I think you are also afraid of pattern:)

There is nothing wrong with keeping the bigger upholstered furniture in a solid fabric: you can do patterned pillows and introduce pattern with accessories.

I think painting the walls a color other than white would be a big help: it would make the drapes and the woodwork stand out and warm things up a bit. You could also benefit from larger pieces of art to interject color and pattern.

Hi MelanieAnne,

I'm no color expert (painted my last living room 5 times in 2 years!), but you have lots of color options. I have similar color sofa/loveseat (maybe even the exact same furniture - Broyhill??), and have soft golden walls. With your oak-y looking fireplace, you could do gold or yellow-y green very easily. (I tend not to do blues or other pastels or cool colors with golden oak like your fireplace.)

If I were you, I'd also add some large-ish floor plants and a larger area rug. Also, the little shelf above the recliner is kind of small and kind of gets lost there. The TV looks very large on top of the fireplace; can you put it elsewhere, perhaps on a media stand? I know you said you have a tiny budget, but you can find some wonderful things for cheap on craigslist!

That's all I got. ;) I'm sure you'll have some other really good feedback that will quite likely be better than mine.

Can you take more closeups? Are there any interesting decorative touches you been considering adding? I am hoping to find an accent color among your pictures, pillows, etc...
If I had to guess, I'd say grab a green from the patterned pillows to put on the wall (assuming there is some green in such a floral pattern).

Your new sofa and loveseat appear to be a very warm golden brown, so I would stick with a pale, warm tone for the walls. If you take a fabric swatch or one of the pillows from the sofa to a paint store, they could help you select a couple of pale neutrals. A neutral on the walls will still read 'color', in a way the white does not.

Then you can indulge your 'color hunger' elsewhere in the room. Inspiration could come from colors in your throw pillows or in your braided rug. I know you said your budget is small, but patterned curtains (plaid, floral, whatever) could also bring in a lot of color. Country Curtains could be a source for curtains.

You have a lovely room with lots of big windows, and also a couple of big door openings. It might be fun to re-arrange your furniture so that the sofa and loveseat form an L-shape, with the two recliners completing a U-shape. For example, the sofa could be centered across from the two door openings, with your loveseat on the plain wall, and the two recliners could sit in front of the window. That way, the TV could be placed between the two door openings, perhaps on top of the cabinet for toys. This would allow TV to be viewed straight-on from largest sofa, and would also hide the TV from view when you enter the room. Just a thought!

Get thee to a paint store! :-)

I think that green would be a great way to ease yourself into color. Because we see so much green in our environment, humans have evolved to be comfortable with all those natural colors. (I am not talking about hospital green!)

Go to the store and start to pull chips that have greens that are a little grayed down...not clear pastel colors. You could do a cool green or a warm one, doesn't matter.

Over on the Gallery side, there are lots of threads showing different colors on the walls. Plenty of people have furniture in the same colors as yours. Take a look there and see what appeals to you.

I think pulling all your furniture in a little closer and getting a coffee table could cozy up the space, as well.

My 1st thought was also a goldish tan for the walls. Here's a couple of pictures I saved where the sofa color is similar to yours.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Laurie

Yes! - Check out how the drapery pattern in msrose's photos add color and make it easy to add additional color in throw pillows and other accessories.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!! I just can't tell you how much I appreciate your advice! I am going back through all of your comments and getting to the paint store! :)

thanks again (and please feel free to add more :) I'm listening!)
Melanie

A great goldish yellow is Behr's Clair De Lune. My kitchen is that color and it's very rich and happy without being "too much".

One more question because y'all are SO helpful :) Do you think I would be best to go with a warm color scheme rather than cool with all of the oak and tan?

For the big items, yes, I'd stick with warm colors. But the hot pink and clear blues in msrose's photos are not the 'usual' warm colors, i.e. you don't have to use colors adjacent on the color wheel. B-t-w, the link is to curtains with somewhat similar colors and pattern.

Here is a link that might be useful: country curtains

Given your fireplace (which I assume you won't be painting) and your current furniture, an off-white color on the walls would warm up the room without creating too much attention. I'd save the more eye-catching colors for the rug and accessories. This will make your paint selection process easier.

Also, I'd rearrange your furniture by moving them away from the walls. Exactly how, I'd need your dimensions. The reasoning behind this is to create a focal point in your room. Right now, it doesn't have one. And I agree with the others about a new place for the tv, new rug and new pillows. Of these items, the first one to choose is a rug. That will determine what color/style pillows, accessories and maybe even tv stand that you need.

If you have young children, I'd get that TV off the fireplace asap. That looks really dangerous.

Melanie - I feel your pain! I have a few paint chips up on my wall right now that might work for you if you want to go the warm neutral route.

