suzjazz poster living room

Sherwin Williams oyster bay

Go with one dark wall and the rest a lighter color though it doesn't have to be that "light". Often times dark color does not make the room look smaller necessarily. At times trying different furniture arrangements help more than wall color. You might want to angle a table between 2 walls. Don't have too many pieces of furniture in the room because it shouts out "crowded".

To be honest, your rug is nice but distracting. It brings your eyes to the ground and not up to the walls or furniture. I would either try to pick up the same design in a pillow or on a painting on the wall, or I would go with a solid rug in this room. A smaller rug in front of the sofa would show your beautiful floors off. And that color wood can go with many colors as well. I notice you have a nice red pillow.

I would love to see the wall where your fireplace is a nice red. Then go with a light gray on the rest of the walls. The two colors compliment each other very well.

Just the right color of Turquoise wall would compliment your couch. And that too goes very nicely with red.



https://www.houzz.com/magazine/color-feast-when-to-use-red-in-the-dining-room-stsetivw-vs~6287729

I like your original gray idea, but like the suggestions for a tone on tone palette as well using some of the photos Anne Dee posted for inspiration. Either way I would keep it fairly soft, and either go slightly darker in value from your sofa or slightly lighter.

Hi. I would like to say that you are right by saying the room would look too small if you add a dark colour on to the walls. Therefore, as you are thinking of a grey, what do you think of this:

As suggested I would paint the walls a very similar color to the sofa and your woodwork should be kept in the same color tone as the wall color you choose, because if you pick a dark color for the wall and then a white for the woodwork your sofa will get lost in all the contrast. Right now the wall and trim color are similar and so your sofa shows well, so keep that in mind when choosing your wall and woodwork colors. You want your sofa and artwork to be the focal point of your room. Beautiful sofa !

All of these ideas are wonderful! I agree that the rug is the first thing to catch your eye but it was the result of a search that took literally years because I wanted drama and I hate most rugs in my low price range. I had the idea of painting a wall Chinese red and the rest gray (I like the gray suggested) but a shade of seafoam or turquoise would be great also. I can't go wrong with either option. You don't see it in the photo, but there are 3 boldly colored modern art paintings, large, by my brother

And I am taking advantage of high ceilings to hang one large one above the other (they are a pair) which should lead the

eye upward.
where would I put the smaller rug? On the floor or over the rug layered in front of the sofa? and what color? Neutral solid because of all the pattern activity going on in the room? I am also planning a slightly smaller coffee table or two side tables side by side. I want to get rid of the ikea chair and get two small matching slipper chairs instead to balance th
becao

Sorry, my app won't let me edit

Balance the space to the left in the photo. Other than that the only furniture is a beige loveseat perpendicular to the green sofa a coffee table and 2 side tables. One more question: what do you think of painting the trim same color as walls? I want the room to have a contemporary, art gallery feel to it.

You definitely don't want to do that. A little bit of white goes a long way. Please take my advice.

This is awesome, Mark! Thanks so much.

I will have curtains(sheers) to soften and they will hide the trim

I did say "art gallery" but I want it to be homey

Try tapestry beige by Benjamin Moore..has beautiful gray tint

I would paint trim 25% of wall color if you don't want to go white. I disagree that darker colors always make rooms look smaller. Sometimes it just warms up the room. Often time the illusion makes the wall appear further away, especially if it's an accent wall. How often do you walk into a painted room and say this room feels like it's 14 x 14 but it's really 16x16. The paint must be too dark. :) I always go by feel.
I am confident you are going to get lots of valuable help here! Good luck and keep posting pictures as you progress along!

Not sure about jacey22's comment, because I never said that darker colors make rooms look smaller. As stated, often times it will give an illusion of appearing farther away..And I agree, too go by the feel when I walk in a room.

You have some great ideas, so it is up to what you prefer in wall color, just like art on the wall. I just wanted to say again, I love the couch color and I love the red pillow on it. I would play that up. :)

I do not know the lay out of the other rooms, but I was thinking that the rug might look good in another room, perhaps a bedroom. While you put a smaller rug under the coffee table near the sofa. You might want to try it just to see how it looks. Enjoy.

Oh Lynnie, I didn't mean to imply that you said darker colors make the room appear smaller, people in general often have that opinion. That's what I meant. Wasn't disagreeing with anything you said in particular. Sorry for not being very clear on that.

Everyone is being wonderfully helpful. I appreciate all the great advice.

Sorry jacey22. Just having a so-so day and took it wrong which I saw after I re-read your comment and see where you are coming from. I hope I am being helpful suzjazz.

Thank you for your help! :)

mark, if you are still there: what is the name of the color in the photo you photoshopped?

I feel I would stay away from trying to match a sofa that's seafoam green. First off, it seems like a beautiful soft color on an upholstered item that will clash on the hard surface of the wall. Either go fresh and crisp, with Benj moore's mannequin cream, OC-92, or try revere pewter which is a gray that won't fight it. I would keep the trim crisp, either dove white or something like it...

I photoshopped a couple of SW colours for you. Mind you, in real life they will look different, but maybe it helps you to see which way you want to go:
SW Mineral Deposit
SW Calico
SW Griffin

Sorry the photos stay small.

