap the couch and loveseat and them pull them in a bit a put the round end table in between them? I don't think there will be enough space to put a chair behind the loveseat but I'll have to check it out. And I can easily swap the bench and tv. We don't have cable right now...notice the bunny ears. Ha! Ha!

I definitely want to trim out the wall cut out to give it a more finished look. It's all a matter of convincing my husband to do it for me :)

As far as colors....I'm terrible with it. So you all think that based on the colors of the walls and couches I should go with something like browns and greens for accessories? The kitchen, which you can see through the pass through, is painted in a sage green color. So I don't want to clash with that. So what color accessories do you all think would work best?

If you do a pop of color or accents, like a red, say, I'd do it on the fp, maybe in a painting or something, since it's the primary focus. Then eye would rest there and not be jumping around.

Here's the cozy conversation area with the table pulled closer. Trying another color scheme for you, using a deep red accent, focused primarly at the fp. You probably won't like the pic, but the colors are good! and it came up right away :) I was playing off of the floral applique on the fp, although that may not be at all in line with your actual style :)

Looks beauuutiful to me!

Here's a bit more of a shot of red in the seating area, and using espresso or black in the second pic.

Here's something with browns, blue, and bronze, and a touch of burnt dark red :)

How about softening the WT? Is that an option?

Just been workin' on that :) Happened to have these on hand. Softens, warms, and brings the color up. In the last shot, there are softly gathered sheers over the doors instead of cellulars.

I was also wondering about painting the fp surround and doing a glaze to bring out the details.

{{gwi:1901821}}

{{gwi:1901822}}

Thanks squirrel and everyone. I love the ideas! I don't have much time to type now, but tonight I will try to rearrange the furniture as Les suggested and upload some more pictures. And I like your ideas squirrel. I'll comment on them tonight when I have more time. But just know that I appreciate everyone's help so much!

I couldn't convince my husband to help me rearrange the furniture tonight since he spent several hours with me at the mall Christmas shopping and then helped me hang Christmas lights outside. Maybe tomorrow after work we can do it and I can post some updated pictures.

Squirrel, I think I like the shot of red with the black accents. I'm just so scared to buy any art/accessories before I figure out what to do with the big wall. I think if I can figure that out then the other stuff will not be as hard. I don't think the area is big enough for any furniture in the back. So I guess I need some really big artwork or fabric art? I just wish you all could come here and help me put this room together.

I like the window treatments. Good idea! I don't think I prefer painting the fireplace. I'm actually going to paint all the trim work a more true shade of white. The scroll work on the fireplace isn't actually my style but it is what it is. I prefer something more simple and modern.

So that is where I am for now. I'm just so stuck on that big wall....

I like the last light cream fp.

It's really hard to get a feel for the whole space thru the pics, esp with all the angles, etc. I was wondering if a wall of black and white photos would work, vacations, wedding, kids, and such, maybe even a really big mirror centered between them. Hahaha, now I'm thinking, the 4" of wall and a few more from the aisle and you could frame the wall out and make a wall of bookcases :) or somethin' like that.

there is nothing on ur wall , so i suggest u to buy some oil paintings to show ur taste and decorate ur wall,this website(paintingmax) oil painting is quite cheap and quality is good so as their service .u can check

Well, again, not that these are the colors or styles that you'd want to have in your home, but playing on the brown and green again, and with different botanical prints, here's one interpretation.

The first one is maybe the coloration if everything is lit with incandescents. However, here's a washed out color presentation, which is more like what the room would look like with flash (sort of).

That looks really nice, Chic!! I was thinking the same thing -- square table next to the sofa if possible.

I was also muddering over the knock-out to the kitchen behind the other sofa. You could put shutters there, louvered or paneled. They could also be kept a bit open, with something placed on the sill.

I'm not sure about crown mouldings, as someone mentioned. I think it might look odd or too busy with the variety of angles. I can picture a center beam across the peak, though, maybe. And then I picture something large and sculptural hanging from it close to the sofa wall -- like a galloping horse weathervane or something! (could be anything :)

I just love watching you two work!

Laurie

Wow, Chicory! I really like that look. I like the prints you used too. I'm thinking something like that would be pretty do-able. I'm not sure if I could get the bookcases or not, at least for now. If I can't, do you all think two rows of prints would work to fill the space instead of one as shown in the picture?

I definitely want to do something to the knockout space, maybe add moulding around it like the mouldng around the door frames. Shutters are a neat idea too; I hadn't thought of that.

I also like the idea of using black and white prints. I got married not too long ago so I have some nice shots that I could print and frame prettty easily. Or what do you all think about Sephia toned prints?

I feel like things are sort of starting to come together in my mind now. I want to have the full picture together before I started purchasing stuff so that I can make sure and find stuff that will work together for all parts of the room.

Here's a more budget version of the same thing. I understand money as a design parameter. : )

You can get the same feeling with decorative wall shelves and a few decor items, 4 pictures instead of 5. A wall clock to sort of balance things a bit (or not, it looks fine without it).

Squirrel, the round table would work fine too, I think. (??)

Can round tables be used at a sofa/loveseat junction?

