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1. Have you considered painting? There is no quicker way to dress up a room than painting. Even if you do just an accent wall and leave the rest the original color, it will add some personality to the room. I would suggest the wall where the fireplace is for an accent wall.
2. Drapes...I would definitely do the long panels. I actually prefer the panels with the hidden loops.
3. Throw pillows....I LOVE throw pillows. You have a lot of sofa to work with so some throw pillow would work.
4. Area rug....it will break up the floor space a little bit and can be used after you get the hardwood as well
Here is the back wall that we have painted. It looks much more green in this picture than it really is. Its more a "slate" color with a bit of green in it so it goes with the green in the couch. I think having this wall and the fireplace wall both bright "colors" would be a bit much dont' ya think?
I love the idea of an area rug because we probably would need something even if we get hardwood floors. I have a red rug from pottery barn that I could pull inside just to get a feel for how it would look. I'm not sure how big of a rug I would need. There is a lot of space from the coffee table to the tv/fireplace.
Depends on what you're looking to spend, but I'm a HUGE fan of french doors! Keep an eye out for sales or go to outlet places and have those bad boys replaced with beautiful French doors. If you're keeping a tight budget, awesome panels will look great. Jamaica Bride has a good list of things to spruce up the living room though!
Oh goodness, I love these kind of things! I've been helping my mom redo her kitchen and my FILs with their living room and dining room! :D
First- if you decide to do light colored (I'd suggest just a shade darker then blond, maybe) hardwood floors, I'd do a darker wall color. The constrast would reall set off your fireplace and make it look like part of the floor and the walls. If you go with darker hardwood floors (which can be amazing looking!) I'd suggest going with a very light tan on the walls. you could even probably do a very light yellow color, so when the sun comes in the room appears to brighten all that much more! If i were you, I'd change your mantel to a full-sized, width of the fireplace, one. Maybe in a color of the floor or just a shade darker (if you go with light hardwood). I'd also change out the old gold fireplace plate for a more modern one in black or possibly silver (not sure on silver, but it might look good!).
With how short your ceiling appear in this room, I'd hang ceiling to floor curtins that puddle a bit on the ground, for luxury touch. I'd love the Damask ones you posted with darker floors and the white ones with lighter floors. I much prefer the big O-rings on the 2nd set of curtins then the hooks of the first- they look more elegant.
And finally, furniture. I think you need- a full sized couch, at least one loveseat, and a big, comfy chair. You also seem to need (from these pictures alone) a full-sized coffee table and at least 2 side tables. Maybe a lamp or two which can hang out over the couch or loveseat or chair.
So, here is my horrible Paint rendition of a room with dark floors. Its ummm...rough, but you get the idea? The second picture is kind of the light, airy feel I was trying to impart with my imagry.
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i also wanted to add- a big rug under the seating area would give everything a cozy feel, add throw pillows for warmth, comfort, and for a punch of color, and I agree with an above poster- French doors! They'd make that room much, much fancier looking all on their own! :)
Hmmm I am thinking I need an inspiration board!
We have started looking at flooring and I love hickory. It has the perfect amount of wood grain so that its not too busy but just enough to actually look like wood. Also a must is the edging to the flooring so it looks more like planks of wood than just a giant sheet of wood.
We are thinking maybe something in this tone. However, this has a lot of brown tones which is darker. Also a lot of the trim in our house has a lot of red in it.
* See the groves between planks * I LOVE IT!
I love the idea of french doors and we can always look into that. However, there is about a 3 inch step down into the sun room. I am not sure you can put french doors in with a step down like that. There is nothign we can do about that step down either.
The sun room has a window a/c heat unit which we hardly ever run. Beacuse of that, we like to have a seal between the house and that room because in the winter the porch is very cold and in the summer it is very hot. Besides the fact it does not hold the ac/heat very well, our current a/c unit is not big enough to heat/cool that extra 450 sq. feet.
We love sectionals so we will probably have to stick with that. Maybe something like this? We need to to be stain proof for when we have kids but also go with the floors.
@Rabbit: We painted this really neat "sand" color right now on the walls.
You can kinda see it here in this picture. I think we need to go back and do the wall/corner with that closet to finish off the "room". Oops
DO you have an RCWilley (note:there's more in the store than what they show online) close by? We got our Cindy Crawford couches there, and just looove them. Then we went to JCP for the rest of the accessories, they also carry Cindy Crawford and were able to get our beautiful 84' drapes that match our couch for only $13/panel!! We only spent $80 on 3 panels and 2 curtain rods!! I think JCP carries some of her furniture line also. Her stuff makes it easy because its all cordinated, but still very stylish and affordable...
