Get rid of the too big, seemingly unattached to anything , and ruining the flow in the room. A rectangular coffee table, open and not heavy, would make the sofa a comfortable to place a book or a candy dish. Family pictures are better in a private setting-just one or two in the living room. Place the floor lamp on one end of the sofa, but the one you have is too tall. Also suggest you put the single chair back against the wall, more in the center of the wall, and use the table and lamp next to it. Larger pillows would be better on the sofa. Like colors that are not as harsh as the blue. Tapestry fabric pillows would be warm and interesting to look at. A book case, not tall, would cozy up the room. Like the furniture and I know, by looking at rooms in traditional magazines, you’ll make the room beautifully interesting.

Forgot to say remove the round coffee table.

You had another post, so not sure why you started anew.

What is the direction here? The palette feels a bit conflicted. ?

Your room feels cold, suggestions were made .........

I think a big part of the issue is the stripe curtains and no particular color palette. Having an inviting space doesn't mean you clutter it - you edit to what needs to be there, and what does not comes out.

A little black in a room, goes a long way, and when the black is against pale everything else? You need to make sure it doesn't take over, and make the room jumpy and nervous UNLESS you love the high contrast......drama.

Not every lamp need be black, or have a black shade....

The couch looks a bit blah......

But the curtains drive the palette, maybe MORE than you want them too, They just don't sit well with your rug or anything else for that matter, but the one pillow on the couch,( earlier thread )

You aren't clear in what you want, or you aren't telling us as we see you like a bit of pink?? Or you don't? : )

The console in the window would benefit from a lamp........but you want candles, ........why?

The coffee table and it's heavy black frame? I might change that, but I mentioned that earlier - other thread.

Not really hanging together, here....rug and curtain conflict. Chane one, or the other.

SMALL plants are c.l.u.t.t.e.r,

Thanks for your suggestions
I almost need to start over

Drapes, tables, lamps, art…

This will take a while

And the sofa as well?

Go online.........find a few rooms with a feel you LOVE. Nobody here is certain what you are after: )

Thanks

I like this ladies feeling of warmth

^ a few things I like about that room -

good texture (nubby pillows, basket on the shelf) - I like to have contrasting textures - so if one surface is smooth/slick (like a glass table or a leather couch) add textural items to balance the slickness (your glass coffee table is a big opportunity

the room also has fewer small accessories scattered about and has more focused curated groupings with fewer & larger items

The room looks blah because there is no real color. It looks cold because all the items are cool, with no warmth to them.

Most houzzers seem to be so afraid of using any color or pattern, both of which warm up and enliven a room. I say, take a chance! You can do it with accessories, you don't need to change any of the large upholstered items or furniture.

Add at least a few more pillows with dramatic patterns. You can get very good deals on Etsy, pillows custom made in fabulous fabrics from high-end companies, such as Schumacher, Thibaut and Scalamandre.

Take the blanket off the chair and have it reupholstered if necessary. Add a colorful rug under the dining room table. I would also replace the gray mottled rug with something else as well. A hand-knotted Persian style rug with lots of colors.

As Jan suggested add colorful lamps. And yes to colorful artwork on the walls.

The grommet head curtains aren't doing anything for the room either. (They always remind me of shower curtains.) Replace them with panels that have a nice French pleat heading and mount them on decorative rods and rings.

See that palette you posted above?

Lose your very COLD toned rug, and change those curtains to simple plain soft white panels. Lose the harsh, black framed cocktail table.

Whatever you're hiding under the throw covered chair ? Show it.

Side by side below...

In that picture.....nubby textured, warm toned rug. Just a bit of trim on the curtains, picking up same WARM tone as the toss pillow.....

Look again.....

Lose the curtains. A warmer rug, do it FIRST , find one you love and let it be a road map for other selections.

.

You are trying to marry icy cool with warm. Hard to do and outside the skill sets of anyone but the very skilled pro's. Don't make it hard for y.o.u.

You don’t have to start over; ”don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”. Just tweek by editing, layering, connecting with color, plus a few new accessorizes. I edited my original posting, which I hope gives you ideas (don’t have to like the choices, but consider concepts). Small changes don’t have to cost a lot (buy art that connects and you love though). It will mean experimenting, but eventually it will feel very fulfilling. Don’t rush!

Those rugs were so expensive and do look grey in the picture.

