When you say remodel, what do you mean? Are you actually physically changing the space, or just redecorating?

What are you keeping, and what can go? For example, is all the furniture staying, and you are just looking for ideas about paint and drapery and accessories?

It seems like a nice space, good light at the dining end, and lots of potential. But it would help to know what you are thinking about so that we don't suggest things that are not at all in the plan, and so won't be of any help.

You've a great start phallky, but I'm thinking maybe an area rug with the color from the vases on the sofa table and add more of those colors around the room in accessories or throw pillows. If you can find candles in each of those colors than replace the ones on the neat sconces on the wall. It all really depends on how much you want to spend or do really. I might even think of paining the back wall of the built in shelving in one of the those two colors too.

Thanks Les. To be more specific; we took down walls and enlarged the space. My living room is now the dining room and the kitchen is much larger. However, where the tv is now is smaller. All the furniture is staying, so yes, needing more decorating ideas for now.

Justgotabeme, you are so right about the pillows. Color is really needed! I love my painting of the Brooklyn Bridge and all its muted colors. I would love to draw inspiration from it.

The room is lacking any variation in texture and there are no patterns to speak of. Those two things would help.

An area rug to add texture and pattern/colour and to define the space. Take some colour inspiration from your artwork and add it in some way as accessories to your shelving. Take the same colours and add it as throw pillows to your couches. The colours can be subdued as is your painting but the room is lacking life.

I see 2 things missing....a cohesive color scheme ... and lighting. Both would warm the space....key elements are color pattern texture and shine.

The vases in the orange and blue are outstanding. How about mixing up more of that color around the room? area rug, pillows, art work. I find the drapes very plain...can we add some color to them? Maybe a border with those colors in it on either the leading edge or along the bottom or as a trim? Lamp light really warms a space up. Can you put lamps on the sofa table? Would help add a visual break between there and the dining room. Can you do either track lighting to highlight the built in shelves or puck lights to highlight what's on the shelves? Finally some greenery would be helpful to make the place come a little more to life.

I feel an area rug and a coffee table is needed.

By the way, I love the LCD Screen TV with that corner stand. What size is the TV and where did you get the stand. I like the soothing wall color and the way the room is coming along with that open feel. Once a coffee table is added and maybe an area rug (I have none since my lb little dog marks but it really does ground a room),the room would look even more cozy and pretty.

I like your room. I like the calm feel that the neutral colors give. I like that you have avoided crowding the room with too much furniture or the typical 3-seat sofa. The light color for the loveseat and chair was a good decision versus a darker color that would have taken up more visual space. I love the cove ceiling.

Right now you have a TV viewing room. The room isn't set up for several people to sit and face one another and talk or play a board game. I doubt you could read a book using one or both of the lamps you have there. Someone sitting on the left side of the sofa has no light or end table to put a drink down. I understand the space constraints you have, and maybe this room can't have more than one purpose.

If it were my house, I would switch out the two lamps for ones that were slightly taller and less traditional, given that the sofa and chair are not traditional.

Adding texture to the room is easier said than done since much of the room is already furnished, and I don't know whether you are prepared to change out what you have. Fabulous drapes can make a room. I can't see what's inside the built in bookcase, but it has potential for putting fabric on the back wall and adding a lamp in there or Ikea type lights coming off the top of the bookcase. A quietly patterned solid color area rug would add texture. I love the ones that have a basketweave effect.

The accessories that you have on the tables seem like afterthoughts. You don't have a lot of them, which I like, but they don't interest my eye. I wonder how many of those things you truly love and how many were just put there to fill a space.

I would be tempted to do something to the ceiling.

For lamps, I would go more square or angular. I don't know that this is the right lamp, but this is the idea. Notice the texture in the shade. You can sneak texture all kinds of ways if you pay attention to detail.

I also like your wall color and ceiling and the lack of clutter--that's half the battle!

To me the main things that seem missing are color and texture. When I felt like my living room was having that problem, I added a colorful throw on a side chair, a few new throw pillows on the sofas, some houseplants near the window and a basket for my magazines.

If you have a reason (e.g. naughty dog) for not having a rug, that's fine but if you can have one, that would be another opportunity to add color, and less of a commitment than putting it on the walls.

Enjoy your tinkering!

