I would leave the FP wall alone for now until you get the feel of the room once living it. BM Balboa Mist, Edgecomb Gray or Pale Oak are good neutrals. AS is Dove White. Red and black can be harsh so I would be careful with those colors. The layout of the room should be determined before purchasing furniture. I don't think the layout works as shown in the pictures. I'm wondering if facing a sofa to the FP will create a walk area from the front door to the kitchen?

Congratulations! Always exciting time. If you can post the dimensions of this room, I can do a scale drawing for you. So many people don't do this and end up with furniture that doesn't fit the space and they are unhappy and can't exchange or return it. So hopefully, we can help you avoid that situation. Your ceilings are low, so having the wall and ceilings the same color really works! So that's a plus. The mirror over the fireplace is not doing anything good for this room, but first things first. I think you would like the "feel" of your space if you used lighter neutrals on the main furniture with possibly a few textures then used pillows and accessories to add the black. I'll find some inspirational photos for you. I see you have 2 ideabooks, so I'll look at those as well. bbl

You can search on Houzz and then "save" photos to one of your Ideabooks. Easy to do. You can even put "notes" on the photo to remind you why you saved it. When you look back after saving for a while, you will see trends of what you are repeatedly attracted to. It is very helpful.

Trust Flo! We too bought a new house. We overestimated the amount of room that we had and almost bought more furniture than we needed. I posted to Houzz and Flo made a drawing for me too. Super helpful!

It's difficult to tell what the available space is without exact easy measurements.. From my perspective, the opening to kitchen is way too big, and really cuts into the available wall space in this room. I am wondering if someone at some point opened up the space like that in the name of open concept. But at any rate, I would be seeking to close it up in some kind of way,, so I could put the sofa on the wall where tv is now. I would possibly use some type of sliders to close that opening up a bit or even some tall divider screens behind the sofa could work. And I would put a tv on long, low console in front of windows. The red drapes could be a great backdrop for movie night. :)

Might be some ideas for you in these spaces.

And this one, minus pink pillow:

Nice coffee table I found recently:

https://www.inmod.com/starburst-oval-coffee-table.html

You could bring in a lamp with a red shade.

And/or add a red pillow.

Some design looks to help us understand what you might like.

A few more.

I could see a zebra rug over existing carpet to add some interest and ground the room.

some manly inspopix

Elkhorn Estate · More Info

Contemporary Arts & Craft · More Info

Come home to Tufenkian · More Info

Indian Hill Contemporary · More Info

You could go classic mid-century modern with this home. Before you buy furniture, check to see if there's hardwood under the carpet. If so, pull up the carpet and refinish the floor. Will look SO much nicer than wall to wall carpet.

Then you can go with a masculine boho look. Try these on for size as inspiration:

Midcentury Living Room · More Info

Accessible LEED Residence Living Room · More Info

Menlo Oaks 2 Residence · More Info

The current owner didn't really take into consideration the warm tones of the wood bookcases, wood floors, brick fireplace, and coordinating with kitchen cabinets. These are your "givens." That means you want to choose paint colors and furnishing that work with these warm colors that are somewhat fixed and should be worked with instead of against.. This will give you a feeling of flow and connectedness. The current choices of the previous owner are jarring. That bright red and black leather are too high contrast for warm finishes such as you have. Here are some rooms with wood features:

Look at this great abstract rug that picks up wood finish but adds color to thhis room:

Northgate Family Room · More Info

Surya Harput HAP-1016 Area Rug, Blue/Orange, 2'x3' Rectangle · More Info

This sofa comes in black (and a smaller size depending on what Flo tells you) but this color would look amazing with the wood bookshelves

Le Corbusier LC3 Grande Sofa in Italian Leather, Golden Tan Semi Aniline Italian · More Info

Ally Chair, Walnut Medium, Azure · More Info

Surya Jax JAx-5012 7'6"x10'6" Rug · More Info

West Hills Victorian · More Info

Worldwide Home Furnishings Inspire Mid-Century FauxLeather Accent Chair · More Info

When Flo weighs back in with measurements, then make sure to consider the scale of pieces you choose. There are plenty of great, comfortable sofa styles with low arms and backs. It's the seat and back cushions that need to be comfortable to sit or nap on. If you have a fairly large sofa, then side chairs on legs are the way to go--sofas too for that matter. Some of the main Design Dilemmas on Houzz are from people who have huge brown or black couches with high backs, high arms that suck up all the light and air in the room, and they want to know what the problem is. So if you choose some black, make sure you balance it out with lighter pieces, a rug with a warm pattern for contrast, textured pillows, great art work in the given tones of your living room.

