The pictures don't show it, but the dining room is just on the other side from the kitchen. And it has a matching (but larger) sliding door leading outside, similar to family room.

Remove the chair rail and paint the dining room accent wall a color that coordinates with the stone surround you're considering

Problem with removing chair rail and/or dentil molding...it is glued to wall, so requires quite a bit of drywall repair. Almost more time effective to just replace all drywall.

example of chair rail painted wall color

[houzz=]

In the family room, can you even the shelves in the two shelving areas? Having them at all different levels seems jarring to me. Also, the room color is dark. How about wallpapering the inside of the open shelving with a brighter pattern to join the dark wall and the white, even up the shelves and add some big books to fill in the spaces. I think wood logs on both sides would look nice and grounded (I like things symmetrical).

Or, you could paint the inside of the shelves beige to match the other walls and keep the actual shelves white.

In the dining room, remove the photos and put a big mirror. Remove the garland from the fireplace mantle and bring the star down so it is closer to the mantle.

Your light looks too high. It should be 36" from top of table. Add a square area rug. 8 ft. Pictures on wall grouping to small add more or just get one large mirror. No fireplaces do not have to be the same. Tue rooms together with colors. In area rug for table go some of the red wall color.

You are trying too hard on shelves, leave baskets remove other items. Add 2 big pots in a dark red to tall shelves. Put those candlesticks on your dining table.

Add dark red pillows in solid and prints to sofas. Put panels on ends of windows. A red print would work. To bring in interest.

The picture in living room comes dn 6"

Remove small candle holders on the side, too small. No small items on walls. Could try with yr grouping in dining.

Very nice home.

Agree with the above statements. Yes, same in living room: too much stuff on shelves and too choppy. I did not want to overwhelm you.

If you want to do this, suggest working on one room at a time.....although we can "steal" items from one room to the other.

Let us know if you want to proceed. I think we are all pretty much in agreement.

Is that really the color of your living room-----way too dark. I thought maybe it was the lighting. Or do you just have the wall painted an accent color.

Would recommend you paint the entire area one color.

I love the molding and the trim in your house. I also love the fireplaces and the open shelving. If you simplified the color scheme used in your house this would already help bring the two spaces together. Pick your favorite color - you can add different tones of the same color family (neutrals for example) and add an accent color if you wish. Your open shelving blends in with the rest of the wall-try painting them white, the same color as the trim, to make them stand out. Good luck with your project.

The high contrast between dark walls and white trim makes the trim the focal point. If both were white, for example, it wouldn't bother you nearly as much.

Thanks for all the ideas! My entire house is painted in Bejamin Moore Greenbriar Beige. Accent wall in family room (behind TV) in Benjamin Moore Middlebury Brown. Accent wall in dining room (not a formal room...our only eating space) is Benjamin Moore Fresh Clay. I have one other accent wall in my entry way in the Fresh Clay...and my exterior is painted red...I have a love/dislike relationship with red. I can't WEAR it, but I like it. Funny...until I took the picture I didn't realize how puny the pictures on my dining room wall looked. The garland on my mantel is only there for Thanksgiving...normally it is bare (except for candles). I'd say my style would like to be (can't seem to get it there) would be pottery barn (ish), farm house like...with an emphasis on family living. I have four daughters and I want my husband, the girls and all of their friends to feel comfortable in any room of the house. Keep the ideas coming! Oh...the shelves in the family room, one side is approximately 30" deep, the other side is only 8" deep. Same width with same width windows on either side.

If you want a Pottery Barn look, I would recommend no accent walls. Paint those accent walls Greenbriar Beige.

So, what so far that we have suggested would you be willing to do?

We can start with some simple things. How about taking down the pictures on the dining room wall?

I could take down the pictures on the dining room wall. Lower the chandelier. Lower the star. Paint over the chair rail to minimize its appearance. Not sure I want a mirror in there...don't want to add any formality to the space, don't like to watch myself (or others) eat, and don't want to encourage any additional mirror gazing by my four daughters. So I'd have to figure out how to treat that wall. I'm good removing the small design pieces from the shelves in family room...some are family heirlooms, but I can find somewhere else for them that makes more sense. What about a floor to ceiling stone surround around the family room fireplace? Look too out of place with all of the other trim in the house?

Definitely want to figure out drapery options...do they need to match from family room, through kitchen to dining room?

Oh...and additional pillows on sofa. Definitely. Best place to look for pillows?

Yes on window covers.

I never knew that carpenters were glueing on chair rails, baseboards, and crown moldings. I have attached several by finding the studs and nailing into the stud. I see people are talking about the glue on other sites too. I have worked on several old houses and was able to pry trim off with a putty knife and tapping on the handle with a hammer.

kholl25

dining room: it does not have to be a mirror. You could hang a large piece of art or have you thought about art ledges? Pottery Barn sells them and Target also has them at a lower price.

