You could go all neutral with the major pieces, then add color in small doses in accessories. Then, get wonderful art you love for color and interest. Make sure the "different" styles of furniture actually complement each other. Notice in these examples of the color in the space, but only a little color, with a big impact.

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I think that you need to let your decor evolve. Look at lots of pics and make note of what elements/furnishings you love. Don't pull out your Pottery Barn charge card and just order everything. Do one room at a time. Find your major pieces and then add to it slowly.

You've made a good start by starting an ideabook. Suggestion: start a different ideabook for each room in your home.

You might not want a single color theme, but your rooms should flow together, especially the ones that are visible from each other. So for those rooms, try to emulate rooms you love that will coordinate well.

One mistake I see a lot: people will love the furniture in one inspiration photo, the art in another, the rug in a third, but when they try to put them all together, they don't work. Remember, every choice you make in a room affects every other choice. That modern purple sofa probably won't go with the traditional blue rug and the formal gold draperies.

If you get stuck, start a dilemma on a specific room, showing us your room and an inspiration photo. Houzzers will suggest furniture and rugs and art and lighting to help you achieve the look you want.

Another recommendation when it comes to color: think about colors that make you smile. You can get some interesting ideas for color combos by looking at fabric and art. Take a walk through a fabric store in person or online and note which fabrics catch your eye. If you are new to decorating, I recommend choosing light, neutral color walls and furniture and adding in color via pillows and other decor. The smaller things are easier to play around with and return!

Beige color wall throughout

As mentioned above, I would definitely start an ideabook for every room. This will help you figure out what it is you are drawn to. I would then start with the piece that is most important to you and work your way out. For example, find a rug you love and let that be your inspiration to determine your colors scheme and style. I am with you in that I don't like the whole house to have the same color scheme so one thing I try to do is to have one color present through out. Other colors change but there is one color that is consistent. Hope that helps!

Select a mid tone classic wood floor and then build from there. Remember to

decide if you want clean or dirty colours and don't mix the two. So white like Chantilly Lace or off white like Cloud White. Then you can choose your colours accordingly. Also remember to make sure you determine what undertones are going

to be used in your cabinets, tile, flooring and countertops so you make the correct choice of clean and dirty, dark and light and the undertones to work.

My house is all done, I am looking for tips on decorating the GreatRoom

beautiful and congrats!!! why not dark outlets on kitchen backsplash?

Lovely home. I do like that kitchen a lot.

You've had great comments so far, and with Grover getting you started on the necessary practicalities, I don't have anything to add right now but I'm commenting because I want to follow this thread.

@groveraxle: Yes, we need to figure out the seating first.

1. I will have a TV in the great room for 2 .

I will be entertaining a mid-size group of friends very occasionally at home.

Dinning - It will be good to have a six-seated ( only useful when I have relatives over ) but the challenge is that I don't want to have a view of the dining table from the main door so it has to take less space.

1. TV - 2 , Dinning - 2-6, Entertaining - 8 -12 . I do have a huge entertainment room upstairs, which I would start using for entertaining guests once I set it up, but that's long way to go.

My home is a mirror image of the plan below: Garage, kitchen, patio whatever is right here, consider them on the left.

The wall opposite to the fireplace is the entrance hallway (3rd image in my previous post).

The wall opposite to kitchen is beige wall with a nice window. ( I think this plan gives an idea, I will post a picture of the wall soon).

Any suggestions?

I think the reason why you are not getting a lot of activity on this post might be because your questions are so general. If you ask more specific questions, people will chime in. I recommend deciding on a sofa and two chairs, two sofas, or a sectional. A sofa and two chairs will give you the most flexibility. Decide where you want to put your TV and then choose a wall console or cabinet for it. (Most here recommend not putting a tv over a fireplace because of neck strain and heat.) If you choose a wall console, it should be at 25% longer than the tv. Use painter's tape or butcher block paper to check out the size of furniture you're considering to ensure it fits the scale of the room. Area rug should be large enough to fit under all furniture legs by about 30%. A jute sistal, or other light colored rug will contrast nicely with your wood floors. Art over the fireplace, then pull out a few colors from it for accessories. You don't have much space on either side of the fireplace for drapes, so a roman shade (or faux roman shade if you don't need to pull them down for privacy) would look nice. Why don't you want your dining table showing in the dining area? BTW, you have a great space to work with!

Thank you Elizabeth for your suggestions. I will start a new thread with more specific questions. Regarding the dining space, I am not so comfortable with the idea that I walk in the main door and the first thing I see is the dining table. :). So, I want to have sleek one which fits in one corner and is not visible from entryway.

