Looking for final touch decorating ideas for family room.

Hi. I discovered this forum last night and have been binge reading since then. My wife has been wanting to have a designer come to our home but it seems I may have found an internet full of them!

We are looking for decorating ideas/help in our family room. I included a picture from each corner of the room. It is a difficult room to furnish with the angled fireplace, doorways, window and stairs going to the basement. We really only have the two walls - the one with the sofa and the one with the TV. We are pretty set on our seating as it is shown but are always open for any other suggestions. The sofa is Stickley and the one chair is the H&M Author Chair (just got the chair and it is incredible!).

The questions we have are:
1. We want to add a coffee table and can't decide whether a round table or rectangle table would look better. We are leaning toward rectangle. Any opinions?
2. We aren't too sure about the floor lamp next to the TV, but because it has a different colored shade than the other lamp, we thought it would look better farther away. That lamp can be moved or even moved out of the room. Does it look out of place where it is?
3. That leads to what to put, if anything, on the wall above the TV. We have 10' ceilings so there is a lot of space above the TV. Any suggestions?
4. What, if anything, would look good on the wall behind the Author chair. We are considering a bookcase or framed art, just not sure.

We are just trying to put some finishing touches on the room and would welcome any ideas. We are even open to suggestions about how the furniture we have is placed. Thanks for looking and for any help!!

My thoughts on your room and what I would suggest.

* You have a carpet on top of carpet. That's the main thing not working in the room. Pull up the wall to wall carpet (I see it appears stretched in some of the photos) and dispose of it, then put down a hardwood or parquet floor. The will transform the room. While your area rug is not my style and I would select something more sedate, it can work, but needs to be out further in the room atop a new floor.

* The white TV stand is not working in the room. Mount the TV on the wall and used concealed wiring kits to run the wires inside the wall (it's pretty easy to do). Then get a smaller glass shelf type of console for the TV components. Something like this - though there are several styles that can work:

http://www.hookerfurniture.com/hooke...formation.aspx

* Floor lamp needs to go, its too dominating and the wrong style for the room, sorry. Not a fan of the large lamp by the TV, either!

* Your existing wall art behind the sofa is fine - just get a second piece in similar colors and size and put there with it so you have more of it.

Good luck!

1. Oval coffee tables are worth looking at. Otherwise, you can place small coffee tables next to one another but easily shareable between the two sides of the room. In my household, we use this room to lounge and eat and drink, so what I found was most useful is to skip the coffee table all together and go for C tables and accent tabless. That way people can drag one to where they're sitting without disturbing others. If you do go with a coffee table, you don't want something too big or heavy as you already have very big pieces.

2. I think the lamp next to the TV is too thick and heavy. I'd replace it with something else, even just a generic floor lamp. I don't know where else I'd suggest you put that floor lamp. It would look nice in a room with leggy, more delicate furniture. Unlike Duane, I like the arch floor lamp!

3. Since this is your family room, I noticed you've got a "TV-shrine" arrangement of seating going on, which makes perfect sense in terms of utility, but more difficult in terms of design. To bring it all together, if this were my room, instead of putting bookshelves behind the Author chair, I'd put in book shelves over the TV. The books will balance out the heaviness of the low TV trunk, and your room won't look so TV focused.

4. You could do a mirror of some sort, a little collection of frames, or put a plant on that side table and just don't decorate the wall behind. Or, instead of the single picture above the couch, you could do bigger art in the form of two or three panels spaced out but centered over the couch.

If I could honestly change one thing about the room it would be the rug. Usually my style is very different from Duane's but I very much agree with him one with respect to the center rug. The colors are very "autumn" and it is very busy compared to everything else in the room. At the same time, it's very matchy-matchy with the walls and the main couch.

With your wall color and heavy leather, I'd recommend bringing in more metallic peices. Try a mirror, or a metal coffee table, or some lamps with a metal finish base, some little gold/brass decorative items etc.

Attachment 9547 (examples of random mirrors on a wall color similar to yours)


Attachment 9545Attachment 9546 (I'm picturing that bookshelf over the entry way in the location of the bookshelves over the TV on the first image, across the whole wall).

Attachment 9548 (the specific tables in this photo may not match your style but this is what I was thinking of when I mentioned using a grouping of accent tables instead of a central coffee table)

Thank you Duane and Jenny! We agree that the lamp by the TV needed to go. It is a sentimental lamp as it was my godmother's lamp so we will keep it but find a use elsewhere. Duane, we agree with replacing the carpet but that will be for a later time. Our entry, dining room, hallways and kitchen are all the same hardwood so matching up with this room will take some planning. Duane, I understand what you are saying about the arch floor lamp, but the Mrs. wins on keeping it for now. Jenny, thanks for the input regarding coffee tables or accent tables. Definitely something for us to consider. The Mrs. wins on the rug for now too, but that can easily be removed or replaced. TVs and the surrounding area(s) have always been a challenge for us. I like both the piece Duane linked and the bookshelf idea. We also agree with possible adding metallic pieces.

We really appreciate the input and all your ideas and suggestions. This is a great forum!!!

As a side note Duane, I read in your bio or in one of your posts about you living in Burnsville, MN when you were younger. My wife lived in Burnsville until she was 10. We still make the summer trips up to the family cabin in the Brainerd area. A beautiful state!