Some art. The first piece is street art I bought in India. The second photo shows watercolors done by my son when he was a little boy

Some things that are around and could be used somewhere in the house. The room is 19 ' long and 13'6" wide.

wow. Love your pieces. I am very impressed by your son's paintings. They are excellent. Truly remarkable.
I am not sure you need to paint the room anymore. I am thinking now you need to paint your trim black.
I think your beautiful armoire will fit between the 2 windows. get a measuring tape and get us some measures. area between the windows and width of the armoire.
Your sofa is actually blue-green!!!!
You need new sconces.

some sconces. all under 120. all in lamps plus open box.

some more same prices

Is your son still painting? he shows a wonderful sense of movement, solar, composition. It is very moving.

The distance between the two windows is 41 inches. The width of the cabinet is 44'6". Too bad, because I would have liked to have moved it between the windows. I think that putting it where the tv is may be the best option. I think that I might be able to get the TV in there with just a little bit of effort. Feeling great about the prospects for this room! Here is a very imprecise sketch with approximate dimensions. It might not add up. I was measuring alone and was trying to be pretty accurate.

Love the rug! I would go with plain linen curtains! I would try to rearrange the furniture so that the larger scale pieces are opposite each other for better scale. You can go to goodwill and get a huge piece of art and then just repaint the frame and the entire piece and just stencil words or something from pinterest. I think one or two big pieces of "art" would do better than small or even groups of small because that gets busy. Also I personally love bold color so maybe you could try an accent wall in one of your favorite colors from the rug? I would use the rug as your color pallette for choosing art and pillows and throws

I can hardly wait to see what you do with everything! I personally kind of like the gold paint as a backdrop for your art.

My kids are artists, and I, like you, have traveled quite a bit, which means I have lots of disparate kinds of stuff on my walls. I have abstract ink stains on Mylar, many many drawings of different types, posters of medieval illuminations, a landscape painting that hung forever at the home of my grandma, framed pictures of scenes from Wagnerian operas, really old old old photos of European places to which I have a personal connection, tapestries from a town where I lived in South America, a ton of images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and a couple of wooden plaques bearing images of Russian Orthodox saints. The thing that unifies it is that I love every single piece, no matter its value or provenance. A stranger might say that my "look" lacks coherence, but that's not true. I'm the glue that makes it all cohere, you know? And besides, I only have to please myself.

Looking forward to seeing the evolution of your lovely space!

What wonderful pieces. Try Ikea.com for draperies. Grommet top hang from just below the ceiling to the floor. Their drapes come in a variety of colors, materials, & styles. They are most reasonably priced. They even have some velvet ones that would look great in your home. Show as much of your woodwork as possible though. I would go with a linen- like cotton in an off-white. You might want to go with some Roman shades in some of your beautiful windows to show off the woodwork better.

My sketch of the room is not clear at all. My apologies. Thanks for the comment about my son's watercolors. He did those at about age 6; he is a teenager now. He doesn't paint or draw much anymore. He is living with me and I think that it will maybe help him adjust if they are displayed. Don't know.

Sacapuntaslapioz has some wonderful ideas for sconces. In the meantime, spray painting fixtures that you already own is a cheap and easy quick-fix when you don't have a lot of cash.

Maybe your deflated sofa is down. All you need to do is shake out the cushions. Down settles a lot.

Look at gallery walls. You must display all that art. It will help you and your son feel more at home. Hopefully he will paint some more. The angles armoire will work well and allow heat to escape too.

. And some of the sconces show are about $50 or less.

I love your "stuff"! Your home would be perfect for "no cost" decorating! Your home is a treasure hunt. Just by rearranging, hanging art, a couple new lamp shades and it will be so cozy and a space you can love. Paint, and some tweaking and you're "Home free". :)

Do you own any tools? If you have a drill with the proper bit, you can drill a hole in the back of your armoire to put the tv cords through. If you don't, there is still the old fashion "crank" kind. If you can put the tv in the armoire, that would be a good start in deciding furniture arrangement.