I could put that rug in a bedroom
As well as those drapes

The room is not big enough- the reason I kept the colors light- learning a wealth of info

My family room quite possibly is cold as well

Sharon, your family room looks very nice. Seeing it makes me believe you should leave your bird picture in that room. There have been some great suggestions for your LR/DR space. Your direction forward depends obviously on how willing you are to make big changes. IMO, changing your curtains and art would make the biggest impact. Carefully selected art that you love would add personality and color to your space. And one or two large plants instead of the clutter of small ones would help as well.

Maybe this is just me, but I dislike decorative objects, including photos, on coffee and end tables. Makes a cramped feeling, as if you will knock something over if you use the table for a drink or book you’re reading. I’d make a group of the photos on a wall.

Maybe what I’m picking up on is the space doesn’t feel lived in. Could be if you pull the plug on decor and plug into what you really love to have around you the space would come together.

The curtains draw the eye with their bold casual pattern. Changing them would be my first step. Choose curtains with colour and pattern, and repeat the colour elsewhere e.g. new chair, pillows. The rug is quiet and I would keep it.

Drapes with color and pattern?
Colored chair? Plain pillows ?

Not everything can be solved here. It will become a hundred voices. Much of it is opinion. Some of it will be wise.

Posts such as this always have a beginning in not fully understanding the feel you want in a space. Or jumping a gun with six gallons of paint , before you own a stick of furnishings.

You have another room.......where is it in relation to the living room you're asking about? I ask because I see TWO sofas crammed into that family room. When do you use the living room?

How does anyone pass thru here?

everyone crams in that family room and what about here below? This couldn't be a good wall for a TV? What rule is there on that concept?

I dare say I see nearly the same rug in both rooms?

I think BEFORE you start buying more? It might be a great use of some resources to get some pro design help: ) to help you eliminate that fight you have going between a cool palette and warm.....

We have a back spit home.
Lr to the left as you enter
Fr down 1 floor straight in front door
Husband used fr most of the time - wood fireplace he likes to have on on cooler days/mights

• when I come down I walk behind sofa to love seat
  I’m not a tv watcher so use lr most of the time.
  Yes same rug in both rooms

I could move the fr recliner up to lr to replace the chair against wall.

That fr is awkward for furniture placement - L shape and corner fireplace

get rid of plant stand and all stuff on top of hutch put all your pictures together on one wall with matching frames and get some beautiful curtains that match rug if you could afford a more modern light maybe black or crystal it could be glamy

Well. all of this begins with a floor plan we don't have. Feet and inches ....walls window openings , all of it: )

That's the beginning for right size rugs, good furniture selections and their placement.

I had a decorator in for the gr and she drew up floor plans- said this was the best she could do with this room

That should say family room

Bigger art by ur chair. Remove stuff on top of hutch. Holy vases at front LR window place at dining table both. I love the blue u added.

Put the white vases on dr table?

Following

Yes there. Too Traditional placement at window.

You do not need to start over. What you need to do is disconnect from all the noise here.

"I had a decorator in for the gr and she drew up floor plans- said this was the best she could do with this room"

I had a similar experience. Jan said once that there are some decorators, like those that work for furniture stores (my case) that are not interior designers and will not give you what you want or need. In my case they gave me a house crowded with too much furniture. That kind of experience makes it difficult to trust ever again. My first experience was followed with a person associated with my contractor. Jan also said that some designers associated with contractors are not really designing but just checking off a list. In retrospect, that's how my second experience felt. I ended up with a plastic vanity purchased on-line.

I did what Jan said and hired a designer independent of any other business. So far the experience is superior to my two previous. I'm not judging all designers associated with businesses badly, but I agree with Jan that there can be a risk. How a customer is supposed to know is beyond me. I liked the current designer's portfolio. She understands the feel of what I am wanting. She has taken me to several source stores and brought me several samples and makes me feel everything and look at things together in different lighting. I think that is what a designer should be like.

Thanks @Jan Moyer

What of here? Hubby uses this room, the OP doesn't watch much tv.

Take either the loveseat OR the couch ( probably the couch) out of that room. Get the TV MOUNTED ON THE WALL,, with an IR repeater and you won't need the console below.

Find a rug, WARMER that honors the fireplace surround. Yank it closer to the flush hearth. I might trade the the coffee table in the living room for this one. More room to recline.

More than that is hard to advise, there are no feet and inches unless the op has what the designer did.

which appears just too cramped and crowded.: )

What's the palette? The rug need not fight that fire? If you love the rosy tone? Have it!!

What can I say? .........beyond it always starts with a plan

For instance. I went to the temporary home/apartment of a client from many years back. A move that brought them back here, with the plan in a year or 18 mos. to find a new house.

