Congratulations. I love older homes. They are so charming. Take a look at Maidenhome.com for great quality sofas at reasonable prices. All USA made in North Carolina with hardwood and dovetail joints. They have tons of fabrics to chose from.

First, I don't think anyone would judge a 3,000 sqft house to be too small. That's about the average size of a middle class new home today.

Start with a piece that you love - could be art, rug or fabric swatch
and let the other choices coordinate. Leave paint to last since it has
the broadest range of options.

I hope by set of furniture you don't mean all alike. It looks much better to buy separate pieces that coordinate by finish color and have a variety of pieces, be careful to not have all legs or all skirts in a living room. Antique stores would be a great place to start also.

When you are ready for LR do not buy a set of couch, love sit and chair please.

Congrats!! I would say measure 3 times before buying any furniture. Leave enough space for walk ways and walk throughs. Use painters tape to mark of sizes and furniture always feels bigger when in a room. If this is potentially your forever home, spend more or take good care to buy quality pieces (sofa, eg)

My decorator said to choose the items first that have the least colour selection. For example, if you find a piece of art you really love you can't just get it in a different colour. For rugs, size, colour and price are your constraints. Paint comes in infinite options so is at the end.

Artwork, rugs, soft furniture, hard furniture, draperies, accessories, paint

Pick a colors scheme for the house first. Base it on the elements that must stay--floors, kitchen cabinets, fireplace, molding, nice tile, etc. and compare that with the furniture and rugs that you plan to keep. Keeping this in mind will help with later decisions.

I suggest that you make a notebook, either real or on your computer, with all of the parts of this decision including the furniture that you want to use. Then get or make blueprints of the whole house, labelling windows and doors. This will give you a place to start to think about placing your furniture. You might be surprised that your rugs will fit very well.

Once you have the floor plan, measure each of the furniture pieces that you want to use and move them around to a tentative floor plan. That will tell you what you may need to purchase.

Curtains and draperies and paint colors can wait until the other pieces are decided.

Thanks all.

• Funny, I'm so used to living in 1k square feet in Boston, I have no idea what the rest of the country views as normal. I'm excited to have a proper spare bedroom, home office/3rd bedroom and a workout room/4th bedroom! Nice thing with old houses, not a nickle of wasted space.
• Artwork is one of those emotional buys for me. I wander by, I see, I buy. It's never planned. Particularly now, I don't think I'd feel comfortable cruising thru art galleries. But I get the idea.
• Great idea about the notebook. I also need to inventory my stuff. 1/2 of my hard furniture was never unpacked from the move and is still in moving blankets. I think I know what I have :)
• I do have Home Architect software somewhere, I'll have to dig it up, thank you for the layout suggestion. I LOVE designing. And I have used the painters tape layout trick on a previous kitchen :)
• Luckily, all 4 baths (2 of which I will almost never use) are in great shape and I think only need towels and smallwares. But I'll check.
• Kitchen will be a renovation point 2-5 years down the line, so I'm probably not even going to bother painting, it's fine. I'll ignore it for now.
• Good point about the furniture. I only buy the good stuff now that I'm an adult. I've been reading up on the Keeping Room forum. I only wish Schnadig was still in business. My last couch from them (a hand me down) lasted almost 20 years. God I loved that couch.
• Since artwork will be later, sounds like color scheme, then rugs, then LR furniture.
• I think it's the LR that I may need new rugs....I'll be excited to unwrap them in the new house..they will look stunning against the floors :)
• I also read prioritize public spaces and bedroom first. I risk getting paint on the refinished HWF in 2 of the bedrooms, but so be it.
• Keep 'em coming!

Thank you

PS...Great idea about the color palette. Using Adobe Color to hone in on some palettes. Fun stuff.

You sound like you have a plan. Paint will make a world of difference (even a new coat in your kitchen may transform it for the next 2-5 years). If the rooms flow at all (may not given it's an older home), make sure your colors flow too (to a certain extent). And, of course, make any electrical /structural updates first. I think 60/30/10 rule for color is good rule of thumb.

Agree, Gcubed....my old condo was a typical 1920s triple decker, with double doors between the hall entry, LR and DR. Color Palette synch-ing was a must (and fun)!

I envy you -- I'd love a larger house! I had a similar situation, but the house I bought needed lots of serious work first. I left it as empty as reasonable while all the work was done and I was able to do the flooring and clean and paint everything without interference. After that, I'd just pick up rugs and furniture pieces that I saw, when I knew they'd fit me and the house -- both in style and dimensions. e.g., the perfect small secretary for near the front door, the perfect console table for the bank of windows in the DR, etc. I think you have to know your house and how you'll use it before making too many choices. I wanted to experience the lighting in each room, under various conditions, to get a feel for what it/I needed.