Great-happy to hear you're working away on your room and that you Love the turquoise. Either of the 2 muted colors I suggested: SW 6478 and SW 6479 would look nice. Terrific idea about the ottoman(s). Even if you do decide to keep your coffee table, the ottomans can be placed in front of the fireplace, extra seating and/or storage... :) Looking forward to seeing your "new" room...
[houzz=][houzz=] http://www.designerpages.com/products/54383/

@Natalie ...i have alot of tourqouis (which i love..walls/pillows/throws) and am in the process of trying to add some other color. I had NOT thought of red! But i loove it. You helped someone elses dilemma while helping this one..lol,Thanks so much

I would consider painting the walls a light taupe color - like Sherwin Willims Kilim Beige or a neutral that
works with the carpet and draperies. Red and soft brown look better together than black and red. Find accent pillows in cream, chocolate and beige or a nice pattern with multi colors. I would get an attractive light ficture for the ceiling. A cocktail table of glass will add some sparkle and get away from all the heavy wood. Large abstract art pieces will look great. A good looking floor lamp will be nice in the corner to the right of the sofa. I would paint the kitchen cabinets white. The fireplace is small for the falt screen TV. If you can get a carpenter to build you a new larger one -painted white again, this will help that wall a great deal. Lots of art on the wall to lthe right of fireplace is needed. Bottom line - make the walls, floor and woodwork neutral and add color with fabric pillows,art and carefully chosen accessories for the table and kitchen counters. If the draperies still look bland, consider having them trimmed down the inside verticla edges with a braid of brown/red .

My husband is attached to the green paint so I am in the process of convincing him that maybe we should try something different.

Your green is a really tricky color to work with, especially in combination with an intense red. But this recent ideabook reminded me of your colors. They've done a masterful job designing with these bright shades, and it isn't easy. But if your husband insists on keeping the green, perhaps this will give you some ideas:
https://www.houzz.com/houzz-tv/my-houzz-an-antique-cape-cod-house-explodes-with-color-stshtvvw-vt~4018714?vm=list

Wow! Thank you so much!

Yes I love that combination of red and that color green together, but that's not the same color value you have and it's not against the tan carpet. :) Putting colors together is tricky because 2 and 3 can work nicely together, but start bringing in different undertones and colors start looking "off". Anyway, I hope your husband decides to paint-it will do wonders for the room. If he doesn't want to do it all right now, or needs some convincing, (I know husbands can be difficult-mine certainly is), ask him if he'd be willing to at least paint the wall with your sliding door... I think once he sees that color with the cabinetry, he'll really like it. If he does, have him continue painting the kitchen until he reaches the opening to the upstairs--that includes the bottom slope too. Who knows, once the turquoise is up the green just might work on the remaining walls. Because as I mentioned, when colors are put side by side, they read differently.
Good Luck to you and I look forward to seeing pics...

First I applaud you for going with color, most people are scared of bold choices. I went to art.com and picked out somethings that may go in your room. Check them out. I don't know what style you like, but you do need something on those walls.

http://www.art.com/products/p11899623412-sa-i6200992/melissa-graves-brown-dreaming-tree-red.htm?sorig=cat&sorigid=0&dimvals=0&ui=36baedb4a83842de965286a529aa829c&searchstring=red&ssk=red
Or something fun!
http://www.art.com/products/p10036483-sa-i786540/ron-burns-squirt.htm?sorig=cat&sorigid=0&dimvals=0&ui=36baedb4a83842de965286a529aa829c&ssk=red&searchstring=red
or flowers
http://www.art.com/products/p9624618670-sa-i5500758/diane-hoeptner-poppies.htm?sorig=cat&sorigid=0&dimvals=0&ui=36baedb4a83842de965286a529aa829c&ssk=red&searchstring=red

2. Your right, get rid of the pillows, or go to the fabric store and find something to cover them with.

3. The idea of green & red apples was good and would look good in a bowl on bar or the table.

4. It is your house, and if these colors make you happy, keep them.
Good Luck and update us with some pictures!

I think you need to get some slip covers for your sofas, if you want to keep the green and your sanity.
It may be easiest to find a simple off-white muslin, but you might try a purple if you want more color...or denim or navy blue. That bright red would likely show through off-white.