Ace Hardware: Warm Scones, Hint of Gold, Calm Beige

Benjamin Moore: Monroe Bisque

Gather an assortment of paint chips and see how they look in your own light.

I was thinking a golden or a tan. YOu asked if a warm or cool color and I immediately want to ask where (in general) you live. If you're in a hot climate year round, I'd go with cool colors. If you have much more cool than warm, I'd go with warm colors. If it rains a lot I'd go with sunny colors.

Take a look at some of the room threads and the color threads in our Gallery. Mentally take yourself into the photo and sit on the chair, sofa or bed. Walk around in the room. How does it make you feel? Happy? Sad? Energetic? Tired? Different colors affect different people in different ways, though there are some trends with color. You can read up about it by googling "color psychology." You might want to think about how it makes you feel to be in certain color rooms at friends' homes, too. I really love yellow, but when I painted my bedroom yellow I felt keyed up and unable to sleep in there. I repainted.

Choosing colors can be daunting, we all agree. But I truly believe that once you find the right color you'll be terribly happy you got rid of all the white.

Oh, don't forget to use the search feature at the bottom of the Gallery page for any paint colors you want to see. There are threads on golds, yellows, reds, browns, blues, whites, greys, etc, etc, etc.

You can also request sample sizes of paint, and paint up some poster boards, then tape them to the walls. View them on different walls and in different light (morn, afternoon, night) to see how you like them.

Enjoy!

Here is a link that might be useful: Gallery

You have lovely, traditional pieces. Cozy them up, into the room more and def. paint. SW blonde, LA gold #3 etc...
Would love to see patterned drapery panels too if you can & a few green plants. :)

Has anyone tried Pottery Barn drapes? I just looked at their site and they have some really pretty patterned drapes... What do you think about these?

I like the blue, but maybe the red would look better (?)

Here is a link that might be useful: Patterned Drapes from Pottery Barn

sorry.... one more I found:

Here is a link that might be useful: More Pattern

I like the second one, Vanessa, a lot, mainly because the pattern has more than a couple of colors, making it easier to use it as a color source for pillows and other items for the room.

The first red one seems too heavy (visually, I mean) for year-round use. I think it would make me feel hot in the summer. And some colorists might say that red would rev up your boys even more!

I would choose paint first...maybe a soft gold. Then I would get drapes and an area rug. Drapes, for me at least, would be plain, not figured. I would get tired of them too soon. Rug and pillows could be figured.

Thank you both!

And grbr54 -- "And some colorists might say that red would rev up your boys even more!" -- GOOD point, I do NOT want that! :) LOL

Any other curtain advice?

thank you!

Love the vanessa drapes, or maybe the simone?

Before you get your heart set on a particular drape, do a quick calculation of what it is going to cost. Each panel cost $75 and you need six panels. You might be able to use the existing rods, raising them on the wall and adding clips. If not, then factor in the cost of new rods.

The other thing to consider is whether your husband will like floral panels and how soon YOU might tire of them. Solid color panels or a subtle pattern might be a safer option, though the ones you are considering are lovely.

graywings -- Great points!!! thank you!

Too true. You can get that room painted and totally transform the look and feel for around a hundred bucks, maybe less. Drapes and rugs will set you back many hundreds of dollars.

have you had a chance to look at the Galleries yet?

Here is a link that might be useful: they're here...

I think either one of the PB drapes you posted or the one Loribee posted would be beautiful. I would have a hard time choosing between those three.

Laurie

I just ordered the Vanessa drapes today, 6 of them in fact, and before shipping and tax they cost $450. I have a different opinion regarding plain vs patterned drapes, at least in my living room. We currently have PB beige striped drapes, and although they are nice, I just needed more color in the already blah room, so I am changing them out for the Vanessa drapes. They are on backorder, so I'll post again once they come in. I think the Simone drapes would look fabulous in your room and would really liven things up without being too loud.

Please post when you get them hung. I can't wait to see how they look in someone's house.

Laurie

I will post when I get them hung. I listed my current drapes on craigslist right after I ordered the Vanessa drapes, thinking I'd need the time between now and when the order arrives to sell the current drapes. Someone has already offered to come pick up my curret PB drapes this weekend...now I'm really nervous! What if I sell mine and don't like the new ones! Oh well, I needed a change and this will force me. Funny how you can be totally sick of something, but as soon as someone else tells you they love it and want to buy it, suddenly you love it again and don't want to let it go. Or maybe that's just me ;)

YES! I can't wait to see your new drapes!! :) Do you think the blue colors would work well with my tan sofa? I just don't understand warm/cool colors... ugh! :)

If you love the drapes, you may want to look at the Vanessa rug? You could do the rug instead of the drapes and go with a neutral drape. Just a thought if the pattern is going to be too much or your husband doesn't want floral.