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Home Decorating Furniture Design Dilemma

Ways to lighten and modernize traditional living room

McLauren Foster

2 years ago

Hi, We have a brown leather couch that works great for our kids and casual living. But we have also inherited a beautiful oriental style rug, and several dark furniture pieces that make the room more formal than I would like. We bought some Ikea (bentwood) chairs to bring in some modern. I think now we need lamps and styling to finish it all up. Can you guys help? In the pics I"m uploading there is a red floral chair- it is now being recovered in navy, tone on tone like a herringbone. Thinking blue/cream pillows on the couch and blue/black/cream bolsters or pillows on the two bentwood chairs. But deco on the mantel? lamps? How can we lighten up and make the room

more modern?

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Comments (5)

houssaon
2 years ago
Can the hutch go in the dining room or the kitchen? I think painting the walls a creamy white would make the space seem lighter.
McLauren Foster thanked houssaon
apple_pie_order
2 years ago
The dark furniture pieces are making the room darker. The soon-to-be-navy chair will be darker still. If you want to lighten up, you can take several steps. Choose a different (light) fabric for reupholstering the chair. Exchange the dark Poang chair pads for lighter ones. Pick up all the objects smaller than a basketball and put them away for a few months. The magazines and books you can sort through during your usual routine.

If you just got all the antique things, and you don't yet know how much you like them, try getting used to them for a few months. Then rate them A, B , C or F. Don't spend your life taking care of things you don't like. It's okay to donate or sell them.
McLauren Foster thanked apple_pie_order
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Love the color and style of your new WE sofa. We have a mix of styles in our LR, and have used accessories, etc. to bridge certain gaps that have presented themselves. However, I would not use that height chair combo with your sofa. Also, painting and/or shortening the legs of the chairs, don't really seem to be great options either. My leather sofa in the LR has sort squared legs, but it came that way. I don't think I would alter a brand new sofa in order to make it work with CL chairs. You've just purchased an awesome sofa, would it be possible to wait until you come across chairs that would complement your sofa as opposed to trying to make do with the wrong height chairs? Not sure if you've already purchased these, but in the event you have, could they be purposed in a reading nook in the master BR, or somewhere else in your house? I know how it feels when you really want to make something work, but I think these chairs miss the mark with your new sofa. Scale is definitely an important factor when planning/decorating a room. IMHO, unfortunately, these chairs don't work from either a style or scale standpoint.
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Regarding your question about changing the table vs chairs: In my opinion, keeping the table and replacing the chairs with something significantly more streamlined would have the biggest impact (vs replacing the table). While my room is quite different than yours, I have a fairly similar traditional vintage dining table and have paired it with more contemporary styled chairs. I think the chairs you have now are so overtly formal and traditional that they would be hard to overcome with just changing the table. Also, you could add some lightness by choosing something upholstered in a lighter or even colorful fabric. https://www.potterybarn.com/products/pb-comfort-square-side-upholstered-dining-chairs/ https://www.potterybarn.com/products/alcott-dining-chair-set-mp/ I know you said you do not want a rug and obviously that is your choice. But I do think it would make a substantial difference in how dark the room feels. Right now the dark table and chairs just fall into the dark floor. I might be partial to linear light fixtures, but I do think like updating the chandelier to something more rectangular or linear would help the space feel less traditional. https://www.potterybarn.com/products/maisie-glass-globe-linear-chandelier/ https://www.potterybarn.com/products/adeline-rectangular-crystal-chandelier/
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elcieg
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Change the wall color because the rug is your dominant and yellow doesn't compliment the rug.

This B.M. off-white will work well (according to my monitor), B.M. Collingwood.

Odd man out is the leather sofa. You need pillows to make it become part of the family

This pillow appears to have all the colors in the rug and a touch of the brown leather.

I see a dark tone upholstered chair in the background. Slipcover it. There are some decent, stretchy slipcovers on line for reasonable cost. This one is from overstock.
McLauren Foster thanked elcieg
calidesign
2 years ago
The rug is beautiful. I agree that a different wall color without the yellow would really freshen the space. I would also replace your coffee table with a metal and glass table.
McLauren Foster thanked calidesign
PRO
Angelica Angeli ❤ Interior Design Journalist
2 years ago
Here are a few suggestions for how to lighten and modernize your current space. Take note of the accessories as well as the paint on the walls.
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