I do have tools and I know how to use them! I have two drills and am ready to take on the cabinet once I get someone in here to help move it. Really heavy. I am adding a few more pictures of things stacked up around the house. It is all going to have to go somewhere. I'm so excited and grateful for all the wonderful advice; there are lots of other rooms ahead of me. I hope that I can get help with them. I plan on making some of the the changes in the family room this weekend! I am looking at the sconces tonight. Excellent suggestions.

gorgeous stuff. You will be so happy to come home every day.

Is this room the only living space? Do we need to save stuff for another room? :)

This may seem funny, but your gorgeous collection reminds me of the home of designer John Derian: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/07/t-magazine/07well-derian.html?_r=0
I love his home, how it is whimsical and not overly designed, and how each of those pieces is allowed to shine.

This is a very clumsy rendering, but here's a possible arrangement using the following elements: the large armoire, the two sofas, the wing chair, the marble-topped chest of drawers (can we?) in lieu of a console table, the grain-painted chest as a tv stand (scandalous), the pretty cherry end table, two table lamps and one coffee table.
The image is so "basic" as my tween would say, but I think it might work.

And yes, the tv is between two windows (glare city), but your new velvet Ikea curtains are going to diffuse/block the light nicely. This layout assumes that you use the sliding door regularly - if you don't need that circulation space, you have lots of other options. I am tempted to have you hang your art salon-style here, but it probably makes sense to wait until you have your other rooms arranged.

Wow. I am blown away by this. I can do it! I have 8 more large rooms to go and lots of things to spread out in them. The house is far bigger than we need but for complicated reasons it's what we have. I will post after pictures of the family room. I am so grateful for all the dedication and generosity. it's remarkable. And hang on. There is a 40 foot bonus room over the garage! I will be back!

I don't know what hanging art "salon style" means. Can you explain? We didn't use the slider when we moved in in August, but one plan for spring is to make that covered porch with two ceiling fans a true cozy place with a comfortable feeling. By the way, the shifting of furniture from one place to another is fine, and unconventional uses are equally thrilling!

@ekbr---Google "hanging art salon style." It might work very well for you.

Love the arrangement! Genius and everything looks amazing. Post pics and let us know how you feel a out this result. Amazing.

H & S AMAZING!!!!!!

A video on how to do it: https://www.onekingslane.com/live-love-home/2012/07/hang-art-salon-style/

And salon style photos:

Hoffman & Swinburne's layout suggestion looks great. And you do have lovely furniture and art pieces. The window looks so much better without the valance. Bamboo (roller or roman) blinds are an option for your windows. Will look good with your oriental carpet and art. Combined with curtain panels they give a nice relaxed, but finished look.



This is a nice room with gold/beige carpet

any updates yet? thinking of you

I am so grateful for the wonderful advice. I'm hiring someone to move my large cabinet. I really like the layout suggested by Hoffman and Swinburne and have been been figuring out how to do it. I had someone come yesterday to assess moving my cable TV connection from the end of the room to between the two windows. It can be done and now I just have to schedule it.

I fretted about how to get a lamp into the middle of the room without putting an outlet in the floor. I have been looking at cordless lamps online. Does anyone have any extra with these?

I am also getting estimates for a slipcover made for my wingback chair. I am going to plump up the stuffing for the loveseat and look for a fresher - looking Ektorp slipcover at Ikea.

The dreadful valances are down and even that alone looks so much much better and brighter.

This may take a few weeks but I promise "after" pictures. I am going to use many of the other ideas you all had. I feel so much better about the room, the house and myself because of the help and generosity of you all. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND THOUGHFULNESS!

Good progress!!!!! post progress pictures!!!

Cordless lamps are like camping lamps. Try looking for a ceiling lamp you can swag over to where you want it. An electrician can add the wiring and chain to many fixtures.

