You're committing a lot of money in a sofa to match a very inexpensive rug. If you want to do that then go with gray on the sectional. Gray is neutral, and you'll be able to change up the rug later on without a problem.

As a self-admitted 'fabric-a-holic', who sews a lot, my favorite fabric in your options is the one tan on the sofa behind the lamp in this pic. I like it with your rug, too.

It doesn't disappear on the light colored wall at all. I didn't care for your choice when I saw the pic from another site. It looked very different when I could see it on the whole sofa, and a bit 'mannish', striped, and severe. I put it below your rug pic. I also like your pillow with this tan one and feel it is a more neutral choice that would go with many colors.

Thanks for quick replies!

So, it is less about matching that specific rug and more about the colors within it. We like light neutrals (and some dark for contrast just don't want overly dark room) and we like yellow. This rug happens to have both. If/when we replace the rug we simply will look for one that has similar/same color scheme. At least similar neutrals, maybe more bright yellow rather than gold. Not sure.

Regardless, it's just something we know we like. We just need at least one of these variables to be "settled" in order to get somewhere.

In regards to the sofa behind the chair. I actually took a picture with the pillow against that too. Feel free to disregard the pillow since, as mentioned above, the rug doesn't NEED to be used. It's just the one thing we know we like with colors we like so it was easiest thing to bring along and get an idea.

http://imgur.com/a/IaK2k

Ultimately, the sofa is the big purchase to think about now but also trying to get thoughts on the whole picture. Feel free to suggest other rugs, paint colors, and so on. Ultimately, I mentioned it all since I'm just trying to get an idea of living room as a whole. So i think pictures of living rooms and stuff would be helpful. It's one of things I've been looking at. Although beige walls + yellow accents isn't as common as grey + yellow it seems.

Agree with My3dogs. The "tan" colored sofa is, IMO, much more a classic color that you will still enjoy many years from now and the color is one that can go with many other accent colors. Again, IMO, the gray is an ending fad that you would come to regret paying all that money for and end up hating the "thing."

I feel like the pillow screams contemporary while the sofa fabrics seem more traditional. I like the sofa fabrics but I don't like them with the pillow. The pillow seems less sophisticated then the fabrics for the sofa, I can't get the link to the rug to pull up. I know the pillow is just to show colors with the sofas, but it's throwing me off. Is the rug as contemporary as the pillow?

You are very right about the pillow. The rug is I guess not very traditional so it might not go perfectly with something more traditionally styled.

This is the rug but it really is much lighter in color and the design comes off less chaotic in person than from the Birdseye view.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com

It is Target Kaleidoscope rug. Ultimately, the rug is only like $150 so it is replaceable. We just like the color scheme it offers. Plus it is actually a fun and interesting design.

We wouldn't use the matching pillows with these sofas though. Probably just our (coincidentally) herringbone cream pillows and solid yellow pillows.

Anyway, my wife mentioned one thing today. She really thinks maybe going darker (really to that medium shade at minimum) is better since we do plan to have children soon and perhaps animals at some point. We want to avoid eating and animals on sofa but no rules are foolproof. So perhaps a darker sofa is better?

I'm then still leaning on that dark grey/brown herringbone chair I suppose. It is one of the nicer feeling fabrics and the salesperson mentioned it wears very well.

If we went with that though I then wonder how the rug would go (it seems to match the dark charcoal browns in rug) and what to do with the wall color and all other design elements.

Man this stuff is tough!

Thank you all so much for help though.

Jay- I hired an Interior Designer by the hour to do my living room and she asked me a lot of questions like:

What are your favorite colors?

How is the room primarily used?

What is the overall feeling that you want the room to convey?

Are your pets and children hard on things?

Then I showed her a binder I had made of living room pictures that I like and didn't like. While we looked at the pictures together she pointed out that I liked very simple clean lines, light colors and a feeling of serenity. Next she made a plan of how the furniture should be layer out. We went to the store together and she picked the fabrics that I showed her that I liked. She then gave me the dimensions of the side tables that she wanted me to look for at antique stores so that I could save money. I found them and refinished one myself. Then i met with her again and she picked a coffee table and chandelier online and I went and did all the leg work to save money. It cost me around $1000 dollars in total on her. It was so worth it!!! I love the room, it was once a room I hated as the room is not symmetrical, now I love everything about the room. Also, there are fabrics now called Revolution and Krypton- I might be off on the spelling of last one that are stain free. I tested them too, I took spaghetti sauce and soy sauce and put it on the fabric and let it sit and it washed completely off. Many furniture companies now use Revolution fabric so that might be something to consider. I bought a chair in that fabric, and had my dining room chairs recovered in it. Good luck.

I love the chair that my3dogs showed. I would think of that as more classic. I would also do the floors more toward " honey" and steer clear of the current " gray". Everything will always go with the lighter wood floors.

Jay- really look at the style of the sofa and determine:

Do you like track arms (arms that swoop down in a clean line more comtempory) or do you like sock arms (arms that have a more traditional ball shape at the end) or maybe English arms (arms where the cushion comes in front and the arm is lower). When you sit in the sofa do you sit with your back in the corner? If so you need a higher arm to support your back. Do you sit with your legs curled up on the sofa if so you need a deeper sofa. Do you sit traditionally with legs down, if so don't go too deep or you will be uncomfortable. Do you like to lay on the sofa with your head on the arm or a pillow, if so then a English arm wouldn't be best as they have lower arms. How many people are going to regularly sit on the sofa? This is important as most people don't want to sit in the cracks of the cushion. Two cushion pillows denote that if a third person sits on it someone will be in the crack of the cushions. Three cushion sofas are usually safer. Sorry I see that your sofa is larger so you don't have to worry about the bottom cushions. Also, have you thought about the traffic pattern in the room? Does the size sofa you are looking at work with the normal traffic flow of the room? Also what kind of spirit do you have? Are you free-spirited or more traditional? Is your house traditional or mid-century or more contemporary? All these things are important as you want your furnishings to really convey who you are and want to be.

The Interior Designer I worked with really understood me, she grasped that I love simple, elegant and tranquil. She took into account where I am from originally Ca, and really worked around the kind of house I have which is traditional, but that I really like more contemporary and married the two. Furniture is expensive and I am glad that I spent time really figuring out what I wanted, and pieces that worked with the other rooms in the house too, so that there was a cohesive feeling.

sabbath7 asks all the right questions.

i just wanted to add something that might sound counter-intuitive-but sofa in color, not in neutral will have the most staying power..:) Whatever is the neutral of the moment(or rather, the decade?)-sofa in yellow will look good against it, be it white or gray or beige or black..:)

I'm not implying you should buy a yellow sofa(for example), not at all. But people are often preoccupied with having their furniture neutral because it will always work. presumably..while what will always work will most likely be- a color. Another thing is you can get tired of it more quickly, but that's personal-some will get tired eventually of everything, some won't.

So I'm not saying "change your plans"..your choice is very nice..of course go for brown or gray or greige or cream but because you love it..not because it will hold some timeless magic just by being "a neutral". It will for you, if you truly love it for what it is.

Say, I have an aubergine sofa. It looked amazing against the saturated yellow walls in our old home. Now it looks very nice against ..lets call it bone even though it's not exactly, but I don't know how to call this color, lol. It would also look great in cream room, in gray room, in turquoise room, in pink room, in coral red room, etc, etc. You actually can decide and be quite daring with upholstery..much more daring than with flooring for example, that is kinda more permanent and more..place-specific I'd say.