Here it is with a little less (earlier in the evolutionary process).

To me (you'll want to check this with kraft paper or something), those pictures look at bit like 18-ish by 22-ish. Not knowing the size of the room or the wall, that's a very loose guess. : )

I kind of like the shelf actually and that is a great budget idea. What do the rest of you think about the shelf? Maybe I could get taller prints and just set them right on the shelf? That might create a more simple and modern look??? What do you all think about that? I'm the first to admit that I'm not good at design.

Yes, I have a round table that can definitely be used at the junction. We used to have it there but it was kind of annoying because in order to enter the living space you had to walk all the way around the sofas. I was thinking about how Les suggested swapping the sofa and loveseat but if I do that I wouldn't really big able to center it with the back wall and I'm wondering if that would then make the artwork look funny. So what if I left everything as is and just pulled it in a bit?

Without actually seeing the room itself, etc., I do like the long sofa along that wall, backdropped as Chic has done. Love the shelves, too. Maybe the long one more since there are already a lot of angles and pieces, gives a nice sweep of something :)

Love those colors!

A round table can certainly work at a sofa juncture but since there are already two rounds there, a square might complement them better.

How much room can you get between the sofa and the wall? You want to make sure it isn't going to get knocked when people are walking through. Although, there are some really shallow shelving options out there now.

It's such a really comfy, nice arrangement you have!

Y'all are amazing at this! I'm a person who can't have too much stuff around or on the walls, it makes me feel closed in, so I'd probably leave the furniture as is BUT:

1) get rid of the brass firescreen
2) change out the ceiling fan to an ORB
3) paint the fireplace surround
4) get a nice photo for over the mantle and pillows for the sofas

And IF $$ permits, a larger TV and console.
Susan

I'm going to sound like a bonehead, here, Susan, but since when did a television become a design element worth making larger?! : D

I don't get it. I'd be tempted to do a flat screen on a secret revolving wall, though.

Thanks, Squirrel!

One stop shopping on 1000's of Beautiful home decor ideas and decorative home accents from around the world!

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Decor Ideas

Good morning everyone! I must admit that I wasn't feeling well last night and I went to bed at 8:30. I had planned to try moving the tables around some and posting new pictures and getting some wall measurements.

I agree that a square would probably be a nice contrast to the other round table but I'll probably have to work with what I have for now. Maybe once I get some stuff on top of it, it won't be as noticeable. I still don't think I understand how to plug a lamp in that is located in the middle of the room. Can anyone explain?

Susan, I am definitely planning to do your ideas of 1-4. It's just a matter of time. I work full time so projects mainly have to be crammed in on the weekends. I would also love to get a nicer flat screen tv but I'll have to wait on that too. And I'd also like a bigger tv console. The small one I have worked well in my apartment but it is a little small for what I have now.

I think my husband could probably make me a wall shelf to specifications I need them. I'm going to try to measure the space tonight.

The round is really fine, Acla. I don't think you need to sweat it... you're just moving the one from the corner?

Squirrel, I just love beams for hanging pictures - would you do it in the wall color or trim color? I think it would look crazy if it were in the stain of the wood furniture. Not that this has anything to do with anything. : )

I'd have to see a plan of the room. But of the two, white.

I am so reminded of my love for leaf and fern pictures! I'd like to make some one day with natural fronds.

I saw a kit at Michaels in the dry flower section, and I didn't get a chance to look very closely at what it does or what it is, but it seemed like a plant preservation/art kit.

It was right below the eucalyptus branches.

Worth checking out, maybe.

Okay, I've rearranged the furniture a little bit. What do you all think? I pulled the couches in slightly and moved the side table in between the couches. I didn't put it exactly in the corner because I wanted to leave a path into the living space. Does it look okay as it is? I also put a chair in the corner just to get a visual of how something there would balance out the space. I plan to get a plant or something like that to put there permanently.

I think this furniture arrangement seems to work okay. What do you all think?

I like the idea of putting a beam on the ceiling. But that is one of those projects that has to go on the "someday" list.

The large wall behind the sofa is 16 feet wide and that space between the back of the sofa and the wall is 3.5 feet.

I can't wait to start accessorizing but unfortunately my upcoming weekend is pretty packed. So it may still be a little while before I am able to buy anything.

The couch and loveseat still are not near one another, and seem to be overlapping oddly. Because the two pieces don't sit near one another, the coffeetable still looks like it is floating out there by itself, unrelated to the furniture. They should be meeting at the round side table at a right angle to one another.

That is why I suggested switching them. Having the shorter piece on the long wall will allow you to have the couch sitting right where the loveseat is, but it will meet the table, and then you can put the loveseat on the long wall and still not have the loveseat too close to the door by the fireplace.

I would also still flip the tv and the bench.

I may be wrong, but please consider at least giving it a try.

The two rounds lined up like that don't look right.

With 3.5', whatever you do on the back wall, don't go less than 3' for the aisle.

Here's a link to a b/w photo display at PB.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pic Display

I agree that the tables look kind of funny lined up like that.

