Well the room is morphing into something else. Son likes this cheap "O" jazz mirrored mural, its sorta cool and cheesy at the same time. The furniture was looking a little too mature so I think the mural adds some 20yr old youth and it ties in the black and light gray carpet to the room. It will be spaced and placed behind the sofa and take up a big area. He has a long narrow room that's now limited on space due to the big a$$ chair, difficult having any symmetry so thinking of two matching small bench/stool/ottoman type seating across from chair. I did a layout to scale and sm bench/stools are the only way to get extra seating without blocking the TV viewing. Of course I am now hung up on seating again. I found a sight online called m!dnight velvet; don't know anything about them except they have some low cost slightly unusual stuff. Son doesn't have much room for more side tables (see large coffee table in above post) so we are thinking of the sm head or the tufted ceramic stool/tables below to use as a table and possibly doubling as extra seating (but not sure). The rooms accent colors will need to change as well but we are waiting for the mirror mural for inspiration. Right now we are thinking a purple/blue accent but that could change. Also think we need texture but not sure how to add that unless it's just in some pillows or I come up with another idea for stools/tables/bench. We also decided against black curtains in the living area, might be too much black with the black carpet and black in mirror mural so we bought these pale gold ones from sm@rtbargins. The window is across the room from the big a$$ chair so I was thinking it would look better to have a similar color on the window to balance it out a bit. I'm trying to buy all the furniture from craigslist to stay in my $1,200 budget (not including accessories) but still need a 48" round used dining set. I'm so sick sick sick of looking on CL but have too to keep the cost down. If I see one more ad that says "designer" I'm going to flip a lid! Of course it's designer, someone designed it!!! And don't get me started on "custom" ads. P.S, I'm sorry about these pictures but I'm having trouble with my cable or photobucket and also my overloaded brain so please forgive as I will figure it out later. P.S.S, thank you my friend for helping me look for canvas art, I feel really bad I didn't post the cheesy mural earlier ( but I REALLY thank you all for help and kind words!!! http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/e88f54b5.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/4d8bbec8-1.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/b7267bed-1.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/48ca1471.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c9fd2ac2.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c8a527cd.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c420cee8.jpg" target="_blank">

Love the new table. I would rather see one lamp, tho, something with more shape and substance, rather than a pair of skinny buffet lamps. What happens, imo, with the two lamps is that you end up emphasizing the narrowness of the wall space, rather than letting your eye float past the edges of the wall. Plus, having the two lamps over the two side shelves each with two figurines is too much two-by-two for me. I would like to see a lamp more like this, which I think picks up the greens in the wall and art, as well as the multitude of flower colors. Not crazy about the shade,would prefer something plain. asian inspired lamp I would hang the artwork just a few inches above the cabinet, let the lamp overlap the frame a bit on the left side. Move the figurines to the center for the feel of a collection, and use the side shelves for some books, perhaps a pretty bowl, and maybe a small ivy or fern on one shelf, to pull some color down from the wall and the artwork to the cabinet.

Another here who has both scaled down and clarified my decorating for the holidays. I realized a few years ago that 1) I don't even LIKE red and green(!) 2) living in subtropical Florida the entire classic theme of snowmen, reindeer, frosty whatever was completely irrelevant to our life 3) my passion in decorating and in life is to celebrate the natural beauty and grace of what *is* in this area, ie shells, driftwood, sand and the loveliness of what surrounds us. So...I went through my boxes of stuff collected almost at random through the years and tossed/gave away all of it. Then over the course of several post-holiday sale seasons I zeroed in on what I truly wanted. My colors for decorating are now silver and white-period. I had always done my tree (natural, thankyouverymuch, I had enough of those fakes growing up :), with tropical and nautical ornaments so that was already in place. But I switched from multicolored blinking lights-my husband used to call them my "eat at Joe's Diner" holiday lighting. Now it's clear lights that read white, along with only white/light colored ornaments, silver and glass balls and that is it. No tinsel, no green or red ornaments. Well, a very few special sentimental things like picture ornaments of my kids when they were young. But otherwise, silver, white and tropical tree. As for decorating, I several sparkly gift baskets with shells, one basket of pine cones with a pretty holiday bow on top, pillar candles with some white garlands, a basket spray painted white with glass ornaments heaped, a shell wreath at the front door and a hurricane candle with a garland on top of a silver runner on the dining room table. It's enough. As my daughter commented yesterday when I finished 'Mom, it looks so elegant and classy'. I also splurged this year on a bunch of half-price Bath and Body Works aromatherapy diffusers with holiday scents. So now in the evening I sit in my peaceful LR, watching my beautiful tree, surrounded by my serene and minimal decorating and inhaling the gentle scent of cinnamon, vanilla and balsam--yes I put in all those scents around the living area. And I love it! Ann

Awesome suggestions! I've been sparked! @njmomma: I like this example. As the original buffet comes with a mirror, I don't like it. Perhaps a separate vintage mirror would be nice to reflect some light in the space. Then I can hang pictures around it. @yvonne: I have hordes of pottery and you bring up a good idea; instead of buying more art I should hang my pottery on the wall, after taking off the mirror top. We have quite a few family pictures; in our previous home the buffet was flanked by those vintage items. However as this space has less traffic than the front hallway where I was considering for the family pictures, I'll keep the pottery in this location and the family pictures in the front hallway. @holly: I'm refining my mint favorites. I'm looking at reds, oranges in abstracts and landscapes. However previous suggestions of using pottery may put Minted on the back burner. @tedbixby: yes I have considered putting the wicker chairs on either side of the buffet..To the right of the buffet is a dry sink which is normally in the living room but due to the Christmas tree we had to switch it out with a drop leaf table (which is usually to the right of the buffet under the window). @grover: the room functions as it is. There's a dog pen because we have to pen them when we're gone. We don't use a dining room table, so it doesn't need to function as that. And we have an abundance of antiques but less room than our previous house so we have to find a wall for them. I wish we could put them in storage, but these are my husband's family pieces and he's not interested in doing that. And he's not ready to reduce the inventory, so we have to work with the pieces in the square footage that we have.