For #1, I agree with deeinohio.

For #3, I'd move everything down and put the small picture that's at the bottom in the after photo at the top instead. It looks top-heavy as it is, but you're on the right track. Here's a very rough sketch, although I think I'd reverse the lower and upper pictures on the two sides also, so the heavier frames would be lower:

ETA I'd also center over the sofa rather than center on the wall.

On one and two, I like the afters best. On three, I would do exactly as writersblock said.

I agree with arkansas girl...

Your house is lovely, and I think it's good to change things around every once in a while to freshen the look. However, it would take a lot of editing to change it from the English country traditional look.

Good to see you back, Ingrid! While your decor is beautiful for an English country traditional look, I'm just not sure how exchanging one or two of your pieces for another English country traditional one is going to lessen the ambience. What is your ultimate goal now that you've been bitten by the changing/fixing bug and how far do you intend to go with it?

I like the changes you've done in the first set of photos, but I don't like the little vase sitting on the floor as that looks to me like something to accidentally kick over.

I prefer the way you had the pictures hung initially over the loveseat.

IdaClaire, I should have said the little vase on the floor is there because the Christmas tree is on the cabinet on which it ordinarily sits. It may not look like much but it's a 19th century Gu crackle vase with a raised dragon motif and did not have a Walmart price. I don't think I can go back to your favorite version of the paintings because after a while it felt the way it does when you've eaten a half dozen donuts, just too rich and too much.

writersblock, my husband and I both really like your version with the duck painting at the top (it's one my husband painted). What the heck, more holes in my walls couldn't possibly matter since they're all riddled with them. But thank you for the suggestion, it's one we're going to follow.

graywings and pandtkendall, your comments are food for thought. What I want is a modified English look, with a bit more angularity to give a more streamlined look. The Limoges fish set with the wavy rims which you can see in several of the photos I would like to sell, although I'm afraid I won't get close to what I paid for it. Nevertheless, it's going to have to go. The paintings and Chinese porcelain will stay, and that alone to a large extent dictates the style of the interiors, as do the rugs and my love of rich colors. That's the environment that makes me feel cozy and happy, but over time I will be taking baby steps to stretch my horizons a little.

Thanks so much, everyone, for your input. It's been truly helpful.

I hope my comment didn't sound as though I thought the vase on the floor looked cheap. It's lovely and that it does have value is all the more reason to find another place to put it where it can be seen as it deserves to be, even if it's just been temporarily displaced.

:-)

I've decided to try and sell my Limoges fish set and took it
all out of the room. The walls look rather bare, what do you all
think? The last two pictures show the set laid out on the dining table
to be photographed for e-bay.

I do like it better without. I must admit that your "things" really speak "English Country" even when you change them around -- they are just "English Country" things. That being said, I do LOVE your things and your house -- it's warm and comforting.

Ida, no worries, it's actually my husband who put the vase on the floor there, but the Christmas tree is coming down shortly and the vase will be back home.

Martha, I'm afraid you're right, the house does have that vibe and unless I throw out most of my stuff I suppose it always will. It must be the real me and I'd better accept it. I do agree that the room looks better without the plates. I think it wouldn't hurt to declutter a little more here and there as I go along.

Success! (I think) I tried writersblock's idea of placing the pictures, but found that the duck painting at the top just looked too heavy. I found a drawing my husband had done and the lighter look puts more focus on the main painting, the French landscape. The duck found a home in an empty corner of the same room. Having lived through years of drought in southern California, I just had to take a picture of the rainy landscape outside. That's happiness!

I know you love your Asian pieces, but they seem to be competing with the look you're trying to achieve. If they were displayed as one grouping on shelves (larger than the bookcase next to the umbrella stand) they wouldn't look disoriented. Not sure if that's a pun or not!

Have to agree. Those plates are gorgeous. I also agree to display your Asian collection a little more together

Hello Ingrid!

Your Limoges plates are just gorgeous. Are you absolutely sure they need a different home?

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Thank you for your photo of your garden in the rain.

There's something so magical with these sustained winter rains. A steady gentle rain transforms our parched wind-wracked gardens into patches of wonder. The coming of (always early) spring seems so promising. Perhaps the start of our winter rains, initiating our growing season, is akin to the spring thaw in colder climates.

.

Finally, we are having a "normal" winter -- no El Niño, no La Niña, just our average rainfall. I love it!

you know i love your home..well now i love the outside as well. what a gorgeous garden and a view. incredibly beautiful place. i'm happy about the rain too..less happy about the "cold" lol. even though i was looking forward to it.

