XP: Help me decorate?

[glitzy07]

Last fall we finished a complete upper level living room/kitchen remodel. The kitchen looks great and is "styled" or decorated the way we want it, but I have yet to do anything other than buy rugs and curtains for the living and dining room. I'm terrible at home decor in general and need help with what to put on some of the blank walls that we have and how to fill out the space. Anyone love this kind of thing and want to help?

Here are the photos with some notes below:


This is the view from the kitchen side of the island. We eventually plan to buy a different tv stand/entertainment center and probably mount the tv on the wall. Additionally the lamp in the corner can go. We never use it, I just had it there during construction and never moved it. Behind that recliner chair on the left is another empty corner, save for a cat bed on the floor. What would you put on those walls or in the corners? We've though about getting one of those rustic looking blanket ladders for one side but haven't committed to anything yet.




This is the view from the top of the stairs/next to the recliner (kitchen is on the right). We need to do something to hide that terrible AC unit cord on the wall and to blend/bridge the living/dining room together. I've been thinking of getting some kind of more decorative chair and a tall (fake) plant to put behind it. I've struggled to find a plant that's big enough to cover the cord, but not so tall that it blocks the AC unit (and of course I can't recall the height of the unit of the top of my head right now). Any other thoughts or suggestions for this area? It's awkwardly wide open right now.




This is the dining area. Suggestions for a small decorative storage unit to go either under the window to the left (and changing the curtains) or maybe the corner? And something for the walls between the windows?

I don't have any one particular "style" and that's why I'm struggling to figure out what to put on the walls. Walls are all grey, kitchen cabinets are white on the perimeter and espresso on the island with white marble quartz countertops. The living and dining room rugs and chairs were my attempt at accent colors. The rugs have lots of teal (to match the dining and island chairs) and some pinks along with navy, so basically all of my favorite colors.

Help! TIA!

[sandandsea]

I love your rugs. What kind of things are you into? Ocean, sports, nature, etc? I like to pick decorative pieces that represent things I like.

I like the navy curtains as it adds some subtle, coordinating color.

I found these on way fair that may go with the dining room well. I like the idea of a mirrored piece there as well.

[sandandsea]

I like these too.

[sandandsea]

For artwork I like these depending on the vibe you’re going for. I have a purple and silver metal artwork piece in my front room and love it. It adds some cool modern brightness to the room.

[sandandsea]

For general decoration a I don’t like too many things but just a couple of interesting things to draw the eye and add in some color, natural elements, texture, or shape from another item to tIe it all together. Something like the below depending on where you’re putting it and what interests you have.

[sandandsea]

And something like this as another wall art of the other is bright and colorful this adds texture and is neutral but interesting and goes with the lines on the rug.

[glitzy07]

sandandsea Thanks for all the great suggestions! I really like the metal wall decor in the last post. I may have to look at something like that.

One of our struggles is that we have young kids (3,6,13) and I have a general aversion to clutter, so I'm not looking for a ton of random knick-knack type of things that they could break and/or that I have to dust around. But the wall art is definitely a need! And some kind of sideboard or cabinet in the dining room for a little bit of extra surface space. Thanks again!

[bhnumbers]

I also love your rugs, but the one on the dining room is too small, IMO. I would just do no rug there or get a larger rug that has a subtle pattern than coordinates with the pattern sitting area rug. Just an idea (I can't tell for sure what color your chairs are? more aqua? or green?: www.wayfair.com/rugs/pdp/august-grove-keira-teal-area-rug-aggr6218.html?piid=22495272


For the corner that the lamp is in, how about one of those really oversized ceramic vases with a filler, like willow branches. Home Goods always has cool vases like that.

You have dark floor (pretty!) and a lot of dark furniture, so try to keep everything else bright. Love the suggestions above!