If there is a "cheap linens" store (I've seen one recently) or you can find something in the color you are interested in testing on the clearance rack at Marshalls or Home Goods, etc. it might be worth it to spend $5-10 just to bring home a sheet or a large towel and throw it over one of the sofas to see if you like how the color works with the green before you invest in actual slip covers. You can always use it for picnics or the beach

Little by little but here is the progress on the arrangement of furniture. We have a table to put in front of the window (just haven't gotten there quite yet. What do people think?

I will add that if we do keep them straight as opposed to in an L then I think we will move them closer together and put the table behind the one in front of the window. I'm not sure how I feel about the L shape but I am used to them being the other way for a year.

My husband needs a spot to put all of his media things in the corner between the TV and window. He wants to put some sort of corner cabinet but I was thinking some floating shelves might look better. Thoughts?

i like the facing together..seems much more open. :)

I would go with different color couches like a beige or dark brown maybe, or change the wall color to a neutral. You could try leaving some of the walls that the furniture is not up against the green color for accent walls, but then repaint the others a neutral. Those are my suggestions. You are right, the red and green do not look good together the 364 other days of the year besides Christmas. Good luck!

I agree with Joy, it seems more open with them facing. I like the idea of the floating shelves-I would also put two colorful consoles (with bottom storage) underneath the shelves on either side of the fireplace. Your hubby could house his electronics on the bottom shelf of each console.
Do you have any glassware, vase, book that is turquoise in color? I'd like to see something on your mantel that color---how it looks against the green... :)

an example of the console
Do any color, including white, or metal---No more wood or black...

http://www.poshliving.com/catalog/Furniture/Console-Tables/Harlow-Console-Table-in-Turquoise/3622/28011/product_detail.asp

We are trialing the couches in the L shape and so far I think a agree that it closes things off a little. I think I prefer it opened up so far. I guess we will see for sure when I get the table in front of the mirror. Also, I was originally going to do black or white frames for the stairway gallery wall but I saw these and though the neutral tan and gray colors would be perfect no matter what we end up doing with the walls. Black or white frames or the neutral colors with patterns?

If we did leave the couches opened up do you think it would make sense to put some chairs in front of the stairs where the black table is? Or do you think they would be awkward and would not flow with the location of the couches? We would move the black table and maybe put a smaller table in between the two chairs.

What does everyone think of the wall color in the picture with the butterfly gallery wall? Would something like that work in this room?

I like the wall color in picture, but I thought your husband said the green had to stay.. As stated earlier, kuddos for not being scared of color. But as many have stated, You will probably feel better with a neutral color on the walls, then you can add pops of green in pillows, wall art, accessories.

I don't think there is enough walking space to add chairs in front of the stairs. If your looking into purchasing chairs, I would get rid of one of the couches. I think this would make your room look a little roomier.

Nope. The wall color hs to go. Too restrictive for this living room. Whenever you have a sofa "floating " you need a sofa/console table behind it - usaull no more that 18 inches deep. I usuall put one behind
all sofas so they are never "hugging" the wall. Books and ascessories can be placed on top. Can you also piant the woodwrok white? Color is great if you can make it work. It seems to me much easier to paint than tho change the red sofas. Again, Use color in small acents - art , pillows, accessories. I also think tan and red look great together. consider a tan/gold for the walls.

Does it matter if the table behind the couch is a little taller than the back of the couch?

WOW! That is a lot of Green in both rooms.If you like green on the walls, I would pick another shade of green that is much, much, much lighter. Change the curtains to red , tan and green. Add a rug with tan , green and red. Add striped and another pattern in the red, green and tan combination for sofa pillows to break up the coldness and solidness of the room Add some green plants in the corners. You also need end tables with lamps for some height to the room. Sofas look better facing each other. White trim on the baseboard and at the ceiling would look nice also.

I woul say yes it does matter. The height of the console table should be pretty much be the height of the sofa back or slightly lower. How much do mean by " a little''?