You could run the cord under the sofa, under the rug, to the other sofa, up via the back or legs of your sofa table (use stick on thingies that I forgot the name of but that will hold your cord in place). You'd need an extension cord obviously.

You can purchase a flat cover for an power cord that makes it safer by eliminating the tripping hazard. They come in several colors and are a good option. But this flat cover, or any other power cord, cannot safely be laid under a rug. The risk is over heating and an electrical fire. Be safe. http://www.cableorganizer.com/power-extensions/

Here's a picture.

The floor cord holder is neat. Is it safe to run that under the carpet? It seems safer than just the bare cord.

I just reread the post and see that you already said not to run it under the rug. I want it to be safe.

You could have a corner table between the two sofas and put the dresser that's behind the sofa in the drawing, somewhere else. You can then put a lamp on that corner table without worrying about where to run the cord.

ebkr, any updates?

I wish I had more to show by now. I am mostly shoveling snow! My son is coming home from school on a break and the move will have to happen then. The handyman who was going to do this is plowing snow nonstop and hasn't been free to help. But as soon as I get the muscle in here it is all going to change . I'll be thrilled to post pictures of it!

ebkr, I know. It is like having a part time job. removing ice, shoveling snow, raking it off the roof. breaking icicles. Not fun! Good luck

You have so many beautiful pieces of art and decorative works....I can't wait to see them displayed!

I want to circle back, two and a half years later. I cannot thank all you good people enough for all of your advice. A lot has happened both personally and in the house. I was able to pull together enough money to address the most dysfunctional aspects of my family room. Without the inspiration and vision offered by the people on House, I wouldn't have made the investment in the house.

The biggest change was that I tore down the wall between the dated family room and an entirely charmless and unused formal living room. New paint, tore up the old gold shag rug in the family room and extended the wood floor from the living room, turned brown brick into a bright fireplace, etc. I could not afford new furniture but have repurposed things I had. I still have questions about how to finish furnishings, but the space is so nice now. Well, not fancy but bright and clean and much more to my personal taste.

The day that they blew through the wall was amazing. Baseboard heating had to come out, which was a pain and expensive. I had never used the living room...see the featureless brown fireplace... But light came into the room and it was wonderful.

I had them build a simple mantel and painted everything.

Here's a panorama I pieced together before I finished everything but had furniture in place.... New cover for the IKEA couch, cotton curtains from World Plus, Goodwill lamps... I painted the brick surround black to make it disappear into the background.

I still have more to do, but thanks so much to you all. Now I am about to begin painting the dining room, which also needs help getting out of the 80's!

I think you are an inspiration! Just wonderful!

Learning to do new things is helpful when starting a new version of your life (you are not "starting over" because you have so much knowledge already). You can go online to learn how to change a light fixture or a faucet. Safety is always the first factor. Then you will need a few good tools.
You have beautiful photos in your idea books: many pix are of white rooms. You can paint your room white and leave the wood natural for a bright, relaxed look. Your furniture will be fine in a white room because the pieces have color. If they go with your area rug, that's a bonus. Try several arrangements until it feels right to you. If you have any paintings, hang them or purchase some (paintings, posters, photographs or drawings) to hang after you are pleased with the positions of your furniture. Art of any kind will add personality to your room. You may need privacy with your window coverings. Don't overlook the humble window shade: they can be hung behind airy curtains which allow plenty of light in the daytime, and they can filter or block the sun when you don't want that much direct light.
Don't rush. Check discount stores and garage sales and thrift shops to keep costs down. There are surprises to be found. Friends who are downsizing or remodeling may have an extra item or three to send to a good home (yours).
Keep us in mind if you want more suggestions.

The oak looks beautiful. If you paint it you will always have to repaint or strip again. Before painting trim I would see how I could design, paint and accessorize to enhance it.

Art (even just framed posters) will make a large difference.

Your new living room is fab!. What a difference that white fireplace makes. It looks like a comfy, well curated room.

It looks fantastic! Thanks for the update.