[glitzy07]

bhnumbers You're the second person to say that the dining room rug is too small, and I definitely agree! We initially bought that rug for the living room and it was too small for that and would have been too expensive to return, so we just moved it to the dining room area for now. Ideally we'd buy a bigger rug for there eventually. Though admittedly we rarely sit at the dining room table and eat most of our meals at the giant kitchen island these days, so it's fine for now.

I love the idea of a big vase in that corner! Thanks!

[Deleted]

You've gotten some great suggestions so far. I also agree that the rug in the dining room is too small.

One thing that I do want to point is the length of your curtains. It's fine design-wise, but I'm concerned about them being in front of the baseboards. Are they electric? We have electric baseboards and cannot have anything in front of / near them, because it is a major fire hazard. Of course, all of my baseboards are under windows so it makes it difficult to do long curtains.

[sandandsea]

Oct 9, 2019 8:17:55 GMT -5 glitzy07 said:

sandandsea Thanks for all the great suggestions! I really like the metal wall decor in the last post. I may have to look at something like that.

One of our struggles is that we have young kids (3,6,13) and I have a general aversion to clutter, so I'm not looking for a ton of random knick-knack type of things that they could break and/or that I have to dust around. But the wall art is definitely a need! And some kind of sideboard or cabinet in the dining room for a little bit of extra surface space. Thanks again!

I agree. I like having 2-3 things per room to make it look decorated but not overdone or things to dust around. Like on the sideboard maybe a lamp and one thing on it instead of empty. And nothing breakable. I have two little boys that are crazy.

[Mrs.flang]

If you don't want to totally replace the dining room rug, you could get a larger plain (cheap) rug to go under and layer the patterned one on top. Like beige or cream. I think layering rugs is kind of interesting and different.

[aspentosh]

Honestly, I think two large plants would make a huge difference in both those rooms. One in the dining room between the windows and one where the lamp is in the living room.

What about a gallery wall with large frames (8x10 or 11x14) on the right side of the TV. If you did a tall plant on the left that takes up a lot of visual space, and then frames on the other side would balance it and help the ac unit blend in a little. And if you wanted a double duty buffet you could put it under the ac unit to hold either living room stuff or dining room stuff.

I'm fairly anti mass produced art so I'm no help there. But with the gorgeous rug there are a lot of options color-wise!

[glitzy07]

Oct 9, 2019 9:05:57 GMT -5 @sameoldstory said:

You've gotten some great suggestions so far. I also agree that the rug in the dining room is too small.

One thing that I do want to point is the length of your curtains. It's fine design-wise, but I'm concerned about them being in front of the baseboards. Are they electric? We have electric baseboards and cannot have anything in front of / near them, because it is a major fire hazard. Of course, all of my baseboards are under windows so it makes it difficult to do long curtains.

Our baseboard heat is not electric. We have a boiler and it's radiant heat. While I appreciate your concern, we've lived here for 9 years and always had standard length curtains and never had an issue. The heaters themselves are really not hot to the touch, but it's definitely something I've kept an eye on in the past! I definitely could consider hemming them though!

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2019 12:01:20 GMT -5 glitzy07 said:

Oct 9, 2019 9:05:57 GMT -5 @sameoldstory said:

You've gotten some great suggestions so far. I also agree that the rug in the dining room is too small.

One thing that I do want to point is the length of your curtains. It's fine design-wise, but I'm concerned about them being in front of the baseboards. Are they electric? We have electric baseboards and cannot have anything in front of / near them, because it is a major fire hazard. Of course, all of my baseboards are under windows so it makes it difficult to do long curtains.

Our baseboard heat is not electric. We have a boiler and it's radiant heat. While I appreciate your concern, we've lived here for 9 years and always had standard length curtains and never had an issue. The heaters themselves are really not hot to the touch, but it's definitely something I've kept an eye on in the past! I definitely could consider hemming them though!

No need to hem, I think that the length is great. I misunderstood and thought this was a new house and it was just an FYI. I never had electric baseboards (only a boiler) before and found out the hard way my first year in this house when a comforter fell off of the bed in my son's room and started smoldering.