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Before reading your post, my first thought was "what a nice chair and ottoman". Why do you feel it is a mistake? You need a place for your books. Can you put the corner cabinet in another room and put several shelf units along that wall? I don't see a good place for the wicker desk, but I like the rest of the pieces. How big is the rug? Get it in place and then get some curtains for the window. Find a new shade for the lamp. You will have a very nice library/guest room.

The furniture is not the problem. You have to decide the mood you want to create and choose a color scheme. I would start with paint and coordinated bedding and window treatments. If you are going to keep the rug, put it down and draw colors from that. After that, adding side tables with lamps and a headboard will make a big difference.

First you need to be clear on how you want to use the room. Sounds like it will still be a guest bedroom. How many guests? Long or short term stays? (this determines how much guest storage you need) How will they spend their time in the room - sleeping only? Or reading? Watching TV? Socializing?

Do you want a secondary use as a reading room for yourself, or some other use? A storage place for sentimental items and furniture?

Once you've got this decided, look at each piece of furniture to decide whether it is functional for how you will use the room.

As far as style, put together some pictures to give you an idea for the style of the room. Do the furniture you have work together to further this style? Then you'll be well on your way to deciding what to keep and what to replace.

So, you know the answer. Remove the stuff and roll out the rug. Let's see if it has possibilities for guiding the room's direction. Will it be the guest room, or do you have other ideas?

Thank all of you for your suggestions.

I am removing everything in the room, except the bed. I think the rug will work if I put it partially under the bed. Since the rug has dark red in it, I think I'll leave the wall paint color as is. I'll keep the red dresser and find a mirror for it. Something will have to be done with the ceiling fan.

Sounds like you are making a good start,fellow reader! The rug should look fine and start to set the tone in the room. Makes choosing bedding easier. If you can't find the proper sized bookshelves,I use narrow,3 shelf console tables sometimes.

The first step is always the same. Decide on a style.

--Each side of a bed in a guest room needs a night table. Remove all the junk on top of all surfaces. Put small trays on two night tables with a flashlight small analog alarm clock, box of tissues. That's it--no boxes, photos, odds and ends. Guests need a place to put down glasses, watch, etc. Get rid of all other tables.

--The chair and ottoman are not a mistake. Guests will sit there with their laptops and throw clothes on it at night.

--Put the halogen floor lamp behind the chair (or get rid of it entirely.).

--Once the mom table is been repurposed as a night table or rehomed to another room, look for a simple bookcase for near the window. Store all your books there. Get rid of the corner cabinet.

--If the rug is going to be the star, then get plain colored bedspread with a coordinating folded throw at the end of the bed.

--Get a soothing, horizontal piece of art in colors that coordinate with the rug and new bedding you'll get. The horse art doesn't work.

--Add two light sconce lamps on each side of the bed for reading or small reading lights with goosenecks for the night table.

So begone all tables that aren't night tables; all clutter; corner cabinet.

We could offer more ideas if you'd show us the rug.

Remove everything but the bed. It is a guest room, so make it simple and cozy.

Art/headboard:

housegal: Thank you for all your suggestions. I will incorporate some of them in redoing this room.

decoenthusiaste: Here is the rug. It's very good quality and has been recently cleaned. I have decided to use it for sure.

When I mentioned that this is a guest room, I was talking about the very infrequent visit of grandchildren. I don't see that happening too much in the future, so I guess the room will be multi-purpose. My goal is not to turn it into a "dumping ground" again:)

A guest room IMO should be like a 5 star hotel.No cast off furniture and so you like to read then keep the books in your bedroom.. I just see that this is not really a guest room so then figure out what this room needs to be and start from there.Do you need a bed? Maybe a single bed. It might makre avery nice reading room.Start with removing everthing and then add back only the things you love and I do not love the red dresser but the rug is lovely. The wall color does nothing for me so maybe choose another color from the rug.

The wall color does nothing for me

So, Patricia, the OP is to decorate her room according to your taste?

ohhhh, a library!! Comfortable seating, beautiful rug, lamp and all of your lovely books. A rarely used bed takes up real estate .

Have fun with whatever direction you take. Thanks for having us along for the ride.

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To all who have commented - Thank You! Now that the Holidays are behind us, I am going to roll out the rug and remove the corner cabinet and the wicker desk for sure.

I don't know exactly what I want this room to be:) I don't need a reading room and I already have a "library"/"office". I just want it to look nice enough that I'm not tempted to turn it into a storage room.

Also, the rest of my home does not have red in any form or shape. I read recently about making sure rooms "flow". Their reasoning is so one doesn't get "jarred" when they open the door to that room. (not my statement!)

I do have a daybed in the basement that I could have brought up. The only problem with it is that its frame is silver tone metal and I have none of that in the rest of the house. Its kind of cute though and if I could spray paint it maybe oil rubbed bronze or something it could work.

Thoughts?