I love those fish plates too, and believe me that is saying a lot since I have a bona fide fish phobia! They're gorgeous though, and I think they work in pretty much any setting.

I love those Limoges plates too! They'd be stunning displayed on a small wall as the only subject.

I would like to see the plate collection in the bookcase (or the Limoges plates) moved into a wall-hung display shelf. The plain small bookcase doesn't do them justice when they are below waist level and even at floor level. We have a three-shelf plate rack for my great grandmother's hand-painted Limoges and Bavarian plates and cups and saucers from the late 1800s and DH's mother's Dragonware. A shelf needs something under it for balance, and I like the idea of a wide bench under the shelves, which would be nice by the door too.

I'm sorry, but the Limoges set will go; I've enjoyed it for some years but now feel the need to move on. I so agree about the cheap bookcase not being right for displaying porcelain; it was just something we happened to have. These are mostly less special pieces; the better pieces are in the bookcase shown below, which however needs to be painted. When you have over a hundred pieces they will necessarily be displayed in more than one place, which is how I prefer it because I enjoy seeing them wherever I happen to be in the house. I thought I would also add a garden picture when the garden is blooming; I hope you don't mind my putting outside pictures in a decorating forum.

I think it's divine..no, we don't mind at all))

I kinda get you about the Limoges set..maybe because I'm stumped myself, having just moved to the new place, suddenly feeling differently about several pieces of art, some older ones...(and I lost one box of ceramics too..hopefully I'll find it..)..for now I just leaned everything everywhere possible, and am trying to figure out why it's happening at all. Part of me wants to blame it on new blank walls syndrome; another part, though, wants to blame it on you guys, since here I first heard about Saatchi Art..and I fell in love with an amazing work there..it's a portrait..and I couldn't rest until I got it and it's too special to me..it's too personal as well so will stay in the bedroom..but in my head, it moved half of other pieces I owned and loved, into some background. It hit me too deeply..so I sit and don't know what I will do with all this. So, so strange.

I also noticed the small etagere is too small, but you'll find something bigger eventually.

I'm very intrigued by the outside-and inside of your home. They work together so well, being so seemingly different..I try to think of what makes this incredible harmony possible. For now, my answer probably is "the owner"..))

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings which so resonate with me. I can't tell you how often I've moved paintings around, especially after buying a new one; everything would be chaos until I could manage to have it make sense again. Very few people would understand, but there has to be balance and harmony, and yet hopefully also an element of the unexpected. In your case I would first of all find a perfect place for the Saatchi. I'm not sure that I could hide something so powerful in the bedroom, but do what's right for you. I use small nails for all but the largest pictures and the walls are riddled with holes, many fortunately hidden by the newer arrangements and the rest not that noticeable. Do the best you can right now and get everything on the walls. It takes time to find the right placement, and even then you may change your mind. It doesn't matter, and the process of rehanging and perhaps editing can be a very creative and enjoyable one.

I'm flattered by your lovely complement. I think the inside and the outside both show a love of color and abundance which is tempered by some restraint and linearity. Without any conscious forethought I have many antique roses that have their origins in China to match the Chinese porcelain within. The garden overall has an informal English feel and I think the house does too, in spite of the Mediterranean climate setting. All of it reflects who I am, as does any home and garden that is well-loved, thought about and sometimes agonized over.

I love your fishes set too. What a beautiful set. I can only wish I could afford it. Looks like it is in rather current colors as well. Hope you get a fabulous price for the collection

Do you have the fish set on eBay yet? It would be perfect with my coastal decor.

pandtkendall, you can contact me at houzz by clicking on my picture on the left. I haven't actually listed it yet, and would be happy to talk to you about it. It certainly would be less work to sell it privately than to list it and I would take that into consideration. Kippy, of course the same holds true for you. I've missed you on the roses forums.

Thank you for that consideration, Ingrid. It would be perfect, but since we have downsized with this new house I am out of wall space and storage space!

Ingrid, I would dearly love to buy your fishes set, but I have been busy fixing up moms house the past year and a half and just don't have the budget for buy.

i have gotten my rose fix on Facebook lately. It was too sad to see all of the beautiful gardens while being covered in saw dust-paint-spackle and knowing my garden was on its own.

editing my own belonging to move in with my mom has been very hard. She has dementia so there is no reasoning with her that I had a home and my own thingns too. And much newer, clean and higher quality.

I can just see your fishes on my wall. But that has to stay a mental picture only

sorry for the many edits. Mom does not understand my computer so it stays at the office and after all the heavy work I am having a hard time with the iPhone keyboard