angie, Can you show us more of what else is in the room, so we can see the 'whole picture', unless you are starting with the sofa and want to go from there and add other furniture, accessories and window treatments later? I am making new window treatments for my living room right now, and taking everything in the room into consideration, so hopefully they all tie in together.

It's almost impossible to give good decorating advice without seeing pictures, since decorating is all about the visual. I think the link below will help you learn how to post pictures here. One more thought about rugs -- have you checked Overstock.com? Their prices usually beat the competitors for the same rugs. I hope this link helps you. I use tinypic.com as you don't have to join anything or tell them about yourself, and the photos seem to stay for years wherever you post them. Here is a link that might be useful: How to use html coding and post photos to GW

Paint a foamcore board with the SW paint, then take it to the flooring store. Gray is on its way out in many areas. Find a classic hardwood color, not washed out gray, instead. Paint is relatively cheap but hardwood floors are expensive investments.

You need to decide the mature size and form of your crapemyrtle first, then pick a color. I think a variety of colors would go nicely with your brick. I've always thought that white is boring, but that's me. :-) If you've selected locations for your trees, then you can easily decide how big a tree you can have. You sure don't want anything that you have to prune the heck out of every year just to make it fit in a space that's too small.