Taking Erinsean's idea about adding drywall to the front of the hearth, here are a couple more ideas. I have kept your existing wall decor, but there are certainly other options there as the wall becomes more of a normal backdrop. Here's how it might look if you drywall over the stones and the face of the hearth and then grey was the hearth and put some slate around the opening with a white mantel surround and our Carolina Window Pane Fireplace Door. To achieve this look you would need to float the fireplace opening out with bricks before installing the slate. Here's the same concept without the slate and mantel just using our Legend Fireplace Door with Custom Tuscan Leaf Surround. You cannot use drywall right up to the fireplace opening because it is combustible, so you would need to float the fireplace opening out with bricks and then plaster over the bricks to finish flush with the drywall. Bit of a challenge, but doable. Hansen Wholesale specializes in Custom Fireplace Doors.

If you want to start out by planting in the bed, you'll need about 5 or 6 shrubs, if you choose shrubs that will be about 3-4 feet wide when they are fully grown. I'd take your pictures and measurements to a local nursery, which will be stocked with plants that do well in your area. Be prepared to answer questions about how many hours of sun that the bed gets, which may be different for each side of the bed. Consider staining the wood of the bed edges a dark brown. The focus should be on the plants, not on the edging material. It also looks nice to plant some low edging flowers right along the bed, that will hang over a bit. I like annual white sweet alyssum, which smells nice and also re-seeds itself every year. I would avoid pink and red flowers. I don't think they look good with your brick. Choose white, cream, yellow, blue, purple/mauve. I'd also replace the red cushions on your chairs with a different color. It always looks great when the decor items echo the colors of your flowers.

Trying to find a place to put a large TV is a common problem. Your present TV location is blocking a door and it is a very heavy presence in the room. How about you get a more open, lower, lighter color TV stand and place it under the window? Can you get by without one of the living room chairs? If you move out the green chair to another room, the room will look better once the TV is relocated You can then put the two remaining chairs side by side instead of at their current angled positions. You can put a small table between them to hold a drink, a book, etc. Replace the dark ottoman with two smaller size ottomans that could do double duty as a coffee table or foot ottoman if needed in front of the chairs.

Absolutely beautiful. I love it!!! (Now that you said she's wearing a white dress I blew it up and see it just fine. However on a quick first glance on a small screen it did indeed look like a severed head. I would not recommend changing a thing about it just because of that though. LOL. It's incredibly well done and in person would be a very different experience than on a tiny screen...) You have a great eye. Normally I'm not a fan of black baseboards, but seeing your eye and aesthetic I say go for it. It's not quick, but it's not particularly hard - just tedious. Thank you for sharing with us. If you do tackle the baseboards I'd love to see the after....