Slipper chairs can be uncomfortable, although I love the one pensivern posted. If your goal is to curl up and watch TV, they're probably not the best choice. My husband loves them for playing guitar though.

What about a smaller scale wingback:

Upholstered to coordinate with the furniture in both rooms.

it bugs me that all the cool patterns are on the slippers only

Pensivern, you were wondering about the art over the couches. Could you move the grouping to the left side of the doorway into LR, switch the art on the left to the right side, and center the mirror from the Christmas pic or the art from the mantle over the couch?

Blocking the light from the windows with chairs?

Low backed chairs are a lot lower than the current TV and stand

Sounds like you've made a decision! How about a pic from the fireplace out into the room?

Cctuttle, actually I haven't decided if I'll go with flanking the fireplace with smaller scale matching chairs which means shoving my couch over a 15" or so making wall decor a challenge above the couch....... OR if I should just get one big comfy chair to place where the TV is and put the TV where tan chair currently is. I like the visual effect of the 2 matching chairs but not sure willing to sacrifice comfort for it; Smaller scaled chairs no matter how " cute and bright" aren't optimal to cozying up to watch a movie.

Here's a pic into kitchen taken from fireplace, as you can see there's little space between my dining area and FR

How about some dimmable, LED, high hat lighting as well?

I can understand the hesitation to paint the brick fireplace, although mine is painted and I can't imagine having a big, dark hulk flanked by two windows. I love that it is white. BUT, if you are a up to it, you could try taping some white butcher block paper over the fireplace and hearth. Live with it for a while and see if it makes sense to you.

My house is not large, and my floors are light wood. The LR faces east and only gets light in the morning. I found that larger lamps with those drum shaped shades will light up the ceiling as well as below and it helps. And can you place a mirror behind the end table and lamp between the sofa and the window? Anything to capture the bit of light you do have coming into the room.

I definitely have t ruled out painting the bricks..... I just wouldn't go for an opaque white but more of a lighter distressed look like this

Pensivern you have a lovely, home-y home! Your instincts are leading you in the right direction in your other rooms; this one will fall into place for you too.

I like the whitewashed brick.

We'd love to offer a few lighting ideas for illuminating the space. Monorail adds style and depth to a living room while maintaining a minimalist and modern decorating scheme. A monorail system accommodates for decorative accent lighting spot heads and pendants.

Light Channel Millwork is also a chic lighting solution for shelves and cabinets to decoratively display your possessions.

For more living room lighting ideas view: http://www.houzz.com/projects/791841/living-room

Okay, so you are just trying everything... that's good. Thanks for the pic, helps a lot to more fully visualize your space. Have you ruled out tv over the fireplace (sorry relsab but i'm mentioning it again because I think it might be a good solution for this space)? From the new pic it looks like a chair at a right angle to the couch in doorway to kitchen/dining would be too tight. Is that your opinion? Agree with big drum shades. They really do shed a lot of light into a room and mirrors reflecting light. Since this room is about comfort the small uncomfortable chairs don't sound like a good fit. Maybe a dumb question but do you really need a side chair? If so have you considered something like a big comfy wicker chair? Wicker has less visual weight and would be a good side kick for your leather sofa.

Don't know how this is for comfort but nice open weave so light filters through. Here is the link to the hanging chair: http://www.undolock.com/aq/31864/wicker-swing-chair/

Whitewashed brick so the brick texture still comes through fits the character of your room. When I look at your room I see a decent sized square end table between the sofa and the window maybe mirrored or metallic with a low trailing plant and a chunky table lamp with big drum shade.

Another website for hanging wicker chairs: http://www.conniehogarth.org/35512/indoor-wicker-hanging-chair/

^ wrong thread

I also like the whitewashed brick. I feel like brick is meant to be different shades of a color and if you painted it, it would look flat and loose some of its appeal. I think adding some light fixtures will be the best way to add some light to your room rather than moving your furniture around. Even if you replaced your shades light will only stream in for some of the day since it is only coming from the one direction. I love the rug you have in your LR. Maybe putting down a similar color in this room will help lighten it as well. And I like the pillows you have on your sofa, they are a pretty cool pattern. But maybe you could move the rectangular pillow to the other chair and add two more lighter throw pillows. Check out these solid color throw pillows for some ideas. I also have a pretty dark house and know how challenging it is to bring in some light. Good luck and happy decorating :)

You have a lovely home. It's cozy and has lots of style. You've done a great job! Whitewashing the brick will make a huge difference in brightening the space, as will upgrading the lighting. Consider adding pot lights on a dimmer. Swap out your woven shades for top down cellular shades or linen Roman shades the same colour as your white window trim. It will help them disappear. Your current ones cut your window in half and block a lot of light even when open. Clear the tv from the window. Consider placing it above the fireplace on an articulating arm that allows you to pull it down when in use. Lastly, replace artwork above your sofa with a large mirror. It will bounce a lot of natural light around the room.

If you can get another rug like in your LR it would unify the 2 spaces to repeat the same rug exactly or the same but with a colored border or other only slight difference.

Thanks everyone for all your feedback!! Here's a pic of my FR as viewed from my kitchen..... On a sunny day I rather like it (although I'm still itching to switch up the TV and arm chair spots

All pretty, I just can't wrap my head around using deep royals and navy on my brown couch. I don't think it meshes with the softer aquas in the adjacent LR; that's why I chose the terra cotta/tangerine color in my LR drapes to use as an accent color in my FR--- as seen in pillows and lamp shades

I have a brown leather sofa so yellow a little deeper than lemon looks great as does a deep teal, lime green and paprika red. These colors are richer shades of your living room colors so they will compliment (not match) very nicely. I agree that pale pillows look like a white hole as havingfun said. Solid colors in a fabric that shimmers is a nice contrast to leather.

those pillows were examples of many i can do. the idea is to mix the pillows up. i thought you wanted blue and yellow? i can give you aqua and tangerine.

like the tangerine aqua butterfly looking one and bunny together.

