Do you want something pastel (or monochromatic) to blend in with the lavender paint or something a bit darker, or perhaps a contrast?

Thanks, Monica. : ). Your room looks so homey, and very much like normal life around here. ; ) I was picturing a wall color more like your orange- rust colored pillow when I heard burnished pumpkin. Aimee, it could be partly a function of climate, which might be why I find this to be a challenging decision! That's very interesting that you find cozy colors to be more intimate. I find that appealing, rather than off-putting, but we seldom have "strangers" in our home, and if they are here, I usually want to help them feel welcome and as much a part of the family as possible. Annie, can I come over and stay at your house and see what it's like to live in warm and cozy for a week? : ). I've seen a few pictures of your home, and it looks very warm and inviting. Thanks Lisa. Yes, the little blue library is off our kitchen. The kitchen can just be seen to the right of it. The doorway to the living room is between the library (errr, the bathroom, to be more specific) and the kitchen. Could we possibly get away with a color like this in the living room? This was my absolute favorite room at the home show this year. It's a dark bluish green.

It would depend on the colors, especially whether they are both in the warm or cool color range. That's an absolutely gorgeous rug, but I wonder why it's pressed against the fire place. With the colorful rug, I suspect it might be more restful to have two sofas of the same color. It's probably a matter of taste, but I would choose a rectangular glass and metal coffee table to give a cleaner design with the couches, and it would also give you more room to put things on it (and under it if there is a lower shelf. It would be helpful to see more of the fireplace and a different angle of the room to see where the one couch would go.

4000k bulbs don't brighten a room, they shift the colour of the light away from yellow and towards blue, giving a light quality that is supposedly similar to daylight. Me, I find 4000k too cold a light for my tastes. 3000k is as far as I go, and I accept that it means a slightly yellow light. To actually lighten a room, you need more light-- either more bulbs or more lumens (like replacing a 60W bulb with a 100W bulb back when we used incandescents). Some fixtures will take LED bulbs. Others won't, particularly fluorescent or halogen fixtures. Choose the temperature that makes you comfortable (2700k is close to soft white) and the lumen rating (more is brighter) that gives the amount of light you need.