I'm not really sure what your question is. Are you looking for paint color suggestions? If you have some furniture that you're keeping, it would probably be helpful to see a picture of the room w/ the furniture in it.

Is this space intended to be the living room? Is that what you want to use it for, or do you want to use it for something else--home office, play room, TV room? If you can pinpoint what functions the room needs to serve, it will be easier to answer your questions.

Yes. Sorry. Apparently half of my post didn't get entered. So much for my attempt to type it out in word and cut and paste in when I was ready.

I'm stuck on colour choices. I've got paint pots and chips coming out the wazoo and just can't decide. Should we do all the walls the same? Or mix it up a bit with the huge wall.

I feel like I could use a brainstorming session. DH is sick to death of my inability to make a decision and run with it.

I can certainly supply photos of the furniture I'm keeping (although I'm planning on making slip covers, so the colours aren't really that much of an issue).

Thanks,

so what's the function of the room?

I think I would want to see a warm color to balance away the blue Northern light. I don't have many suggestions, but I would suggest that you do not do a gray color, nor a color that has a lot of gray. The color will gain a blue-gray modifier whatever paint you select.

The function would be a living/tv/family/sitting room...

I don't have any current furniture I'm keeping beyond a 42 inch flat screen tv, a 35 gallon fish tank (about 3 feet wide), 2 x 22 inch oval side tables, a 3 foot long oval coffee table and maybe my plush comfy loveseat. I'm buying new furniture over the next few months.

So yes, I guess I'm looking for colour suggestions. Or any creative suggestions for the giant wall. Or colour combination suggestions. Just a spark of an idea to get me started so I can stop hating this room!!

I'd start by adding a handrail made of wood on the iron railing to update it some.

Maybe go and do a creamy yellow. I'd make sure I did the ceiling a shade or two lighter of the same color. It looks like a small room with only the one window for light. So I'd stick to light cheerful colors.
I'd look for reds in my fabric choices, maybe even some blue. Paint first then look for some fabric for the windows.

I would pick out furniture before I painted.

Your room reminds me of the Living Room on Sarah's House, season 1. I'll post a link below, check it out. I like the colors, and the way she treats the stairs, and also addresses the height of the room.

I think even the color pallette she used would look really nice in your space.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sarah's House, season 1 (Just the LR pictures)

What style are we talking about? Any chance you can post pictures of what you're keeping?

I don't think it's necessary to pick out furniture before you paint, as long as you have a color palette decision made. It's easier if you have the furniture first, for many, but certainly not the only route.

I wouldn't replace the stair railing either. If the black spindles don't go with your color palette or style (but they do go with most/many styles), I would try painting just the spindles first. Painted, it wouldn't distract from the handrail.

Since you asked "what would you do" I'll answer what I personally would do.

1. Make a budget of how much I can spend on the entire room project.

2. Find some pics of LR's I love for inspiration.

3. Find a print I'd love to use even it's just for cushions. Or a framed print. Or something I have that I love that *must* be in that room. Looking at drapery fabrics in a fabric store is often a good place for inspiration and I might buy a yard of fabric to use. Shop my house and assemble any decorative colored objects I have to see if there is a color theme I love. Look at well loved items or art I own for inspiration. Choose a paint color (warm color for a north facing room) from the print/art/object and paint walls, do ceiling in a lighter shade of the same color. I believe it's easier to find an inspiration piece from which to choose a color rather than trying to pick one from the thousands (millions) that are available. Paint can be mixed, colors of other things cannot be.

4. Move existing furniture into the room and live with it awhile.

5. Find a large 'something' for the tall wall, whether it's a quilt, a print, or wallpaper applied to the wall and framed with molding. In one house I hung one of those cheap made in India cotton bedspreads which had the tree of life printed on it. Large and colorful and it was the late 60's! This could be done as #3 but it might take some time and I don't believe art has to match. I'd look at a thousand inspiration pics of rooms with tall walls to find something that inspires.

6. Recognize that a good room is never 'finished' - as I find new treasures to add it will take on my personality.

7. Try to get over the idea that I am creating a room for a magazine spread or to post a brag on a forum. What I am doing is creating a room that I will love and my entire family will enjoy living in. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Since your starting from scratch....you need to pick a INSPIRATION room. From that room you can pull color, style, identify what you like...what you don't like.

So....please post a picture of YOUR inspiration room for us.

I don't have any current furniture I'm keeping beyond a 42 inch flat screen tv, a 35 gallon fish tank (about 3 feet wide), 2 x 22 inch oval side tables, a 3 foot long oval coffee table and maybe my plush comfy loveseat. I'm buying new furniture over the next few months.

If you plan to place all of those items in a room that measures 12 x 16, I would put them in and then figure out what needs to be added. Maybe one chair and a console below the TV.

What luckygal said.

I am coming to the end of a long makeover time. The hardest room for us was the living room/dining room combo. The dining room part was fine but the living room side stumped me because it didn't really have a purpose. (We already had a family room where we were spending most of our time.) Once we decided to flip the rooms, the plan came together for me.

So if it were me and that space, I would first figure out what I want to use the room for then I would go through a ton of inspiration pictures. Check out the galley here on on GW and go to Houzz and look at pictures there. Make a folder on your computer for inspiration and just save everything that calls to you. When you do this the idea is not to stop and think about why you like it, just to look and either save it or move on. Once you had a ton of pictures in the folder you can then go back and see where you have the similarities. Was there a certain color that kept calling to you? (This was how I discovered how much I love green walls.) Was there an arrangement that seemed cozy? Etc. I found this to be a really useful exercise in developing my long range ideas about a room.

Good luck!

(You might also want to post some pics of your other rooms and people might chime in with ideas to blend.)

Will you be getting an area rug for the room? If so, I'd start there. Find a rug you love, and pull a color from it.

some suggestions:

1. You don't have heavy moldings/trim work to emphasize
2. There's that nice high ceiling & the interesting angle where the wall meets the ceiling
3. That good big window lets in great light & lends itself to nice decorative draperies
4. That iron railing is interesting. I like the lines and the hand rail on the top. Modern, clean.

I'd go for something contemporary and ethereal to work with the high ceiling, light & spareness: clean lines, pale colors, airy fabrics, painting the trim the same as the wall color, glass, mirrors, a cool contemporary chandelier to play off that height. This example is monochromatic, but isn't necessary to pull off the look:

[modern living room design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2105) by london architect SHH - Spence, Harris, Hogan Associates>