allison0704....just wanted to say I LOVE your den!!! It looks so cozy :o) Sorry..I don't have any pictures to share...I wish I did though. I love tile. Rugs are great at warming up a tiled room. I don't think we'll ever have carpet in our house. We're getting ready to tile our entire finished basement. (I couldn't wait to get rid of the carpet). I plan on having area rugs down there...it is just so hard to find the right one. A friend of mine has tile throughout her entire home. And it looks great. She has area rugs and runners here and there. I could never pull that off though. When she places them...they look like they belong...if I did that...it would like I just needed a place to put a rug! Good luck!

Back again - you all were so helpful that I wanted to update this post (and of course ask a follow-up question!) I wound up disobeying the GW mandate after my husband balked at the pair of tables. He is anti-anything that seems rustic, and his OCD-ness seemed to kick in with respect to the chore of aligning multiples. I spent the past few weeks freakishly obsessed over this, and wound up back at the giant furniture place in the way hinterlands of Northern Virginia and came back with something totally different. I found a floor model of a marble/composite table by Bernhardt; it's a matte beige color, which wasn't my original intent. But it satisfied the main criteria of being reasonably Lego-proof and Windex-resistant, and it will enable a lot of kid activity without overwhelming the room. Plus it kind of classes the place up, or at least doesn't make it feel any more ramshackle than it already is. Since the table legs are brushed gold, I'm going to replace the mirrors on either side of the window. Here's my new question! I also need to rethink the overhead light I'd picked which was to replace an old ceiling fan. I have a chandelier fetish, but am trying to hold myself back due to 8ft ceilings. This one below seems like a safe choice and it would actually light the room well, but is it too colonial looking? Or this one (which is only slightly goldish... maybe that's better?) This one totally calls to me (19" high; could I ceiling mount it?)

I think the colors currently on the walls work fine. I might suggest however that you remove all the small understated wall and sparsely spaced pieces replacing larger more intentional ones for impact. If you opt to keep the art and pictures on the walls they need to come down to eye level height. Rather than painting entire walls you could paint the transitional walls like a bridge (the one by the stairs and the one by the front door). You could go with a latte, coral, grey, or gold. Good luck.

I'd do: -a sideboard between two windows. Craigslist is an amazing idea as is Danish modern..problem is won't be for a song anymore since the sellers picked up it's hot (and nobody knows that I -well and probably some other people LOL- understood it 7 years earlier when all the vintage from these decades started naturally appearing in second hand stores and estate sales as the owners grew older and older and had to part with their stuff)..so try to compare the prices-everything mcm is, like, automatically twice, triple price of other pieces since it's mcm..especially when somebody's refurbished it. Still, very well worth checking into..saw totally amazing(was very hard not to write it in caps..ok still going to do that: AMAZING) credenza/dresser, wood plus white, rounded, great condition, leather handles, very tastefully done, looks like new..they wanted 500 for it which is great considering the piece itself, and the prices on this style right now..the owners probably weren't fans and just wanted it gone..and of course it was gone in a day. Hell I'd buy it myself -I just couldn't think of space to put it. Sorry that was long..just to repeat the Craigslist/vintage advice..and not to be surprised about the price discrepancy..I'd still hunt mcm since I simply love it..but there are many interesting things out there that can work. (if somebody asks me-I know nobody does, but just in case-buy armoires guys..while you can..they'll be all the rage very soon)) -an art above the said sideboard -shelves on the opposite wall. I mean if you feel a need for shelves..books etc. It can hold also other collections. And plants. And art. Slim shelves, great storage, great impact. But I love books everywhere including dining so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. Shelves can be used for many things though, as I've said. I don't like when they say "Conversation piece" but some pieces are like that. Once we had a laugh for twenty minutes over some improvised ashtray-it was a weird pottery piece. -corners? A tree/bigger plants would do great there. Indirect light. Lots of it. Not kidding..they'll thrive. Put the smaller ones you own already on the taller shelf-here's your corner. Or they have to be in front of the window? Depends on the plants of course. But bottom line-I'd play with plants arrangements there you don't need to fill up the whole room..as much as I'm into stuff I need some negative space as they call it..figure out your level of comfort as you go Also the more you consolidate in one place-art, credenza, shelves, etc-the emptier the other can afford to be. Just balance it out. -I'd repeat the white of the chairs somewhere..sideboard as was said or accessories..say even white ceramics or white mats in art? Center piece(ok hate this word too but whatever) in white, like a vase? I'm into vases lately..some are so indefinitely cool..and you can do pattern too..white plus something. White plus brown will be amazing too..picks up the wood and the upholstery. -Wouldn't paint the table-I think it's too nice as it is now Well..sorry for the lengthy post ..I wish you a fun and meaningful decorating!