Hi-
Have you convinced your husband to paint for you? Hope so-keeping fingers crossed... :)

If you are going to keep the red sofas, the walls have to change color. Ths gray is too austere for you. It can work well in bright light modern spaces - but I don't see it for your rooms. Again, consider a tan/gold and paint the walls and ceiling all the same color with all white woodwork. Kitchen cabinets should also be painted white. You can place sone of yout colorful bowls on top of the cabinets. Nothing is going to makek that space look great, but bowls, pitchers, etc. wil be fine. The turquoise/red color combo is very personal so I would advise against it.You could do a bathroom perhaps but again - it is not somethingn which will have universal appeal. Having shelves on either side of the fireplace is ideal= also painted white. The books, accesssorires witll provide color. The collection of red framed mirrors by Dear Daisy Cottage are an excellet choice for the stair wall opposit the fireplace. The door coud also be painted red. but I prefer white to match all the woodwork. keep the sofas facin each other, glass top coffe/cocktail table and 2 matching chairs- taller than the sofas facing the fireplace. A stripe fabric with companion colors would be great. You could introduce a touch of turquoise here ( in the fabric ) if you love it and add it to the accent pillow as well.

hailyxo you have to decide if you want a colorful space, muted space, or a monochromatic space with red accents---Because those are your options. You have tan/stone colors in your carpet, dining chairs, fp surround, countertops, and tile---------you have Red sofas----You LOVE color, but muted color. So the current green is NOT working here-if you want color and you like green tone it down---look at Khaki hues---if you want vibrant---then paint turquoise----if you want monochromatic---tan/cream on walls... The choice is yours. What most of us are telling you is that you have to take into account everything which exists (permanent) in your space when selecting a paint color. I hope this helps you out with your dilemma. Good Luck!

2 Muted colors for you to try: SW 6150 Universal Khaki and SW 6157 Favorite Tan. Pick up the paint chips, bring them home and see how they look with your sofa, carpet , and wood. I think you'll be happy with these muted khaki hues...

An idea for the media storage is wall-mounted cube shelves instead of plain shelves. I have recently jumped on the cube shelf bandwagon, and I think they are fantastic. There are some you can paint yourselves, maybe red to match the couches, or you could find cherry finished ones to match your trim. If you offset them so that they're not just in straight rows, it can add visual interest as well as being practical. (Can you tell I'm chomping at the bit to move into our new house and try some of these ideas?)

Something I read in an ideabook recently was that if you're giong with color, each color in a room should be used at least three times to help balance things out. So while the walls count for the green once, it's NOWHERE else. That might be part of the problem. Maybe green and white/tan pillows for the couch and a green vase on the island? A red chandelier could look really cool, too, and there are some great ones out there. It could add visual interest by the dining room without you needing to add too much to the walls since chandeliers hang low.

Also, for one of the walls you could keep the green and maybe paint vertical or horizontal off-white or tan stripes, then paint the rest of the walls the same off-white or tan.

fhe L shape of your sofas looks so much better. Remember they do not have to touch....space between would feel better and they don't have to be 100 percent on the carpet. Hope you get to paint, because you have a very pretty space.

Thanks for the cube idea merewenc! I will have to check that out. I don't think I've seen anything like that before.

Although the two couches facing each other does seem more open, the L arrangement seems better for TV watching. Too bad your can't reverse your L so one sofa is under the windows, but I can see from your photos there isn't room with your entry way. If you keep your L, how about pulling your sofa back towards the stairs a touch so your two sofas don't touch and pulling your sofa table you have under the stairs up behind the couch. I think it's nice to have a table behind a floating couch, too. You may be able to put an end table in the square space where the two couches meet, and run an extension cord under your couches so you can have lighting both on an end table and a sofa table behind couch across from the TV. I see in your pic your already have a square table in the corner (with components on it?) you may be able to use with your sofas. I know you want something different for your components anyway. It looks like in your picture the couch almost touches the wall to the right of the fp. How much space is there between the end of the sofa and your wall?

There is about a foot of space between the wall and the edge of the couch on the right side of the fireplace.

What pops out for me is your kitchen is exposed to your living/ dining areas. Take everything off the frig and declutter the counter tops and you'll start to see a sleeker and more modern look. I also feel you are getting great advice for the living room:). Enjoy.

You have great height above the kitchen cabinets for some terrific large items, I.e., pottery, baskets, plants....

Ooh, I agree wholeheartedly with jmnevins' advice to declutter, but adding decorative items above the cabinets would, in my opinion, reclutter it again. I prefer the sleeker look of keeping that space clear.

Sometimes the unexpected on top of cabinets can be interesting and lovely. I like to lean framed art or graphic photography. This looks great layered with large pottery and baskets with lots of texture such as banana leaf. Warm gray walls look fabulous with dark wood and red. I would bring in menswear grays for couch pillows with varying texture.

hailyxo- ...... I don't know, since it's a foot you may want to leave that area open to walk through. If so, I wouldn't run an extension cord under the sofas for lighting. If you don't want to walk through that area, and go with the "L" arrangement, you can always place a big basket of magazines at the end of the sofa by the fireplace to hide the cord (assuming you have an outlet to the right of the fp!

