Thanks for the thought provoking questions and comments. The door between the kitchen and living room is open most of the time and there is a lot of traffic between the two rooms, so I think that I need to coordinate the color schemes. On second thought, it may be the boldness of the print in the kitchen which I dislike more than the colors. I prefer a softer look. The living room is painted paneling. I wonder how it would look to put up a chair rail in the living room and paint the wall below the chair rail a green, blue or taupe which matches the wallpaper in the kitchen but maybe in a lighter tint? A chair rail might look strange with the vaulted ceilings though. There would be one-third color on the bottom of the wall and two-thirds off-white on the top. Is the chair rail a good idea or do any of you have other suggestions? If I go with green, blue or taupe wall color beneath the chair rail and keep the off-white color above, what color sofa would look good with each color -- green would look good with sofa color? -- blue would look good with sofa color ? etc. When I look at the maple furniture against the off-white walls, I think that has a harsh look. I would like it to look softer, but am just not sure what color would accomplish that. You may be getting the idea by now that I'm color challenged -- LOL The current rug in the room is taupe and burgundy (it does look a bit gray in the picture). I do intend to replace the rug with a much larger rug -- probably 9 X 12. I like the maple furniture because it's what I grew up with. My mother and aunts have this type of furniture in their homes. But, a friend of mine recently suggested that the furniture is a little dated. So, I just wanted some other opinions about whether I should think about replacing this. I was looking for solutions to the fireplace and came across a web site called Brick Anew -- http://www.brick-anew.com/. Any opinions or experience with this product? I like the suggestion of covering over the brick, but it's probably not in my budget right now. Maybe Brick Anew would be a short-term solution and later I can box in the fireplace.

You have pretty things to work with, Love. If you find a seagrass or neutral type rug, a pretty patterned chair would look so charming! You can accent with patterned throw pillows as well. Do you have something that could be used for a focal point? Maybe your piano?? As "Bannie" mentioned, I have a similar room and used a faux FP as the focal point. Then I added a round mirror and small sconces. Excuse my old pix, but hopefully they will help you. This will be such a fun project for you!!

The built-in is beautiful. I have never seen an application like that. Unfortunately, it only accentuates the vault and all that wall with NOTHING. SOOO much wall and really nothing to be done with it. Interesting visual--your clocks, but I think they would make a bigger statement if displayed closer together. To me shelves are for books--mostly so I want to see a few of yours with some books, just because that is expected. The larger couch does appear to be too far away to really watch TV from. What is behind it? Is that a wall? Perhaps moving it in a closer L with the love seat would cozy things up and give you a new space for a games table or sofa table?

Could you center the couch w/ the window and move the chair (angled) to the opposite end? That way, someone could see the tv from the chair as well.