Get some curtains to go over the blinds in the living room. Since you have a red chair, I'd play off that red and go with a red pattern curtain to bring color to the room.



When you can afford it, replace the dark curtain on the French doors with something that has some color and personality.

Find some pictures or other art work to fill the blank walls. That's how you bring your personality to your home. I've ordered several prints from allposters.com that I've framed, and they look wonderful. Here are a couple of examples of the type my favorite photos from them that I've saved:

Your kitty is cooperating very nicely! If you can resend some photos from daylight hours. It is difficult to tell the true situation with dark photos... :) First impression is you have a lot of dark tones; sofa, rug, lamp shade... send more pictures if you can. A nice artwork would be great behind sofa.

Red and white with chocolate can be really charming. Think swiss cross pillows on the sofa, large scale modern art in white w a little red, and trimming your chocolate curtains with a fat white ribbon - repeating them up front. To separate the space, and make it more functional, first step is to replace light fixture over table - something contemporary AND bronze with white white glass to repeat this chocolate/white/red thing. Etsy will have swiss cross pillows, let me come back with art canvas ideas. You could use an open bookcase turned sidewyas next the end of the sofa - a two sided cube divider in white - layer red books, a chocolate "leather" covered box (toys can hide here in plain sight - maybe a red painted metal train car on display up high . .

It also looks like some wall mount plug in sconces in bronze at both ends of the sofa (not where they will hit heads - a tad higher) would give you more child safe lighting at a low level - change the dining room switch to dimmer - use led bulbs for the new fixture. You can use an iron on fusible to add the wide grosgrain ribbon trim to store bought curtains - could find one with a red edge or layer wide-wide white under skinny red - pin it on straight w a ruler from the inside edge and remove pins as you iron

Here are some more daytime shots. I have been trying to find some artwork for the wall above the couch and haven't found anything I love. Any idea what size I should be looking for? I also thought about doing a couple of shelves at different heights with some different pieces on them. Frames, small canvas print, vases, etc. I live in Earthquake country however and have a 2 year old so that may not be my best idea. Haha

Your two year old is going to soon be rearranging all those pictures on your bench below your t.v. In fact, you do need shelves for those. Try Ikea and maybe get some enclosed bookcases too so the little one won't also get into your other things I see out. Time to hide things! And, go as large as you can with one piece of art over your couch. Art.com is very good. 36" at least I would guess.

1) chandelier above dining table
2) console under the mirror in dining
3) large TV storage system (ikea has nice ones) see pic 1&2
4) black curtains have to go. look for colorful shear curtains that u can use on windows and patio doors

One more shot

Just checked your ideabook and found this photo wall that you liked:

The key to making a photo wall work is that the photos have to be "art quality." No school photos with the fake blue clouds, probably nothing posed. The best photos are those of the kids being kids. Look at them with a critical eye and ask if you would be compelled by this in a gallery. And none of those little collage frames, please. After you've chosen the photos, be sure to crop and enhance them so they become actual art.

Looking again, you've done a really nice job in these rooms. The only other things I'd suggest is to edit your pictures and the stuff on the shelf in the corner, (although your toddler may do that for you, LOL) and to find a great piece of art you love for over the sofa. IMO, art can make a room.

Use the art to inform your color palette. Check out World Market and Pier 1, online try etsy.com, and
http://www.greatbigcanvas.com/
and
http://www.gallerydirect.com/

You guys are amazing! I am heading to a giant antique sale right now and am excited to look for some of the things you all mentioned. Any thoughts on a mirror above the couch rather than art?

Mirror not good idea all you will see I it is TV

When using a mirror consider what is being reflected. In this case it's your TV and probably not something you want to reflect. Art takes time to find - don't feel like you have to hang something this weekend. It should be something you love, something that inspires you!

Art like the 30" sq poster http://www.art.com/products/p13059872-sa-i2300020/dream-session-the-all-stars-play-miles-davis-classics.htm?sOrig=CAT&sOrigID=0&dimVals=207268&ui=8F91ED38E590497BAADBF1C4DE496817
mounted on wood .. or an okeefe http://www.art.com/gallery/id--a514/posters.htm?SSK=o%27keefe

No mirror behind sofa. Art. If you find a small mirror you love, get it for another small wall.

I agree with the choice of art, take you time I just had a piece of art I bought 30 years ago reframed for another room, (still love it) Also you may think about a larger area rug for your dinning room table, you will designate it as a dining room vs a small space to eat,

I saw your pictures and immediately thought of this pic I had on one of my pinboards. I always like having a clearly defined entry and my door opens into my living room as well.

So I had an idea. I really like this Monet painting, so I was thinking of using a small 24x24 size of it on the wall above my couch to tie the red color of my chair and the green of my couch together. The reason for the smaller size would be so that I can get some other small pieces to make a gallery wall. Thoughts? I also thought I could maybe get a long shelf and have some cool pieces on it. Different media types like art, vases, frames, etc.

I like this idea too.

Picture ledges or floating shelves would be a great solution to all the photos on the media cabinet.

I love the program you use to show the examples Groveraxl!

I like the smaller painting with the shelves. Great idea and place for your family photos.

Update! I ordered some paintings for my wall. I am unsure of how to hang them once they come in and I wanted to show you what I ordered. Check out the pictures and let me know what you think. The paintings are by Leonid Afremov. The one with more red is 30"x40" and the one with more blue is "24x40". We taped the wall to visualize the sizes above our couch.

Hang your art 6 -8" above the sofa and closer together. These two are so bright, I'd be inclined not to hang them together, but to pair the tall one with two slightly more subdued prints over the sofa.

I believe the "rule" is that the bottom of the picture is no more than 6-inches above the sofa. And, the pictures should be aligned either at the top or the bottom if possible. So it looks like the vertical pic needs to come down. Take another look at groveraxle's post and you'll see he/she has the large pic just above the sofa and the top of the pic immediately to the right aligns with the top of the large pic.

Any alternative ideas for hanging something else next the paintings? I'm trying to visualize the horizontal picture with something like a sconce or another decorative thing on both sides to fill up the large space. I could use the other painting in another area in the house.

When you hang a painting with sconces, it looks like you are just trying to fill up space. A more thoughtful approach would be to look for complementary art and make a unified grouping which is what I did in the second rendering above. The two prints I chose relate to the canvas because they are photos of cities, each with a bit of blue.

Here's a photo for inspiration- you may not want this number of pics but you get the idea. http://houzz.com/photos/4695106

Here's another
http://houzz.com/photos/367785

http://houzz.com/photos/206513

I like the third example Golfer. Good point Grover. Thanks!

Made some minor updates to our living dining room and I thought I would share. We still need new curtains and side tables for the couches. We also plan on getting something decorative for either side of our mirror in the dining room and maybe a corner shelf for behind the lazy boy chair. But for now, we added recessed lighting on dimmers, crown molding, new painting to add color and a new ceiling fan. Check it out!

Your paintings are too far apart and don't relate to each other or to the furniture. It looks like you just stuck them up on nails that were already in the wall. Please move them closer together so they occupy 2/3 - 3/4 of the space and the grouping is centered behind the couch.