I would go with a darker shade of turquoise

SW Thunder Gray
SW Poseidon (because Genevieve suggested a darker turquoise)

Although this one is closer to Genevieve's example:
SW Oceanside

There are some nice contrasting colors for your room, and there are some similar colors if you want to stay close to your couch color. A few "additional" ideas of colors in a room:

Thank you SO much! ALL these ideas are so good that I don't know which color to choose!

@suzjazz the color that I photo shopped in was a color made in photo shop, not an actual paint color. I will say this and that it's very hard to give you an actual paint color without being in the room myself. Monitors are all different so I could only take a guess at a color to give you and then it's a gamble at that to see if it actually would be right. I actually missed seeing the picture that shows your carpet. That being said I still think either a color very close to your sofa is what I would choose OR and I think your own suggestion of a medium to dark grey would look nice. I like the idea of pulling out the darker grey color that I see in your area rug now that I see it. I'm a very monochromatic person so for me I went right for a color similar to your sofa and I really love how it looks in the picture I posted from Houzz ( below ) but if you want more of a contrast then a medium to dark grey would be the way to go. IMO

Great work ,thank you for doing that :)

Mark, I can't thank you enough.

Sounds like you've got the color issue knocked out! I just wanted to remind you that art, like the piece behind the sofa and lamp will look much better if the center is at 5' above the floor, and when anchored to a piece of furniture, at 5" above it. Great room coming together!

There will be two paintings on that wall, a pair meant to go together (but different abstract) I am hiring a carpenter to hang them because the walls of my old house crumble easily. The painting on top will be only a few inches below the ceiling molding. I know it looks funny with the one painting hung too high but it was better than a bare wall.

People should note that I am building the room around the rug, so it doesn't matter that it's the first thing to grab your attention. The other focal points are the seafoam sofa and the artwork (there are four large paintings, one on the wall you can't see) The colors in the paintings are picked up in the accent pillows and the sofa. I am also going to get a round mirror to put on the wall to the left of the mantelpiece (which has a huge old radiator under it; long ago, someone cemented up the fireplace and put the radiator in front of it. It's a real design problem because it's an eyesore. I'm going to paint it the same color as the wall unless I do a red accent wall there-it's probably not a good idea to paint it red. I have thought about having a custom-made radiator cover or screen to hide it, and until I figure out what to do I am going to get a pair of chairs (slipper chairs because it's a small room and arms take up space) One of the chairs will hide the radiator. Any ideas about what to do about it?

Just be aware that carpenters know next to nothing about hanging art, usually. They know how to put up the hardware, but it will be up to you to make sure the hardware is placed for optimum display of the art. My own preference, having worked in a Parisian art gallery, is to keep artwork below door and window frames, and to actually go toward the floor if you must, rather than toward the ceiling. Gallery groupings and multi-pieced arrangements should have the center of the entire visual at 5' above the floor for maximum visibility and balance. For the most part, art in the private home is appreciated from a seated position, and like TV's above mantels, height can impede comfortable viewing.

I am going by the advice of my friend Jeri who has excellent design sense. She told me to hang the two paintings one above the other. The ceiling is very high so the wall can accomodate both paintings. I know exactly where to tell him to put the hardware. She told me about the 5 feet rule.

I love the way you have hung the artwork in your photos. The desk chair is beautiful, as is

The lamp and the desk itself.f

My phone is not letting me edit my posts. :(

Suzjazz do you mind sharing where you got your rug from? Thank you. We're having a bit of a problem picking the rug to work with the room and Carolins kindly suggested that your rug seems to have all the colors that I'm trying to tie together in my room. Thanks.

My rug was the result of literally years of searching for the right one--I hated all the rugs in my price range, and I looked at hundreds. I preferred having a bare floor to having a blah or ugly rug. I was going to Home Goods a lot lately, to several different ones because they all have different stuff, and in December I finally discovered this one at the Home Goods in Framingham, MA. I know this doesn't help you at all, so I'm going to look and see if there is a brand name on it.

OK, here's the info on the label: The rug is made by a company called Milan, design #MT43, and it's an odd size--I wanted 8 x10 but this one is 7'10" x 11'2". It's made in Belgium, machine loomed from 100% viscose. My warning to you about viscose is that any liquid that spills on it flattens the pile, as does any object or footprint. If I had known this before , I would not have bought it. I have had to steam the pile back up by pressing a hot steam iron on it (first covering the spot with a clean cloth.) This can be a real pain, so you have to be careful. I spent $300 on it and it's in a medium-traffic area. It's quite dramatic and beautiful, which is what I wanted. A few people who posted here thought it was too distracting, but I don't find it to be so. I have several large modern paintings on the walls with bright colors in them, so once all the art is hung, your eye will also be drawn to it. I hope you find one! I'm going to search for it online.

I like your walls just as they are. It is the accent pieces I would change: the table lamps

I found a similar rug but with yellow in it at this URL: http://www.1001arearugs.com/Surya/Fallon/FAL-1037/Yellow_Espresso/details.aspx

Or you can go here for a similar design. I think the parent company is Surya. http://www.surya.com/rugs/basilica/bsl7206/

There are some GREAT cool rugs on surya.com. I couldn't find mine, though.

Thank YOU for all the rug info. You've done above and beyond of what I asked, just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it. I don't find your rug to be a distraction, i think it looks gorgeous. Thanks again and good luck with your own project! :-)

Sorry suzjazz, just giving an opinion. The important thing is that you love everything you have. We are just here to point things out as the questions come up. The best to you.