"Hellllp" ! I can't live like this - have to do SOMETHING !" ( they sold or got rid of what they didn't want to keep or move )

As I always say? What is the first thing? A measure!! She needs a rug, a place to dine with another couple, she needs counter stools, a different coffee table.. An hour after I got home? This.

There's a REALLY long 25 " boring wall....so I'm doing another this morning, before the electrician gets there for the darn tv....: ( I hate that expanse of drywall, but everything we do, has to be able to t.r.a.v.e.l. to a new home.

Try the rug in the family room. Swap the coffee tables: round in FR. rectangle in LR. Remove the curtains. Add leaf in DR table. Take new pictures and show how that looks.

Thanks Jan

I cannot start on another room
And yes the decorator was from a furniture store and sold us that recliner for there ( rarely used) as I have to sit directly in front of tv due to vision problems.

This is the situation-Hubbie lies on the couch when he’s down there.
Wood burning fireplace- no tv above that
Awkward corner to have another big piece up beside fireplace on wall.
Console holds all of his audio woofers, record player, stereo receivers.
Because of wood fireplace we’ve kept rug back a bit as well as to have sofa front legs on the carpet.

I have considered switching coffee tables- - thought the family room was another dark heavy piece for the lr
The story in this house- it’s never good enough but we have to make do with what we have

First world problems.

Jan tell me about this floor plan above .

Sharon.

,

The floor plan is nothing more than the walls, the windows, their feet and inches @ 1/4 inch to one FOOT scale.Yours would be different than my client's. But when I say "Hey, the FIRST THING WE NEED here is a rug !"? The next question is what size rug? Then it becomes a rug that can go to a new home, and in what texture , what color. As to furniture? who sits, where do they want to sit. If nobody sits in that recliner in your great room? ? Why is it there?

You just said you don't watch tv. You do or you don't? You don't need a fireplace to watch tv. Why CAN'T there be a tv upstairs?

Everyone is different. But you don't buy without a plan that considers need, function .........and yes will it fit!!!

If you still have the plan the "designer" in the store did? Upload it, and I don't want to start a conversation on in store designers. Not going there: )

Once you upload the plan, then Jan is the BEST person here on Houzz to give you advice on what to do with the room. Listen to her. Ignore all the other one-off comments on what to do with vases or pillows or other miniutiae. They're a distraction from the real problem, which seems to be the layout.

Keep in mind that when designing a room, the FIRST order of business is function. What do you want to do in the room? After that, measure and draw a plan to scale. Then figure out what furniture you need in what sizes to accomplish the function, in other words, what fits in the room, allowing for clearances so as not to overcrowd it, block walkways, etc. Only after you complete steps 1-3 are you ready to determine style, color, finishes, fabrics. Then comes accessories. And dead last is wall color.

The drapes and rug do not go together because thr rug is grey(cool) and the drapes are beige(warm). move one or the other. if you move them both to the same room, you will just have moved the problem to a new room. agree that Jan is the person here to trust.

You do not need to disconnect from all the noise here this is a free forearm and you chose to come here twice and you wanted help and people shouldn't say stuff like that we all going to have some different inputs you find which one you like

Well. That is surely incredible. God knows I am clueless after thirty three years, lol and lord knows I have never been " the solution " to anything, anywhere.

Should be noted, that at least I have the courage not to hide behind a screen name, WHATEVER you may think of the advice or the verbiage. Look up "cowardly" :) while you are at the bash.

Wow

This has taken a strange turn-

It’s saddens me that this has created such a controversy. And just requesting for some suggestions I apologize and frame from doing so in the future.

Let's decorate!

You did absolutely nothing wrong. Unfortunately, threads go bad like this sometimes on this forum.

@Sharon Wettlaufer not your doing! Please don't let this experience deter you from continuing this thread or starting another on a different project.

Sharon, I've been on houzz for a very long time and this just happens sometimes. It has nothing to do with you. You came to houzz for some free decorating advice which is what this section of houzz is all about.

I'd concentrate on the answers that gave you suggestions regarding your specific question-decluttering the LR/DR but keeping it warm and inviting. Forget the family room for now-that was not your question. Think about what you want and then you can come back and say "I want to keep it neutral" or "I want to add this color" or "I love this art/or not" or "I am keeping these drapes/can get new ones"-that sort of thing. I wouldn't give up. JMO.

? This is the 8th thread on these two rooms, LR/FR, with more than 390 comments.