Hi Shadow Cat,

What a beautiful home!

I have a quick suggestion, if you are skittish about choosing bold furnishing or decor items, you can always work from a neutral palette and integrate some bold art work to give your space some personality. The advantage is it's easy to change, and can vary in theme/color from room to room without being over-powering.

Why not create a gallery wall in the great room, on the wall opposite from the kitchen, and maybe add a coordinating piece over the fireplace?

It is going to be difficult for the dining room not to show as the sight line and walk way go right into the dining area.

Can you have a banquette built into the corner to the left of the entryway? That would save you some room. I am thinking about the space for the dining area....also agree with advice about TV etc. Place TV and then go from there. A chaise sofa, a pair of chairs and a fun chair should fill up the room for TV and fun. The dining table gets the area left over, challenging. Can you send a pic of dining area with window and entry way? Thanks.

Possible pieces in the room and placement of pieces, but not necessarily your style!

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Knockout Knobs is a great way to add subtle touches to your home. With our custom 3-D printed knobs, pulls, and hooks, you can turn your passions into functional designs!

@soosun2 : I wanted to have a sitting area near that window and a banquette is a nice option for a sitting space. I will share the pic of the wall soon.

Shadow Cat, did you change the spacing in your name? I couldn't find you yesterday, and now I see that I have you saved as shadowcat. Ah well, here is a basic layout that allows for minimum clearances around furniture. I forgot to put in the TV, but it goes on the console to the left of the window.

I understand your concern about not wanting to see a dining table straight ahead as you enter. A narrower table than the one shown below might allow you to keep it fully out of sight till you get into the space.

Take your floor plan and cut out little bitty pieces of furniture to scale and move them around till you have an arrangement that works for you. I wouldn't even think about color and decor until you know what pieces of furniture and what sizes you need.

@groveraxle : Hi, thanks again ! I like the above arrangement.

Also, I was thinking it would be nice to have something to lay down and read a book, sometimes I feel too lazy to walk up the stairs :p. I like the 2 chairs near the window, but can I make a banquette or something in that top right corner instead of chairs? Would it go along with rest of the arrangement? What do you think?

You don't want a banquette by the window, Shadow Cat, because that is more like a settee: comfortable for sitting up straight. But you certainly could have a chaise instead of two chairs.

This is a chaise:

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Wholesale Interiors TSF-71022-LS-Gray Swaffield Modern Banquette Bench · More Info

Go for the lounge with a round table near window instead of two chairs.

Chaise :) ..I like it !!. Thanks groveraxle

You need a focal point in each room first. I usually start with art, and build around that, because the art keeps me thinking in a cohesive fashion about where I am going with color. In deciding where to hang art, as I walk into each room, I notice which wall I see first. If possible that is where I create a focal point with the art. Then I decide what piece of furniture goes beneath the art, where I want the seating, etc. My personal preference is to keep large pieces of furniture neutral, bringing in color with pillows, artwork, books and other accessories, and sometimes rugs, although I often like them to be neutral as well, as it keeps the room looking larger. That is my own personal process. Not everyone works that way, but I find it easiest to put the soul in the room with art and build around that. You can check here for affordable original artwork: http://www.houzz.com/projects/1295077/art-original-abstract-paintings

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Hi..It's been quite sometime..I got busy with a career change...kind of felt overwhelmed :). I am good now and as I am resuming from where I left, I have a followup question on my old post here.

@groveraxle : What if I swap the 2 chairs near the fireplace with the sofa opp the fireplace? OR If i get 2 sofa's and a chaise for the window side? Coz i realized over time that sofa will be more comfortable to sit and watch TV.

Hi, Shadow Cat. Long time, no see. Hope the new career is all you hoped.

You absolutely can swap the sofa and the chairs, or have two sofas if you like. And a chaise by the windows if you prefer that to chairs. It all depends on how many you want to seat and what kind of seating you and your sitters prefer. Just make sure you measure before you buy so you know that the furniture will fit in the space. Leave at least three feet of walk space wherever you need traffic to flow.

Two sofas don't look monotonous to me. However, my personal preference is a sofa and two chairs, not for aesthetic reasons but for functional ones. Sometimes people don't want to sit so close to another and would like their own personal space that a chair provides.

Hi, I finally checked some sofas and now I am wondering if I should buy 2 of the same type and color or if they could be different? I am not sure how it will look. Any advice?

Below are the 3 sofas that I like and if I have sofas on both sides instead of the chair, can I pick 2 different types from the ones below? There are other color choices so I can match the color for the 2 sofas.

the one below will be split into 2 individual sofas rather than a sectional.