First off you have nice pieces to work with so that's great. The room has a nice balance to it so all it needs is tweaking. I love the aqua print fabric, yes make the pillows and it will look great. As for the chest, I love the idea of using it. You can remove the top drawer front and put them on piano hinges and put your cable box etc. in it. As for painting it for the color you can go many ways. What colors do you like? Aqua is very very popular now and would look lovely but the right shade is really important. I like the drapes, they're interesting. Who does the lovely paintings? I love the one of the marshes near the stair well. I'd have that framed to add more punch. Others will come on board for more advice. I would paint the coffee table to eliminate some of the wood, at least the top of it. Again, get some paint color strips and hold them up and see if you like them in the room. It's really what you like that counts. I never tire of seeing aqua but that's me. Good luck, I'll be watching the thread.

Given how expensive things are these days, I would focus on saving my money for the big move and do only what is necessary and/or will help with the staging for the move. I would not put a lot of money into furniture that may not work in the new place.

I actually like the wall color and think it would work in your favor for staging. I do agree there is too much brown and would do what I can to minimize and offset that. I like the dresser for the TV and put the sofa table with lamps where it was.

I would change the curtains to something brighter and put matching curtains on the window by the stairs. There is something very heavy looking about the curtain rods, so I might swap those out.

The paintings are very colorful and I could see using them as inspiration for the accent colors in the room. I would make a grouping of them and use that to fill the wall by the TV once the armoire is gone....then using some of the blues and greens for maybe a throw on the sofa, pillows like you suggest.

The lamp looks squat for the delicate table it's on...perhaps something taller and thinner. I'd get big wicker baskets to put under the pew for storage of the stuff that's inevitably going to land there.

Others will chime in as well, I'm sure.

I would get rid of the wicker chair; it looks lost there. Move the TV down just a tad toward where the armoire currently is. The recliner just looks jammed in next to the sofa. I would angle it in front of the window on the TV wall, facing into the room and add a colorful throw and a floor lamp if you have one. The drapes are nice but I feel that they're too similar with the brick on the FP. I would go for a solid color in the blue that you bring in.

thanks for all the input so far! It's so great to get a fresh perspective on things. I feel like I stare at this space all day long and get stuck in a rut. ugh.

yayagal - The paintings were actually done by me :) thanks for the compliment! I just do them on cheapie michaels canvas and never really thought them frame worthy, but maybe I should reconsider? I might try to restrip the coffee table down and go for a light driftwood color on top then paint the base a linen white? Would a driftwood gray work for the dresser? I do love gray (since it's so popular right now) but am wary to mix it in with all my brown. Or should I do a linen white for the dresser as well? I do also really love the emerald green color (similar to the colors in the large painting on my fireplace. Would that be too crazy for the dresser?

Annie - thanks for your thoughts as well. You're right about the curtain rods. Never really noticed that before. Yes, I definitely won't spend a ton of $$ on anything. We are VERY frugal people. Do you think I should put artwork on both sides of the tv or just the left side? I love your ideas for storage under my pew. I'll work on that asap!

gracie - yes, I abhor the little wicker chair. It's going back downstairs as well. And we're on the same page about the recliner. However that's dh's chair and it has to stay where he can see the tv unfortunately. Probably when we go to stage though I will move it to the corner.

I'll try to post a pick later of the kitchen/dining area so you can get a feel for the whole space...

please keep the comments coming - they are so helpful! thank you!

For most impact, group the pics together...esp since once the armoire is gone, there will be even more wall space.

Another thing I would do is rehang the mirror over the fireplace....it may be as simple as turning it upside down if its on a wire. When the pic is hung normally, it tilts slightly up so when you look in the mirror, all you see is ceiling. If you hang it such that the wire is below the midpoint, it tilts the mirror slightly down and it will reflect the room.

Could you move the wicker trunk and gum ball machine somewhere else and put a console table behind the sofa? Perhaps you could use the table that the TV is presently sitting on. Since these are the first things you see when you open the entry door, they really do not make the best first impression.

I would love to see your artwork better displayed in a grouping some place in the room, perhaps on either side, (or both), of the TV. If you don�t have enough, paint some more! Driftwood frames would look good on both landscapes, I believe.

Yes to the idea of curtains for the window by the door. I would use whatever matches the curtains you have in the rest of the room, whether it be the ones you already have, or new ones.

Yes to having the coffee table and the dresser for the TV painted or stained in the same color - I love the driftwood idea for both. Yes to bringing in aqua accents in pillows. No to the emerald green for the dresser. Yes to putting the white slips back on the upholstered furniture.

I would move both sofas back so that only the front legs sit on the carpet. Keeping all the furniture on the inlaid carpet makes it feel like there is a fence there and all the furniture is corraled inside the enclosure! Moving the sofas back will make the carpet feel/look more like an area rug and open up the space between each piece.

Laura certainly gray goes with brown. If you chose to do it gray look for directions on dry brushing white over it to give it driftwood look, then do what Nanny2a suggested and frame your work in driftwood frames. Of course they're worthy of framing. Your work is lovely. More will chime in I'm sure so keep checking the post.

Great suggestions, nanny and chispa...the recliner looks too crammed up against the fireplace and moving it back will give it more breathing room. Perhaps move the big wicker basket under the window to fill that space and saves buying a desk for that area.

thanks again for all the great ideas! I never even thought of pulling the furniture off the carpet a little. I will try that out tomorrow to see how it looks.

Do you think all the paintings should be framed or would it be ok to mix in some unframed with framed? I know frames can cost big bucks sometimes...

Also, any ideas on other fabrics I can mix in with the robert allen ikat? I want to mix some in over on the church pew as well. I feel like I need a few modern geometrics or something to bring in some punch.

Here is the pics of my kitchen & dining. I'm really tired of the stuff up on top of my cabs. I know it's so hard to get that right and I'm thinking of taking everything down and maybe just putting up one giant piece of art or maybe painting some giant words on a canvas, like 'Grocery'; or "Choose joy." or something whimsical...

{{!gwi}}

The dining area is a hot mess. The table is a stand in until we get to the new place. Do you think a round pedestal table would look better? I'm hunting a cheapie on CL. Also, the big black armoire on the right is my computer space so it has to stay (which throws off the whole balance of the space! grr). Then, I'm thinking of doing some diy roman shades for those windows. The bamboo ones are horrible and let too much light in while we're eating anyway. And I really want to bring in some pattern to this space. Any ideas of coordinating fabric over here?
{{!gwi}}

thanks again so much!