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Hmm No, I don't know what an RCWilley is. I am pretty sure we don't have those here in Florida.
Ok, well beyond french doors, hardwood floors, and new sectionals, what should I do this weekend?
It sounds like everyone likes the idea of adding drapes to the sliding glass doors. Should I do 4 panels? I feel like the 2 in the middle might be a lot.
Also, what color? The walls are a light beige/sand color. I think White would pop really nicely. The white trim on the chair rail is a vintage white which is really pretty. Kinda like a country white or a diamond white. Maybe I can find something like that.
Lastly, Where should I mount the hardware? I know a lot of trends have it being mounted well above the door which I think gives the allusion of higher cielings and doors. I only have about a foot or so gap between top of the door and the ceiling so maybe 6" above the door and 6" below the ceiling?
I would tip your TV a little more to round that area off. Long curtains would be perfect and help dress up that wall. I would change the curtain on the door in the corner to match. Do you like the brick? I have seen some that are painted white and it looks so cool! really brighens it and makes it stand out.
I second JamaicaBride's suggestions - you need a big area rug to ground that sofa. I also like the long panel idea for the sliders - and you have a space btwn your doors that you can bundle some of the fabric, so you don't have to drag them so far and you can balance the weight better. Good!
I know you just painted that sand color but it is lacking - i think if you went darker / more dramatic it would make the room feel more lived in and make the fireplace seem rich and homey instead of sticking out. Embrace color, even if just darker neutrals. It's the cheapest thing you can buy to dramatically change the space, and if you HATE IT weeks later, then you go back. But dont just live with off white forever.
I think you have to reel in your FI and get rid of the brass - that will help make it more modern. Good luck and have fun!
LOVE your windows, and I wish we had some windows like that so we could do this pic (minus the corner obviously.) I love the long of a single rod going over the both windows and then having 3 panels of curtains (one of each side and one in the middle) I've seen Candice Olsen do this window treatment recently.
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I just read that you like sectionals, here are few of my fav design pics w/ sectionals! (From Younghouselove.com!!)
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I too would suggest painting the brick fireplace or plastering over the brick. I see quite a bit of wood work: kitchen cabinets, a door, coffe table, etc, so i would suggest pulling that color in as an accent color in pillows, throws, rug, etc. I personally don't like to see a TV. Maybe get a cabinet with doors that open and slide in.
I would definitely get rid of anything brass. It really does date your room. Tell your man too bad. :)
Also, just a side note on curtains: We have dogs, too, and I suggest hanging your long panels similar to the picture you posted from Pottery Barn (a little off the floor). I love the look of "puddled" panels, but they will get disgusting if there is any amount of dog hair or dog dirt on your floors, especially if you change them to hardwood. They became great big mops for our dogs' shedding, which was especially heartbreaking because they were a natural color (and also from Pottery Barn).
I also like the idea of painting your brick white. I think it moderns-it-up a lot.
Back with some updates!!!
We got a small kitchen table on our honeymoon from Ikea. We don't have one where we live so it was a treat to get to go! The boxes were stuff we had to return, but the bouquet is my wedding bouquet, two weeks and going strong!
Also from Ikea we got the curtains everyone recommended. I had my husband take this picture so obviously he didn't adjust them to hang right but you can see the idea.
Both things really changed the look and feel of the room. We got a lot of cute accent pieces as wedding gifts so they are helping to dress the space up as well. I will post more pictures when I can!! We are hopefully installing hardwood floors next week!
I think that painting the fireplace a light color will open the room up, and definitely get an area rug to break up the living room and dining room
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Since the Bees are all so helpful, please help me dress up my living room. Eventually we are going to put in hardwood floors and get rid of the 10 year old teal couch.
Question 1: Should I try to put drapes on these sliding doors? They lead out to our sunroom/porch. Sometimes we eat out there and the dog sleeps out there. I was thinking about long panels?
Maybe something like this:
Source
or from PotteryBarn:
Here is the other side of the room. I need to find a way to dress up the mantal. I don't like the brass but my FI does. I will upload a new picture soon.
As you can see this space leads ridght into our kitchen which we also have to decorate.