Blue rug, yellow walls, taupe couch family room design help

3 years ago

Hello,

My husband and I recently purchased this new couch for our main family/living room (our house is a bi-level and this is where we spend most of our time). I found the rug in the photo that I love and am currently looking for throw pillows in the navy/cream/marigold family. We will also be switching out the heavy square side table, too. We just painted the walls a year ago and we are not going to repaint, so the light yellow will stay.

The main thing that we are disagreeing on is what to put in between the two windows (where the "National Parks Explorers map" is now). I want to put one square framed piece of art (probably something like this) but my husband wants to put something that we have a personal connection to (a nature photo from our travels) instead of just a random piece of art from the internet. I don't know how I feel about having just one large photograph here and would prefer something softer. So then we were thinking of clustering four rectangular photos from our travels to mimic the look of one larger square (or almost square) piece. We looked through our photos and we have several with enough blue and shades of brown to bring the color that we want to the space. However, the problem is that then the photos are too small and you can't really see what the photo is of unless you're standing right in front of them, which kind of defeats the purpose. The distance between the two windows is 48" as is the distance from the top of the couch cushion to the top of the windows.

Also...the windows...a friend suggested some window treatments but I don't really like drapes and someone else though Roman shades but I not a huge fan. I am not married to these espresso blinds that we have now but I am not sure what else to put up that will provide privacy but still let in light. We are the only bi-level in our area that doesn't have a bay window (I've looked!), so much of the light for this room comes in through these two windows. Thus, I don't want to cover up too much of the windows themselves.

Thank you in advance for any ideas!

Featured Answer

Nancy Ingram

3 years ago

First thought is to move the whole seating area down toward the fireplace so the the end table is centered on the far window. My moving the seating area down, you may be able to have a sofa table behind for some lamps. I would look at plantation shutters although if I could convince you I’d go with drapes too. It will help to balance that wall out and add some softness as well as add some visual ‘pop’ if you chose a pattern. With that said, with drapes you wouldn’t need any artwork because the wall space would be taken up by the drapes. I’d remove the mirrored piece to the right by the entry as it looks like it’s floating out in space. I would also consider doing something else other than artwork. There is so much out there like wall planters, metal art, something 3-dimensional. Just an FYI, there are apps like BeCasso that will take an existing photo and turn it into a watercolor, oil paining, pop art. Then you can order it as print, canvas or whatever. I did some mediocre mock-ups so you can get a feel for what some of this would look like. I also included a pic of a house like yours so that you may want to put something in the entry. I wouldn’t two two items just one.