Rooms with red brick fireplaces/bookcase with well chosen palettes for furniture:

Notice how dark sofa is balance by light wood coffee table:

Taupe, warm gray would work

I would create walking entry way by moving furniture from the wall. get some console under wall art. Some ideas here

I agree with housegal200 100%. the paneling and fireplace are midcentury, and are fantastic. nice neutral brick (no ugly high contrast colors or weird stonework), and the paneling appears to be in good shape. I LOVE it! this room would benefit from midcentury inspired / scandanavian type furniture. or if you don't like that look, Celery's inspiration pics are good too.

the mirror frame is too ornate for that room. it's not terrible, so keep it for now, but I would suggest eventually replacing or taking it down when you're ready

color scheme: honestly, I don't think red and black will look good in there but I'm biased -- I don't think red and black looks good in any furniture scheme. (I'm assuming the pics you posted are the listing photos, not your furniture?) it's easy and inexpensive to replace curtains, don't work around those.

here are some "midcentury masculine" rooms where black is involved but sparingly. note that it's softened with warm wood and light accent colors.

or don't go for black furniture at all, and use brown leather instead:

So many great replies! Thanks all

I have not moved in yet and do not yet know the dimensions, HOWEVER...

I did some amateur image editing based on a handful of the feedback here. I removed the previous furniture in the image

I added dove white paint (at 50% opacity) mentioned by jck910 to the wall (I also lightened the ceiling a bit), and I put in some furniture from pics I found online to get a feel of a different layout.

I removed the mirror as suggested by FLO, and instead mounted a TV there. I also added a zebra rug, I like your example photos and curious what you would do with the wall where the previous owners had their TV

Sabrina, unfortunately there is only particle board under the carpet

decoenthusiaste great examples

housegal200 and ILoveMod, I agree with getting rid of the harsh reds and blacks and changing the paint color to something more warm to flow with the wood

Celery, I agree moving furniture to create a walkway

Here is my first draft photo edit to trial ideas, I wonder how an L-shaped couch would look and what I should do with that wall... Also, I wouldn't necessarily want THAT couch, it just was angled well for the photo.

Does this seem like it's on the right track? Thank you all so much ahead of time, love these replies :D

Good initial effort! Agree that sofa is not what you want. Check out joybird.com for nice, reasonably priced furniture that would work well I believe. Your real estate agent should be able to get you room dimensions.

Good idea to ask my real estate agent for the dimensions.

I made another edit with the back of a more appropriate sofa (I think)

Very good start to this terrific room, Chris. Do think about a camel sofa with MCM lines but with comfortable back and seat cusions, black side chairs on wooden legs, black white camel rug to overlay over rug.

As budget allows in the future, new wood flooring in same color as your built-ins would be awesome and a great investment as new buyers want that these days.

Chris Johnson - great work on your mockups! I did the same thing, I was so excited. when it was pending, the agent actually arranged to let me in and measure every room. yours might do that for you too if you ask.

I don't love the rug in your mockup. I suggest something more toned down, such as the rug in Housegal's inspiration photo right above.

For furniture, rugs and accessories, check out West Elm and CB2 for great pieces. Room and Board is good quality and more customizable (I suggest that store for sofas). Crate and Barrel is good too, modern but not as quirky.

I strongly recommend trying couches before buying. I've seen Joybirds at consignment stores. (of course I realize that shopping IRL might be harder during this pandemic though!) For their popular Korver, the seat is very deep, and the back is more slanted and flat than other sofas. some people like that, some people don't. Joybird is really good quality though!