Les, I'm not ignoring your idea of switching the furniture. It's just that the couches are to heavy for me to move by myself so I have to wait until someone can help me. We used to have the couches set up the way you are suggesting and it did seem to fit the room better, but it always bothered me that the loveseat was not centered with the back wall. And it bothered me that the table at the corner blocked the entrance to the living space. But I'll try to convince my husband to help me switch the furniture around again so you all can see what it looks like. I really don't think a perfect arrangement is possible based on the furniture I have, but I'll just have to settle on something.

Squirrel, I like the black and white photo arrangement.

I don't think I'd like the small sofa on the long wall, either, but if it's a functional advantage, then maybe it would just work better. Interested to see the effect.

If you decide to do a long shelf along the back wall...

Check out the brackets that Lowes has to offer. There are some in the wood dept where you can buy a good stain or paint quality length of board for the shelf.

Or...... They also have additional brackets in a different dept that are all metal. They have very traditional and verrrrrry modern ones, too. Black or white or ORB plus others. I was amazed at all the styles they offered at great prices. Made me want to figure out where I could fit in some more shelves!

This would be a good way to get a custom look shelf w/ very little $$ and labor. Very DIY friendly!

Thanks for the info about the brackets. That's a great tip and I plan to look into that.

I switched the sofas around as you suggested Les. My husband doesn't want to switch the tv and bench because he doesn't want the electronics near the door and outside weather elements.

Any opinions of this new arrangement?

Well, I guess I don't understand what the advantage of this arrangement is over the other. I do prefer the way the other looks, though, and think it works nicely with a display on the back wall. Since you're not switching the tv, you also have to keep your head turned while watching from what might be the main sofa. Of course, if you like to lay down and watch like some of us ... :)

I notice your hall area :) Something that makes a world of different in giving a place a finished look is to replace the doors with paneled ones or whatever you prefer. Of course, real wood is the best appearance, but even expensive homes today use the lightweight inexp type.

I think you need to move the loveseat just a bit closer to the couch, and be sure you are at a right angle with the two pieces, but imo that is much better.

Your visual line along the kitchen wall is not so choppy with the couch there as it was with the loveseat. Having the loveseat on the longer wall allows you room for a chair in the back corner(obviously something more cushy in the future), and plenty of easy access to the door as you said you needed. Having the loveseat on the longer wall also takes away the feeling of the back wall area being barricaded from the seating area by the long couch. It is no longer just a backdrop, but a usable part of the space with depth and interest.

Be sure your coffeetable is moved in closely enough so that it is usable for both the couch and loveseat.

Thanks for moving things around and indulging me. I like it better this way, tho I would still like to see the tv moved, but I know how men can be about those things.

Whatever you decide, you have a nice space and great furniture pieces. Now you just need to bring in some of the great elements that squirrel and chicory have shown you.

Two different opinions from two different people whose style I both really respect. I just don't know which furniture arrangement to go with! I'm personally not 100% happy with either arrangement. Some of my girlfriends are coming over on Saturday so maybe I will take a vote from them....or maybe I will just flip a coin. I think there are pros and cons to both arrangements.

Squirrel, I would love to get new doors. I don't care at all for the doors we have now. This house is once of those houses that was built in the earlier 90s and was thrown up quick and cheap. I'm currently keeping most doors to the house closed because we're still "moving in" after 4 months and there are some messes I need to keep my cat out of. But once everything is straightened up I will keep more of the doors open so they won't look as bad. But I would definitely like to replace them eventually.

I just gotta say I love the acessories that Chickory did in the first pic. I did say WOW when I pulled that pic up!

It's always easier to appreciate a room when it's fully accessorized and completed :)

If you put the long sofa against the long wall, as one might expect the architect had in mind, and then maybe the loveseat under the cutout, is everything too spread out? (I'd try them pulled out a few inches rather than lined against the wall.)

Have you tried placing the sofa parallel to the fp angle? Then maybe get a couple upholstered chairs and use the loveseat in another room?

Do you know the general dimensions of your room?

Thanks, Mudpie.

Squirrel, what about putting the loveseat parallel to the FP and putting the sofa at a right angle close to the door? Where the bench is now...

Acla, would that work?

Then it wouldn't be such a jog to get around the furniture and into the seating area with the popcorn and Frappacino. : D

Personally, I think your furniture arrangement is fine.

And, I agree, accessories help a lot, but it takes time to accumulate all the "junk".

The room is approximately 16 x 18.5.

I've tried putting one of the sofas parallel to the fireplace and if I do that there is no way to fit the other one in the room. I might be able to do it if I had a couple of chairs instead of a loveseat, but I'm going to have to stick with both sofas in that room.

I think if I pushed them back they would look too spread out.

acla, how about leaving everything in its current arrangement but scooting it back to the big blank wall? It might be too ugly a view from the kitchen hall and/or too far away from the tv, but if you're still not happy with the arrangement, maybe worth a shot?

I thought my living room was hopeless too, but with the help of folks here, and willingness to try everything anyone could think of, I actually finally got an arrangement that works AND looks good. So don't give up yet!

Thanks for the encouragement. I think accessories will help a lot too. Maybe I just need to move on to that and see how I feel when the room is more decorated.