I have no suggestions, but I love your stuff.

Honestly? I always like leaning paintings with one partly obscuring the other. I know it's probably trendy or something but I like it anyway. Kind of like you're a starving attic artist and you have so many of your paintings around that you just have to stack them.

Looking at your first photo…

so I would take the small painting and move it to the left, partially in front of the large painting. Then I would go around the house and look for a small bowl or tray, preferably curvilinear. Either in a light color, like an ivory, or a slightly tarnished silver or brass. Then I would find a few things to put in it. But it should all have an old world look

Where is it? What do/could you use it for?

I'd try to combine it with some Delft ceramics and/or some copper accessories, maybe put plants inside.

love the paintings -- IMO they go very well with your beautiful chest. So glad you dicided NOT to paint it!!

Love the paintings and the chest. Other than that, what mtn said.

Beautiful pieces... the sideboard, art, lamp. I love it all and it goes so well with your wall color. I also like Mtn suggestion!

I think you could get some great ideas from

fortheloveofahouse.blogspot.com

Your pieces and art remind me of some of her vignettes.

I use our sideboard for food, so I wouldn't personally prop paintings on it. It's a good look, though, if you are just staging it. Are you going to use the empty frame for something? If so, right now I would try hanging the portrait to the left on the wall, about 6-8 inches from the sideboard and the left edge an inch or so out from the furniture. I'd then stack the landscape and whatever you put in the other frame. I would shine up the relief on that brass teapot, and put it on a round or oval tray with other interesting objects relating to tea or more general serving utensils or even a small collection of three or four serving bells, perhaps in silver or glass. I wouldn't put a plant there as that sort of marks the location as non functional (to me, anyway).

Somehow my post was truncated....anyway, I like the lamp but it is much too small for that size of sideboard.

Good ideas about stacking the landscape with something. And I do want to find a good print for the empty frame. That's a copper pot, but the flash rendered it very dull. But it does need some buffing up.

The paintings are beautiful, but the only thing I would use is that pretty lamp and perhaps also its companion, and I would veer away from the predictable and choose modern art of some kind, whatever speaks to you, even a strong abstract. The chest is very strong, so the art would have to be too, to stand up to it. It could be one large piece, or a small gallery of pieces. For me what you have, including the teapot, would be too predictable, but since so many people like your choices, you would have to decide what it is that really works for you.

Is this in the dining room?

I like mixing contemporary with old, but I have never been able to find artwork I really loved by looking for a certain size or type for a specific place. I've usually regretted artwork selected on that basis. DO you have anything contemporary?

Your art and the sideboard look beautiful together! And I love the artwork leaning as opposed to being hung. Beautiful pieces!

Ingrid, I hear you. I would like something bold and colorful. I don't have any contemporary artwork, but I'm open to it. I feel the need for color in that room (by the way, this is the LR). I've been wondering if I should change out the silk lampshades and try something colorful.

I'm also wondering about the placement of the sideboard. As you can see, there is a piano on the other wall which makes for two large horizontal pieces in close proximity.

The other half of the room is where the seating is. I've thought about moving the sideboard to the blank wall, but I would have to move out the round table and lamp next to the chair. Ignore the desk behind the sofa. It's temporary.

What a lovely room. The turquoise backs in the bookcase light up the whole room, and the mantel arrangement is beautiful in its simplicity. I don't know that I would change the lamp shades since the base has a color. I suppose it's a crazy idea, but I wonder how the chest would look behind the sofa where the desk is. I do see your point about the proximity to the piano. Is there a way to move the chest further away down that wall?

I see the empty wall to the left in the last picture as a great place to have a gallery of pictures where you can introduce some brighter colors and inject a little edginess to this room. Some rust red or muted orange colors would be a great compliment to the cool blue tones in the room. Your arrangement on the chest is really nice. However, since the picture is not very large you might try hanging it just to see the effect. Sometimes the only way to know is to try different variations. However, it's lovely just as it is too.

Ingrid, I have thought about doing a grouping of pictures on the blank wall, but hadn't considered reds and oranges until just now. Great idea. I'm laughing because I just stuck that picture and potted plant on the mantle for the photo. But now, it's growing on me...... the picture, at least. I had thought I needed a pop of color there, but if I do the colorful picture gallery on the other wall, I could leave this print with its muted colors there. The artist gave it to me and I've never had a place for it. It's title is very fitting: Peace, Be Still! I love looking at it.

The chest/sideboard is too big for the back of the sofa. I thought about doing that when I bought it, but when it was delivered, that idea was out! I would like to have a sofa table that is a little out of the ordinary, but haven't found anything yet.

I'm sure you'll find the right table for behind the couch and you'll know it when you see it. It may even be metal and glass, although you may already have that for a coffee table.

I'm so glad you were already on board with a gallery wall. I imagine you'll be able to find some paintings/prints that also have blue and green in them to tie them to the rest of the room. Your instincts about keeping that painting on the mantel are right on, I think. It will be a serene center and on the right you have the more "busy" bookshelves, balanced out by the more "busy" gallery wall on the other side, which will really balance out the room. That would be such an exciting project.

More turquoise on the sideboard side!

Personally, I'd get a contemporary painting with turquoise and blues, and put your Dutch art somewhere else.

What I love, love love is that you aren't going contemporary (sorry nosoccermom), if I had that piece, I'd be looking for the items you're choosing to give the space a soft easy but lived in feel.

I adore the lamp next to the teapot.....it is so appealing to my eye.

Looks wonderful! You have a nice living room, too.