These are from Pier 1 they have some great pillows. The gray and white comes in other colors as well like blue and white

light gray goes great with brown leather if you prefer softer shades. Here the 'white' pillow has enough other color that it will not be a visual white hole.

what do you think pensi?

cct, true, but the gray one will not have enough color.

Agree that the gray is not colorful but if lightening the room is the objective gray will do that in a cool sophisticated way and gray works well with a pop of color especially nice with orange. Bring in a mid to light tone gray rug to pull it together. The main thing is do you like bold colors pensivern??

Then there are always other colors

Wow, so many comments and ideas I hesitate to add to them but I can't help myself on this one. The dark fireplace just gets darker when the light shines in from the windows so definitely paint the fireplace so it stops disappearing. Take the accent colors from the living room, yellow/ gold and Aqua and make them stronger in the family room. The current rug is too dull, try a yellow or Aqua patterned rug, and change the window coverings to match. Get a large print with color over the sofa and paint the end tables to match the dining chairs. From there you can take a look and see what else you need to change, such as lamps, pillows and mantel items. I really think the fireplace and rug are bringing the room down and dull. More white and some color are what you need. Good luck!

Agree JustbeckyG, , I think the fireplace and the rug are the biggest problems. We're considering sheet rocking at least the upper half of the brick wall to allow easier wiring for potential TV placement there. The current rug is rich looking in person and hides dirt so well, but I agree, a brighter rug would do wonders. I'm not keen about painting the end tables off white however- I think it would look off with the dark leather couch. I am an experienced chalk painter however ( I actually painted and distressed the kitchen chairs); maybe a different color for the FR tables- but I'll wait on that until fireplace decision is made. Thanks for your suggestions! Pillows suggested are all nice- but that's one of the last steps for me

no, i just have a tendency to talk in pillows.

Here is a before-after pic of our study. We moved in last year and are still making changes to the decor. The study was one of the darkest rooms in the house. This is what we did. Please ignore the clutter!

I think what might work for your FR is whitewashing the fireplace, and painting the remaining wall in a light yellow. It could look like an accent wall and also brighten up that area. Might also want to change the color of the other FR walls. Just a few ideas...

TV above fireplace seems like a good option for this room. Do you say sheet rock because it seems easiest to accomplish?

My husband said it'd be easier to run wires needed behind Sheetrock - fortunately he's very handy

or you could run them behind the mantle. but are you sure most say tv over fp is too high.

White wash the brick. We did it and love it. It added a lot of light to our also dark family room. Painting brick makes it look monolithic, IMHO. Good luck!

Oh my goodness. As if you need more input, here is my 2 cents. I think you know what you have to do in this room. I looked at your idea books and you want to do something with that fireplace. Do it! Normally, I would say no, but in your case, with the looks in your kitchen, I think doing something like the German Schmer on your brick (really a coating of thin white limestone, I believe) would give you the look you want. I would also do the following: Put a mirror above your fireplace. It would reflect the light from your kitchen which I suspect is always bright. Lots of lights in there. Leave furniture where it is, except for TV. Get rid of that stand (outdated look that doesn't go with "shabby chic" look you like, and have handy hubby mount the TV on that wall with a extending arm, so you can push it back if you don't want to watch it, or slide out some for viewing. Get a new lighter rug, but keep your country chic look going in that rug. Replace the current window treatments with roman shades in a light linen type fabric. They "self-valance" so you could keep them raised in the daylight hours, and lower at night for privacy. Get or find in your house, two floor lamps that could go in each corner, (the corners toward the kitchen) and those will bring light to that side of the room. Get a nice cozy light colored or multi-colored oversized throw and drape over end of your leather sofa. All these elements will lighten and brighten and don't cost too much either. That's my 2 cents!

I asked about sheet rock because several fireplace photos I have seen are covered with wood. We actually removed the brick above our fireplace all the way up a vaulted ceiling. It was more messy than hard...just a thought. Here are some photos of different fireplaces with the brick covered in a way that would work with your fireplace. In this photo they have not painted the brick because not much of it is left showing so if still unsure consider this idea.

This photo shows sheet rock above brick and as you can see the mantle wraps around the side of the fireplace to cover the edge of the sheet rock.This photo shows covering the brick with horizontal white washed wood.

Stick with one treatment for your fireplace. That is what you are drawn to. Trust your instincts. Go for some type of Schmer!

Its German Schmear

Thanks, I keep trying to get that right! I'm of German descent--I should know this!

heck my mom is german and an artist, but i don't remember every hearing this?

Schmear is also a Yiddish word. There's a bagel company (Einstein Bros. Bagels) that uses it for bagel spreads :)

The smoked salmon one is really good. Yum!

Thanks friends!

Took a while, but here’s my “ after”

Wow! What an amazing job! It looks so different!

Job well done! I love how it turned out. Thanks so much for coming back and updating us (it's a treat, really, because quite often one doesn't get to see the final result :).

Lovely!! I'm so impressed!! Thanks for sharing- I am going to glean ideas for my 70's red brick fireplace :)

Did you remove the brick or just re-surface it?

My husband built over the brick.

Very nice clean look!

White walls and covered brick....what a difference!

Thanks! I used Ben Moore Seapearl for the walls and SW pure white for fireplace and trim.