The green is far too dark a color, the furniture is dark, the fireplace is STARK white....I would... paint the walls a nice colonial gray, Benjamin Moore has it...great shade. I would also consider painting the cabinets white. Put some decorative baskets or ivies above the cabinets, with an open floor plan leading into the kitchen, take down the fridge magnets. Raise your dining chandelier, with a raised ceiling its best to raise the fixture, it will cast a more pleasant light. I would also consider whitewashing the cabinets. Flank the fireplace with white cabinets to give it a richer look, and a great place tor storage by using baskets on the shelves.

This discussion is fascinating. We need Houzz member named Dytecture to digitally change your wall color, sofa color or drapes so you can quickly see the impact of what people are suggesting. It would be fun for the rest of us as well.

traciel I would love to be able to see all of these things! I can't quite imagine them all!

I would love to make the trim in the house white. I feel like that would be a HUGE project, maybe not though.

Curious what people's thoughts on the fireplace mantel are... I was wondering if people think it might look better to continue the white molding up around the TV with the area painted white as well. Would you continue it all the way up to the ceiling even though it is at an angle or would you square it around the TV?

Got some chair covers for the bar stools. Going to put one on and get pictures up!

I would lose the green and paint it nuetral cream color, or go with wallpaper but dont wrap the whole walls, maybe pick the one on the dining/ tv side. Dont include too much wood furniture. There is enough wood elements. Lighting looks inadequate, so a standing lampmwill be key. Add a nice sheer fabric drapes. Bar stools will be smaller n better than the chairs. Move the sofa 1 feet away from the wall to create a more alive space.

I have been searching around for a nice "greige" color for the walls. My husband is not happy about having to paint again at all but I am trying to explain to him about flow, etc.

I actually like how the couch and pillows look with your dining room and kitchen. I can imagine your last place looking really cute. There are a lot of good suggestions on here. for whatever it's worth, i would lighten up the wood trim around the door/windows/baseboards - I'm a high-gloss white type of girl. Then I would get a soft Cottage White from Sherwin Williams (it's a warm white almost beigy-cream but not too yellowy). I too had same dilemma in my house - almost your exact layout and everything. That did wonders to highlight all of the great pieces I already owned - similar to you and I was able to bring in picture frames on the wall the same color tone of my dark furniture. You can mat your pictures in the frames with splashes of coordinating colors like red or other tones you want to incorporate. The door, I'd paint highgloss white as well. While ppl may be thrown off by the red couches and bold white/black graphic printed pillows, I actually feel they are GREAT backdrops to new fun colors you may want to add through out the year as seasons change. Little lumbar pillows in contrasting colors like tourquoise or other great suggestions listed hear can even be brought into seat cushions of your island chairs to create a connection throughout the different areas of your space. Like everything in life, there are trade-offs - you can keep the green walls and go out and buy all brandnew furniture more to scale for your current space (sugg. one generous sized love seat and 1 1/2 chair placed facing window, an ottoman/coffee table and a small scaled chair, perhaps a straw chair like at Pier1 w/a small straw ottoman & little table in front of window) or keeping your current furniture in the "L" configuration with a round end table to fill in that gap and neutralizing the wall color & painting the door & trim white to pull the walls visually "back/away" from your furniture to avoid the closed-in feel. I went through a couple of trial and error moves before I found that that white door/trim and neutral walls worked best. Hopefully you've found something that's worked out for you. Pls post updated pics - I'm curious to see an update after so many have responded. :-) p.s. Maybe using paint with primer already built-in will help minimize the amount of time painting.

Not much action yet since we had to get the baby's room together but this room is next on the list! I will be sure to post pictures when we make some real progress!

Hi! I was just wondering if there has been any update to your living space in the last year? I found this in my own search of what to do with reds and greens without saying CHRISTMAS all year round :)

BTW I don't think that you have to omit either wall color or couch in these photos. They offset each other completely complimentary, but they are competing for focal points. A vast set of frames or memorabilia on the walls under a neutral palate would offset that perfectly. As it is, I'm late to the game, but I would love to see what it looks like today :)