Your request for help is quite broad and without a lot of specifics. That makes it hard to answer. I'd suggest breaking it down for yourself and for us like this: 1) Before you start choosing finishes, you'll want to solidify your kitchen and likely furniture layout/orientation. You'll get the most help with that if you post a current floor plan of this entire floor drawn to scale with measurements noted on. Your architect might already have a floor plan you can share here, or you could make one with a tape measure and some graph paper. Generally a 1 square = 1 foot or 1 square = 6 inches is a good, usable scale. Please indicate on the plan which sections of which walls are coming down and any other features (good/bad views out certain windows, fireplace, ducting that can't be moved, etc.). Also note anything you'd particularly like to achieve layout-wise (e.g., an island, a view from the island to the TV, etc.). Post that and and people will have enough information to make helpful suggestions. 2) While you're fielding suggestions about your layout, sift through Houzz and Pinterest to find some inspiration pictures you like. Look for rooms that really sing to you and have the kind of appearance or feel you really enjoy in a home and want to achieve here. Once you have found, say, six or more pictures like that, post all of them together on here and ask people to help you review the images and figure out what the commonalities between the pictures are. This will help you identify what specific things you really respond to so you can include those deliberately in your new spaces. 3) After you can articulate what it is your really like and want to bring to this space, THEN repost this question about colors choices and finishes with that information. Provide your final floor plan (the result of #1), explain what specific finishes you like or what you're specifically trying to achieve through finishes (the result of #2), and then ask us how we'd achieve those stylistic preferences in this space that you have planned. You'll get MUCH more targeted, helpful help. Only then will people understand your taste and the space that we've got to work with. THEN they can say helpful things like, "You might like X paint on Y surface with Q backsplash, plus maybe G feature on M wall? That takes advantage of your space for K reasons while adhering to your taste." Also, some side notes: a) I think you'll have an easier time balancing the dining set with styles you prefer if you break up the set across several different rooms. Use the table in the office, the chairs in the dining room, and the hutch in the kitchen or whatever. With all three - the hutch, table, and chairs - together in the dining room (and being the only furniture in that room), the country note you don't seem to be a fan of will inevitably dominate that room. b) I disagree with Sophie that it makes sense to hire an interior designer at this time. When you bring in a professional, you want to have some idea of what you're asking them for. Something you want them to help you achieve. I don't think you have that yet, and free discussion here is a good way to pin down your own thoughts a bit more. c) I don't think whoever said this looked like an inexpensive house meant it in a denigrating way. You mentioned several very large ticket items (kitchen reno and opening up two separate stories of your house), and I think she/he was simply trying to make sure you're not putting more into the house than you can get back when you sell. That can be devastating. But in case that made you feel weird about having posted, rest assured that people post on here with every single kind of house. Is this the grandest house we've ever seen? No. Is it the humblest? Also no. But no one cares. We're all just here because we like improving homes. The starting point really doesn't matter.

Thanks so much for your reply. I was trying to coordinate and yet not compete with the adjoining dining room rug which has similar colors but much bolder. If you zoom into the picture below you can see a patch of it in the right hand corner opposing the sofa. Your suggestion are really nice and appreciated. I see that you used a 9x12 rug. Does you think a 10x14 would be too big?

I would like to begin saying that I love the minimalist aesthetic you have. I’m a less is more person and I don’t like random artwork for the sake of filling walls. With that said, I’d like to see more color warmth on the walls. The buttery white is making it too stark. Have you considered painting? I would try the sectional against the buffet wall to free up the window, and add your teal accents into the window treatment. Eliminate the glass table or move it between the chairs. Add more unique floor lamp lighting near the couch. The buffet can then be moved to the kitchen wall.

@Alyssa - thanks will look for some pics, but mostly bright, formal, traditional - but it depends on lighting. Regarding colors, I've learned the hard way that you just can't go into a room and say e.g. I want to evaluate yellow tones, blue tones, and green tones. Since I believe lighting dictates which color to use. Thus I can't really say which colors I like. The kitchen and office are lighter yellows which are accentuated by sunlight - which to me is uplifting. Light blues and light greens are out for me. Yellows, beiges, ivory, cream, dark reds, dark greens, and grays (obviously) work, but oranges and peaches are too moody to me. Can you recommend furniture placement in the back 10x15' room (which was an office) using pics below? This room has a closet for outerwear (doors are off now) and a small closet with 4' tall door below the stairs -- for storage, suitcases, etc. The furniture in this room is a brown velour sleeper sofa under the windows, a desk on the far wall, and book shelves on the closest wall. I have not hung the artwork yet. About having an office downstairs, I have heard some friends complain about having an office downstairs, like it trashes the look of a house. So while sanding/refinishing the floors over the last month, I moved the desk/computer/books upstairs to an empty bedroom. Should I leave them there? @Jan - I picked up some high quality hand-knotted rugs & pads - one is an Iranian 8x12' made in the 1950s and never used/owned (image above - it's absolutely unreal!), and the other two are Indian (pics below). Also just finished installing red oak clear poly shoe molding everywhere, and touch up painting with small art brushes. Here's an nice Indian green-cream-beige that is an 8x10 for the DR (don't mind all the dirt on the AC intake vent - it's from sanding the floors, I need to pressure wash these outside): Finally the Indian 9x12' in the living room: (fyi - there's a large 3' polished brass fireplace cover which looks like a flower with 12 pedals - not shown. i also just gave the mantle a second coat of oil-based, so nothing's on it).