I'm so sorry you've had to go through this (and all the others who have, too). You have a very nice room, a beautiful new couch to start and lots of potential. Unfortunately, we can't make decisions for you, but maybe just being here to have some support and hand holding will help. For me, I wouldn't be putting pressure on myself to find my "dream" pieces right now, but making my home look more livable and cozy while I shop for my forever things.

The three things that would make your living room look "finished" and more livable to me (even if they aren't your final selections) would be an area rug in the living room, a coffee table, and some art above the sofa. There are so many affordable ways to acquire things, starting with Craigslist. There are a bunch of us here who love to shop, so if you want to link your local CL and give us a budget for items you want, maybe we could at least help you narrow down choices and see what's available in your price range. I don't think temporary pieces (if they are good enough to live with for a while) have to put much of a dent in your budget because you can resell them on CL when you find things you want to keep for a long time - and you might just find those pieces on CL right now!

Some people here have had good luck with inexpensive but nice looking area rugs at Home Depot and some popular (here) rug websites. People have found art on CL or at goodwill and thrift stores. Some even buy big ugly paintings (on canvas) and create their own art over the top. Coffee tables are usually a dime a dozen on CL and I'll bet you could find something you like within a short time frame.

Hope this helps. Give us your desires and a CL link!

Bless you, this does seem utterly overwhelming. Luckily, your new home is beautiful and has great bones for your redecorating journey!

Honestly, knowing myself, I would need some hand-holding. I am assuming you are working with a budget (as anyone would be)...is there anyway you can find a designer/decorator who could take your budget, determine what you need and help you prioritize? He(she) could come up with options that are within your budget and be a sounding board for you. While it might take some funds from your budget a bit...the mental relief would be 100% worth it to me. :)

Best of luck to you!

Hey, lamps are important! Take your time!

Perhaps you need to take a break, see how much money you have left and then get some help when you're ready.

I agree with nini804. Hire a local decorator/designer to help you turn the corner and finish things off for you. You deserve it and it would be money well spent.

I feel your pain and I hear you! My house flooded in the Houston tax day flood last April. We chose to stay and it's been a crazy hectic rebuilding circus but we are back in the house thank goodness and trying to get back to a normal life if that ever exists after living through a catastrophic event. I had to just stop, take breaks, and do one thing at a time. I had never done it before but I did it and so will you. I have a house I love because I picked out everything that I liked. Actually picking out the paint colors was the hardest. The cabinets, tile and countertops just fell into place. Relax and let it fall into place for you.

Good luck! Hey we lived through it that is the important part.

STOP!

Just live with what you have - assuming you have a bed and a chair - until you feel better.

Hiring a decorator will still involve decisions.

I love your sofa!

I feel for you, that's a tough room to come up with a suitable
arrangement, it's too bad the builder didn't extend the couch wall a few
more feet so that you could center the sofa to the fireplace. What I
would do is float the sofa off the wall and more to the center and place
a sofa table behind it to incorporate it into a more cohesive
formation. I'll look for some pics to show you what I mean.

By floating it you will be able to add a rug that doesn't look off center. Here are some examples. floating furniture

Yayagal, exactly! I did try the sofa against the 3 windows... nope looked wrong! Then, I thought about centering it to the fireplace, however I intend to add an arm chair near the windows and that nearly cuts off all the kitchen entry/opening :/

I understand, had a total loss house fire. Would, in a heartbeat, have taken all my old stuff back rather than starting over with nothing more than what I wore to work that AM.

What worked for me was, shopping for & buying - as you need/want something, focusing on one thing at a time.

Of the "coffee table, rug, arm chair, lamps, art," which is most important for you to have now? Then shop for that item only. Once you get that item, move on to the next thing. Don't try to do it all at once.

Good luck.

I just wanted to say that you're not alone in feeling this way. I moved into my new home a few years ago and I still have multiple remodeling/decorating decisions to make. This house is twice the size of my last house. Ugh. That just means more rooms to decorate (and keep clean!). Like you, I thought it should be fun, but it isn't. I've found it to be overwhelming and, honestly, I find myself going through long stretches of time where I just avoid even trying to do anything. We can afford to buy stuff, but, like you, we just can't seem to make any decisions.

I don't have area rugs yet, either, except for the one we brought from our last house. It's okay. I also couldn't decide on lamps. Lamps!!! My husband finally (maybe 2 years ago) went to the thrift store and picked up several temporary lamps (they're awful, by the way, but I'm grateful to have lights) and his mom brought us one lamp from a garage sale and she also picked up a couple of inexpensive lamps for us in stores.

Overall, I usually find myself alternating between thinking that everything I look at is fine (feeling neutral to things) and feeling like there's nothing I find that I like. I keep hoping to find something (or a few things) that will inspire me, and which will be a starting point for everything else, but it hasn't really happened yet.

Sometimes, I think I have trouble with commiting to things. I think that one problem I'm having is that we're planning to stay in this house. Before this, I always knew we'd be moving again and I just bought things to use "for now" and I didn't feel the need to commit to any particular style or overall theme or anything. We even did extensive remodeling in our last house, without any trouble making decisions at all. I liked the finished result and we had no trouble selling when we moved.

I feel this nebulous pressure to make good decisions. This is a new feeling for me. Lol, I can't even decide what "good decisions" means, so I think it's funny that I feel pressured to make them.

Sometimes, I think that my problem is that the things that I truly like are not what everyone else seems to like and I feel this pressure to conform and get what everyone else seems to have and want. I think I have a hard time finding things I really like because I feel, at best, neutral to most of what's available. For example, I'm not a fan of stainless steel appliances. So, you can probably imagine how much I enjoyed shopping for a new refrigerator when mine quit. :)

I'm sure I'll eventually get it done and I'm sure you'll get your house finished up too. Just give yourself some time. It sounds like you've had a very stressful year and you've already made some pretty big decisions. I really miss my last house and I was only there for 11 years. You were at your last home for 30 years and it doesn't sound like you planned to leave. It's got to be tough.

I wish I had some advice to give about how to go about making decorating decisions, but I'm really not sure how to get past the decision fatigue.. I just wanted to let you know that you're not alone in having trouble making decisions! :-)

If you moved your sofa forward in the same position it is now and move it down to the center of the fireplace wall and forward about two feet, you would have walking space behind it and enough room for a chair to the right of it if you were sitting on the couch. Get a rug that would allow both the chair and sofa to have their front legs on it. That's a start.

You suffered a traumatic, unplanned loss, that has normal, expected psychological consequences. Give yourself time.

Here's another photo just to let you know what I mean. [sofa placement[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/behind-sofa-console-table-phbr0lbl-bl~l_61)