Thank you everyone! I agree that a rug is needed, new drapes (Actually we saw some at Lowes that we loved until I saw that they are outdoor panels. Can these still be used indoors?!), more color and texture.

The lamp that is under the painting is 22" tall and comes just under the frame. Would a taller lamp be too obstructive? The left side of the sofa does need a small table (I don't have anywhere to place my margarita when I need to set it down!), but there is not enough room.

The sofa is a recliner so a coffee table would constantly be moved around when we want to "stretch out". Does anyone else have that issue with tables and recliners?

I see no reason you can't use the outdoor panels inside if you like the look.
We have two recliners now and a coffee table. Our recliners just miss the edge of the coffee table when they are "open". I just can't image our room without a coffee table. Our table has "wings" that open up so we needed the extra space. We'll soon be getting a new sofa and love seat all with recliners and plan on keeping the coffee table. It can work. You just have to open the recliner to know where to place the coffee table.
One works for us and sounds like you have a need for a place for your margarita!
If you have small children they'll love a coffee table that opens up. All that wonderful place to play at their level. Our grandsons love it. That's one of the first things they do when they arrive.
Here's what it looks like open and closed. The pictures are from the ad on CL.

If I recall correctly, we had a recent discussion here on coffee tables - yea or nay, and we seemed to be evenly divided on the matter. Personally, I would not use one with reclining seats.

I some ways, your living room reminds me a lot of mine. I, too, have a corner TV, one recliner, and one joined recliner. I don't have a coffee table because it would be in the way, and the room is set up more for TV than for conversation (which mostly works for us, but one of these days I'll get around to asking for help to see if a better arrangement is possible). However, my room has color and texture through houseplants, knick-knacks, artwork and an area rug. Your room is very calming as-is...but maybe not as inviting as it could be with a little more warmth and interest. In our TV stand I put 4 linen totes on the bottom shelf. They hold movies and game controllers, hide wires, break up the expanse of black, and add a little texture.

As you noted, it's really annoying when attempting to eat or drink in the living room without a nearby table. I've considered snack tables (like a tall coaster on a stand) and some fun, odd-sized skinny side tables at antique stores (would have bought them if the price was right). Amazon actually has some options if you can squeeze out another 10-12'. Add me to the votes against the tiny table lamp. Could you fit a floor lamp behind that table without disrupting the traffic flow or artwork?

I think houseplants on the table behind the couch and on the floor near the recliner, plus some color/texture through pillows and a rug, will just about solve your problem. Don't forget the dining nook, too, since the space all flows together. The space between the two windows behind the table could use a little something, IMHO. Overall, though, what a great space you have to work with!

Here is a link that might be useful: Narrow side table

Could you put your sofa against the wall, under your Brooklyn Bridge pic? Then you could put end tables under the windows and I would mount tv on the wall where you currently have the hanging candles. This would open up the room, but its hard to tell from the pictures if your pieces would fit in this configuration.

I would also relocate the table and lamp in the corner by the bookcase and place a large potted plant (real or artificial, but tall) in that spot to in bring color.

We just had a new Home Goods store open nearby. Can't wait to go shopping! To repeat a question about my lamp near the bridge pic; would it look okay to add something that may block a portion of it?

BTW, you guys are amazing!

You can partially block a picture, but in this case, the lamp is right in front of the center of the picture.

With a taller lamp, you might want to see if there would be room to move the painting to the right somewhat. You would center it between the edge of the future lampshade and the edge of the drape.

It needs a rug, yes. Maybe a little more color, but the tone on tone look you have now photographs well, so if you like it, I would keep it.

I want to say it feels like a non-room because of the way the couch is seems attached to the wall via the end table, yet floating, yet also looks like it's in the middle of the door way.. and the TV is a black hole that dominates the room. I would rearrange.. specifically, I would try putting the couch in front of the window at the end of the room. Then, put the TV console in the corner where the couch's end table was. Pull the reclining chair forward towards the dining area so it's not in the way of the couch. The sofa table can stay behind the couch if it fits; if not, find another place for it. I would then buy one of those room dividing screens to put behind the TV and hide the messy wires. This would make the area inviting and open, yet separate.

OR - leave as is, but get something really tall to put next to the couch, like a 6' palm or fern. I would also try a solid chest of drawers behind the sofa. These would de-emphasize the TV and help delineate the lines of the area, making it seem more like a deliberately separate space.