Handsforas1, I think your floorplans are a good start. They will show you what works and what doesn't work, what will fit and what won't in your rooms. But the placement of furniture is only part of the process. As graywings points out, there's a lot more to home decorating. I think what you are really looking for is a styleboard. That's where you put all the elements of the room together to see if they harmonize. To start a style board for your living room, copy the picture of your planned sofa, in the color fabric that you are thinking of, into a Word document. Add in pictures of the furniture and other things that you have that you are keeping. Then, as you search the web and catalogs and stores, you'll find a rug you like, curtains you like, side tables and coffee tables and artwork and lamps and paint colors that you like. Copy those images to the same document. That will give you a feel for how the things in the room will work together (or not), at least as far as color and style go. You can make as many styleboards as you like.

From a site called City Cows... "Whenever cowhide skin rugs and carpets are bundled and sent the cowhide skin can sometimes have the tendency to obtain a number of folding mark and creases. Over time and in usual use on the floors the cowhide skin rug wrinkles should come out naturally nevertheless if you want to possess a super smooth cowhide skin carpet straight away then there is an effortless way utilizing a household iron to make sure your cowhide rug or carpet appears pristine and perfect as soon as you place it on your floor. Equipment you will need Good size towel Wet flannel or fabric Household iron Cowhide skin rug or carpet Put your cowhide skin rug or carpet on the floorboards over the top of the towel. The objective of having the towel on the floor is to safeguard your own floor covering from any possible damage that the iron’s temperature could possibly cause. Plug in the iron - using an extension electrical power cord if needed and set the iron to the highest heat setting. Set a soaked flannel (or similarly soaked tea bath towel or other clean lint free cloth) over the cowhide rug or carpet and work the flat iron over any wrinkles within the hide in the identical manner you would do when pressing clothes. Make certain the iron moves rapidly over the area of the cowhide skin required and apply this only for the bare minimum time necessary to eliminate the wrinkles in the hide. You will find very rapidly that this procedure is a quick and successful approach to make certain you have a crease free and excellent cowhide skin rug or carpet from the off. Allow the cowhide skin rug to cool before you put it back in your desired position upon the floor. You can repeat this course of action frequently with the steam function of the iron if needed as a clean, chemical free manner to fumigate your own cowhide and retain the hide in a beautiful ��" ‘just bought’ condition. When steaming the cowhide skin you can place the flat iron over the cowhide skin carpet and direct steam jets straight at especially dirty spots.This is an excellent approach to remove every cowhide rug’s worst nightmare - trapped in chewing gum. In a number of circumstances this procedure may perhaps prove insufficient to remove particularly persistent creases from the cowhide and this can end up being a function of the means the cowhide was dried following the tanning procedure. These types of problems are minimal and you shouldn’t be concerned about them - cowhide is a natural product and branding iron marks, small marks and tears are usually a typical component of some of each of these types of unique pieces. However at City Cows we pride ourselves at sourcing and choosing only the best quality hides and you can rest assured that cowhide skins we sell will not have these sorts of problems. Cowhides rugs tend to be distinctively individual pieces and an outstanding addition to any design of household décor from the traditional ranch home to the ultra modern urban residences and when bought carefully from trustworthy importers and companies such as City Cows and cared for sensitively can provide just about a life time of joy and use."

I've been looking at some other rugs - all styles. I do not mind a rug that is a little more traditional - I think DH prefers something a little more contemporary - but not too much so. So now I am confused... we are on a budget - big time.. so trying to find reasonably priced rugs that don't look cheap. Thats why I was looking at JCP. The above "patchwork" like rug will be around 20 shipped. So I am using that as a guideline. Was looking at a rug link from another post and found a bunch of 5x8 on clearance that are a bit more traditional but couln't find anything in 8x10 for the large part of the room. I don;t think I can mic these more traditional with the one above.. here is what I found that I liked - do you have any other suggestions as to what might work.. Please help!! These are from Rugs USA 5' x 8' Wool Hand Tufted Panel Multi Rug ($129) 5' x 8' Wool Machine Made Heritage II Brown Rug ($164 +30%off) 5' x 8' Wool Hand Tufted Dami Brown Rug ($177+30%off) Like the style unsure of colors. 5' x 8' Wool Machine Made Kingdom Tan Rug ($164+30% off) These are all for the area where we have our desk - Please Help if you have any other suggestions. Also - just a side not - we have attempted to layout this room 3 times and nothing seems to work great. We are considering trying to look at other furniture options if we can sell ours for a decent amount to cover the costs. Thanks, Ruth

IMO it's not a funny quirk at all, totally understandable. We had a hobby farm raising cattle and sheep for meat for years. At first I had to convince myself to eat the meat but since I wasn't planning to be a vegetarian I did eat the meat of the animals we raised rather than sell it and buy meat that others had raised perhaps not as well. Our daughter was in 4H for years so our animals were raised almost like pets. We knew what they ate and they were stressed as little as possible so it was very good quality meat. When we quit the hobby farm I couldn't bring myself to eat the first cow we had raised tho so donated the meat to the food bank. I had been with her when she delivered many calves and we had a personal relationship. I currently have the hide of one of my DD's first 4H projects and don't walk on it but use it as a cover on a large end table. It has good memories for me as he was well cared for and had a good life for a short time. In recent years I've become almost vegetarian partly because of my experiences of raising animals for meat. I prefer wild meat for health reasons. Still wearing leather shoes tho.