Suggestions for my Living Room

[stellarose]

I thought I would put suggestions out there for my living room. Some may remember, but we just recently bought our first home and have now moved in. Most walls are the same color, or pretty close to it. I want to add color, but haven't really had a good source of inspiration yet for our living room.

Below are pictures of it empty and how we have the furniture set up now. The couch and entertainment center will stay for now, but we will eventually change that out. Near the fireplace, we are thinking of getting two chairs for a cozy space/more seating/conversation area.

The rug I have is too small in my opinion, its an 8x5. I would like to get a 9x12 in here. Rugsusa has some 8.6x11.6 on sale now, but since they have sales often I don't have to buy one now unless i really like the pattern. I have been more drawn to the blueish/grey or blue/cream combinations. DH likes the chargcoal/whites better. I am not sure how graphic I want to go in this room....but again, I don't really have any ideas.

The dining room is through the opening and then the kitchen and a second living space is behind where the entertainment center is. Right now, everything is the wall color you see. I haven't picked anything else out.

What kind of rug would you put in here? Do you think 9x12 would be a good size? What color schemes would you do? Wall color? Rug color?





This is how I have it set up now


(also, ignore my DH playing video games in this pic )

[stellarose]

Here are the rugs we were looking at tonight. It's hard to find something neutral and subtle, but not too dull either. And also hard to find the rug you fall in love with to be in stock! But these I can get a 9x12 on sale for $300ish and that's hard to pass up. Since I am unsure of what I'll do in the room, I'll probably pass this sale up for the next one so that I am sure I know what I want to do with the rest of the room and what mood I want in here.

What color DH keeps picking out:



Colors I am gravitating towards:

[thewop]

Definitely a bigger rug. What about painting the walls an aqua blue, using the charcoal rug, and doing some cream colored drop cloth curtains?

[munkii]

You definitely need a bigger rug, but I'm not really loving any of those rugs. If I had to choose one, it would be the quatrefoil rug since your couch is so heavy and dark. What are the dimensions of the room and the couch?

[thewop]

Here's the paint bio. It might help inspire you
sites.google.com/site/thepaintbio/Home/

[peach]

You have an amazing focal point in that fireplace and it seems to be ignored. I would be arranging the furntiure around that...not lining it up on the walls. Can the sectional turn so it's facing the fireplace? It seems too big for the room (that sucks about moving - furniture sometimes is the wrong scale for a new room) or can you remove sections of it?

I would either lose the footstool or put it in front of the ikea chair, it looks a bit funny sitting in its own on the other side of the fireplace.

I like all the rugs you are looking at. I would also consider doing different drapes- those ones are too short.....drapes should hang to the floor, they are like the pants of a room. Some girls on here have painted out the brass on their fireplaces - that would look great on yours! Hang or lean something large above the fireplace.

[magdala9]

I would pick out a brighter rug and use the rich brown furniture that you already have. I would add solid color linen drapes using one of the colors from the rug. Overstock is having a sale on rugs today with 25 off purchases over $150 (if they have something you like). With your neutral back drop I would pick a leaf green or a coral color to brighten it up.

[tabithasoren]

I actually just got in the last rug you pictured but in the charcoal color. I absolutely love it. It is so much prettier than the picture on rugsusa. I will have to take a pic tonight and post it. I also loved the pic of the one you posted but in the bigger sizes it has been sold out for a while, so I went with charcoal and I'm so glad I did. So, that would be my suggestion.

[simpsongal]

Ditto, the couch shoudl float and not butt up against the wall. It's a bit of a tough layout. If you want to keep the tv on the opposite side, then I suppose the couch should face it. If so, I like the idea of having comfy chairs or a loveseat flank the fireplace - maybe add a space for books too? And some lamps for nice lighting.

Full length 95" curtains would really be nice. It would be a bit of work because you have to raise the curtain rods, but it really elongates a room.

If you create two spaces, I think you need two rugs, in which case you 5x8 rug would work and you need another small rug.

[pitterwoo]

I think two seating areas and two rugs. There's no good way to split the difference between the tv and the fireplace and the front door right in the middle of it.

[stellarose]

Thanks everyone. We literally just moved in, like only been here 8 days total. So we were just spacing out place holders and such. My original plan was to have the couch back face the front door, tv opposite of the front door, but the couch took up the whole room. Then we turned it facing the fire place and opposite that and again it was awful.

Thanks for the suggestions and the paint page. I didn't know about that.

Oh and curtains....I agree, the curtains should be long, however, right now we have baseboard heat and so you need short curtains so they don't catch on fire I presume. They came with the house. I'll be changing them out eventually.