[houzz=]

If you want to go this route, what I would recommend is, as in the photo, fewer and much larger pictures. We can help you decide how many ledges and size of photos.

living room

-What colors do you want in there?

pillows: tj maxx and pier one

drapes: bed, bath, beyond is a good place to start. We can help you look online also.
surround for fireplace: I would not add anything. I think once you get the drapes and pillows in there, you will be fine.

bookcases: can you take closer photos of both of them and then we can help you better.
Here is the thing: you want to choose a couple of things and stick with them. So, maybe you will put books and a collection of pottery on there. Family heirlooms might be fine if there is a collection of them. (although they may not work in your Pottery Barn vision).

other: please remove the stuff from the tray on the coffee table. I would take the tray and fill it with colored ornaments for the holiday season. If you are reaching for PB, your house would look great done in silver for holiday. So, maybe all silver round ornaments.

Console table behind couch......I would remove it. It seems that your furn arrangement is too tight. Maybe take another photo. Couch s/b 18" away from coffee table. Same with chairs.

Less is more. Overall, you need to declutter and feel the beauty of clean lines and more empty spaces.

Shown below are the bookshelves flanking my family room fireplace. That fireplace is a wood burning fireplace. I think the shelving clutter is my highest priority...I look at them all day and just don't know what to do with them. My console table...actually a THAT arrangement (done at pottery barn) is the only thing I like in the room. I'm making an appointment with the woman I've used in the past for draperies...and hit up Joann's thanksgiving weekend sale hopefully for fabric deals. I was going to go with a dark brown? Change it out in spring and summer for something lighter. Just leave coffee table tray empty? Thanks everyone! I'm taking everything in and trying everything!

Hi,

-paint: would paint inside of bookcases a dark color (sides also), but as I mentioned before, all other wall should be the same color
-drapes...no, not dark.....you could go neutral (easiest) but a lighter color


-shelves

1) Move right shelves to same height as left ones
2) In bottom of right shelf, stack short pieces of wood (you can use as kindling) so that left and right bottom look the same.
3) Now you have three even shelves left on both sides (they can be adjusted if needed, but keep both sides even.
4) Bottom shelf could be large pieces of pottery and books (what do you have?)
5) Next shelf up baskets (can you put cable box in a basket and the eye is visible through basket?)
6) Top shelf more pottery

This may not be perfect, but a start.

What is showing behind tv?

Thank you so much! There isn't anything behind the tv. My wish was that the tv would have been flush with the wall, but for whatever reason, my husband didn't make that one wish happen. There is a cutout behind the tv so it is recessed a bit and then all of the cables go through the wall into left side shelving. Good question about cable boxes. I'll have to figure that one out.

I have a love hate relationship with the tall skinny candlesticks that I have. I actually have one more...even taller than the two tall ones I have. All from pottery barn. They are at least 10 years old. I like their color, their rustic feel...but for the life of me can't figure out where to put them. I've tried them on the mantle next to TV...no go. I've tried them on the floor next to fireplace...no go. Time to give up on them? I'll gather all of my candlesticks and see what people think. Thinking I might have to get a designer into my house...as you can tell, I'm a little design challenged. But I'll gladly keep picking everyone's brains here!!

I think you have a lovely room and nothing really needs to be changed except getting rid of some of the clutter.

Oh..land thank you all for the nice comments about my house. I love it...but I spend SO much time here and find myself staring at the design dilemmas...and then I don't find it so attractive! My husband and I built our house when the only magazine subscription I had was to Sports Illustrated! Kind of let him lead the way...thus the formal touches (I grew up in Montana...with 6 siblings, no formality there!). It's the first house we built and we will be here forever...I think. So trying to "feather my nest" in MY style now. Just have to figure out what that mean exactly.

I have done the "cable box in a basket" trick several times successfully.

candlesticks: try removing the star and putting them on the mantle. Move star to wall. Alternative: hang a shelf on the dining room wall and place them on there.

I think the house is beautiful. The reason the moldings look overwhelming is because you have too much other stuff going on.

Please rearrange, take photos and post and we will continue to tweak!

So I've arranged the shelves to be similar height. Emptied them. I don't think I can put wood on the lowest shelf on the right...the depth is only something like 8 inches. And the second shelf is fixed on the left side..so I put it at that level on the right as well. That's all the farther I got this week...spent Wednesday night in the emergency room with my 15 year old and doctors visits all Thursday. Hopefully things return to normal next week. Headed to pottery barn tomorrow...and home goods...any suggestions?

I hope your girl is okay! Prayers.

Okay, so instead of making 2 sides symmetrical, at least we can achieve balance. You could even fix a shelf on right side to mirror shelf height on left side, then add one more shelf below on right side.

I would put something visually weighty there like 2 large baskets or 2 large wooden boxes. See what I mean? It would balance with the left side and also add visual weight to the bottom, where you want it.

Can you put tv electronics in right side?

Maybe you already have something, but the easiest way to set up the bookcases would be to simply do a row of books on a couple of shelves and then do a row of very simple pottery. (all the same style, color height. Maybe one shelf could have a very large bowl.

You can make your dentil mouldings and fireplace less formal by painting them a matt greyed-down navy. Look for the colour on the opposite side of the colour wheel from your greyed down burgundy wall colour.

you could also make some fake logs to mirror the real ones on the left (get some one to cut down the lenght and just pile them in . I really think the symmetry on the shelves is going to be a rapid pay off.

I personally don't think all these windows need drapes but am in favour of the other suggestions above.

You have a really wonderful home.