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Blank Slate - Help me decorate my formal Living/Dining Room (pics

Valerie Noronha
16 years ago

Our remodel is now "complete" and I need to furnish/decorate my living and dining rooms. The bones are there and I'd really like them to look welcoming for the holidays and I'm planning to host Thanksgiving this year. I will be starting off with furniture, window treatments and area rugs. You enter the house through a formal entry and the living room is on one side and the dining on the other so I would like all three rooms to have a similar color scheme.

Living Room:

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Dining Room:

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So far, I've tied in the living room accent wall to the granite top on the dining room buffet; both the entry floor and fireplace surround are travertine and all fixtures are with a bronze finish. As you can see, both rooms face the street so having window treatments that fully close is very important.

Living room: As we have a separate family room, this room will mostly be used for entertaining so seating for conversation is very impt. I'm thinking of grouping seating around the fireplace--a sofa on one side, then two armchairs (with patterned fabric) on the other with a coffee table in between and a small table between the two arm chairs. This would leave wall space for the piano (is this the best spot?) and a curio cabinet as well as the Christmas tree. Am I on the right track or would you suggest something else? Need suggestions for colors for sofa and how to combine with the arm chairs. Living room accent wall looks more like the first picture than the second. Area rug? We put in accent lighting to point at the wall over the mantel so this would be a focal point for an art work. I will probably do this later and take our time to choose a nice piece. We can always so some temporary candles, greenery to dress it up for the holidays.

Dining room: Basically this will be a new table/chairs. I'm thinking something in a dark wood so as to provide a contrast with the white buffet. Also will put a area rug below the dining set, but am confused what size. I'd like it large enough where the chairs stay on carpet when puchsed in/out since I don't like the chairs scraping on the hardwood floor. Is there a rule of thumb on this?

Window treatments: This is the area that I am the most stumped since the living room window in particular is very wide. Wuold it better to choose window treatments or sofa/chairs first? I would like to do identical treatments in both rooms and something formal at the same time contemporary. I am thinking something like a bronze/gold silk that would act as more of a neutral backdrop and bring in splashes of color via pillows, paint, accessories. Pinch pleat is not my favorite style, but idt does seem most practical for wide windows where the drapes open/close daily. I was wondering perhaps getting a valance to hide the pleats, though I do in general like the more contemporary styles with the back-tabs; however, am concerned both to see the big wide rod spanning the entire width when the drapes are open and the ease of opening/closing. Before we had sheers under the drapes and it did provide additional privacy during the daytime. Not sure I'd like it in the bay window where I want to be able to display collectables on the window seat so will probably skip for living room to maintain the flow between rooms. We are on a budget since this is the tail end of a remodel at the same time I would like it to be good quality. I am debating if it'd be worthwhile to have JC Penney come in for custom window treatments since they have the 60% off sale going on.

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