Since it's the largest piece in the room, I think you should start with your sofa and work from there. What colors are available without doing a custom job? Maybe you can find a color that's in your painting or map. Bring home some decent size fabric samples and we can help you better.

After you get the sofa squared away, I'd start looking at laminate. I think it would look nice if you had all those pieces under the laminate uniform in color so it seems less broken up and busy. I can't tell if they're stained or painted on my monitor. You have a lot going on around the room with your bookcases so I think I would go with something solid or wood grain for the counter tops.

When you start to look at laminate, go to several places because when I was looking, I found that no one store stocked all the samples available in the lines of say, Formica and Wilson Art. If you call the companies once you've narrowed down your selection, they'll send you larger samples than those little pieces at the stores.

There are others here more knowledgeable about window treatment options than I am ,so I won't go there.

Thank you chickadee.

I agree that the desk areas are really busy. I was thinking of painting the birch drawer fronts white to match the other pieces. There's not much I can do about the black file cabinet and computers.

I tried to select a sofa color, but I couldn't decide where to start. We have over 15' of desk top in this room, so the laminate will have as much impact as the sofa.

I think the problem is I'd like a calm room, but I share this space with my collector husband, so that will never happen. This is really his "rumpus room" with my computer station in the front corner. The best I can do is only allow books that fit on the bookshelf and make him store everything else in the closet. I can usually ignore the busyness, but every once in a while it drives me nuts.

I think I will start with colors in the map. That sounds like a good idea. Thanks you for your advice on laminate shopping, too.

Lisa

I dunno, if it's "his" room, then I might pick another space for me to try to make peaceful and quiet. Close the door and leave him with all of his stuff and not look back until he couldn't get the door shut for all of his stuff. With the purplish wall color, I thought of going opposite on the color wheel and doing something in an orangey rusty color with both the sofa and the laminate.

Formica Bronze Rust
{{!gwi}}

Tangelo Halftone ( for something mod)
{{!gwi}}

live wire oak, thank you! You've given me a direction!

DH and I both like your color suggestions a lot. We're thinking the bronze rust or something like it for the laminate and then getting an orange sofa. I like the orange/brown combination and both work with the walls.

I'd love to shut the door and not look back, but we really don't have another space for my computer. This is a two bedroom condo. I get to keep all the other rooms calm and less cluttered. DH only gets one room for his stuff. Believe me, it already looks better than the 1990's builder grade carpeting, dirty white walls and completely uncoordinated furniture. Now we have clean carpet and walls and only partially uncoordinated furniture.

Lisa

Is there enough room to put your computer desk at the end of your husbands desk? That way all would be on one wall. Might have to redo your desk by making it shorter, if possible. Easy chair with lamp could go in front of the bay window or you could get a smaller couch (love seat) and put it there.

grandmaof3,

We tried that, but it was tight. My desk is the long one. DH's is in front of the window. We've had furniture arranged in several configurations through the years and find this one to work the best for us. Also, I used to only have a 4' long desk and am loving all this extra desk space!

This post was edited by ljwrar on Sun, Feb 24, 13 at 22:56