SFGate

decoenthusiaste You need to determine what style you like. Your tables are Queen Anne, the lights are Arts & Crafts and TIffany, the pillow is American country. Use Houzz to find a style you like, post some pictures of what you find, so we can see what you like and give you a direction to go with purchases.

emilysmith2 Here are a couple that I like. I am having trouble finding pictures of rooms with this floor color.

Manon Floreat Your photos indicate contemporary tastes with a subtle color palette and dashes of color. I suggest you start with an area rug. Chose one of good quality that you know you will enjoy for a long time. That will be the foundation for your room.

I recommend neutral furniture, because it's more flexible in terms of swapping out accent colors than "colored" furnishings. I think your idea of a sofa and two arm chairs is right on. I'd float the sofa in front of the dining room opening and facing the windows. Opposite the sofa, I'd place two arm chairs with a side table between them. Along the wall where your sofa currently is, I'd think about a long console topped with lamps and framing a great piece of art or gallery wall. A couple of ottomans can be stashed beneath for extra seating.

I think the hutch will be better off in the dining room. You may want to consider a short but long book shelf for the wall opposite the console. I think you a print leaning against the wall I'm referring to).

Attached is a furniture arrangement to consider and a few items as well.

Darzy If you want to keep the sofa and the hutch, I think this style would work and reflect the style you like. A mirrored coffee table, matching round side tables and lamps and two upholstered chairs facing the couch. If you want more color, you can bring it in with the area rug and pillows.

collettec I like your inspiration photos and think I would pull from there for working with your burgundy couch. I think I would go with more modern tables with modern lines as seen in these photos, rather than the more ornate tables you currently have. I would go with more muted colors and richer fabrics to match your red leather sofa. Perhaps two flanking armchairs that are upholstered in more muted tans, beiges, grays, greens, or golds might be ideas and perhaps in a pattern. Change out the pillows for ones with more texture and richer colors. A great larger area rug. I would think about painting the walls to a neutral color, perhaps a gray or greige or a beige. For the lamp shades, a simpler more classic modern shape, such as the drum shade seen in your inspiration photos.

emilysmith2 These are super ideas. Thanks!! I can't wait to get to work on this.

Emily

emilysmith2 OK, so I went shopping today, and found the following to start: a starburst rug in 8 x 11 size

and two upholstered chair in oatmeal color.

Do you think these are good choices?

Thanks!

collettec Really like the chair, both the style and color and that color in perhaps a bit deeper shade, might be a color to consider for the walls. The rug is more difficult to tell. Might be more a matter of how it goes in terms of color with the existing couch and floor. I would check it against both of them to see how it looks.

Ramona Your chair choice is traditional while your inspiration photos are contemporary. Look for some contemporary chairs like the photos. As your sofa is on the traditional side, you really need for those chairs to be contemporary. If you want a subtle color palette, I wouldn't go with a red and orange rug unless I was going to darken the walls. You have the same problem I do: I like certain photos but when I look at individual pieces, I find myself gravitating towards more varied color and lots of different surfaces. I think you really need to study what you like more. Find more pictures you like and paste them into an ideabook and/or here. I'm planning to ask for help when I get my chairs, which are with the upholsterer, back next week. I like the idea of a more monochromatic living room, but also love color, so I tend to ruin my own vision because I lack discipline to stick with the quieter choices. I'm not all that fond of your rug choice, but I am not a contemporary person although I admire it and love your inspiration photos. Do you want the quiet colors of the inspirations photos? Then you have to tone down your sofa with quiet colored pillows. The rug you have chosen is anything but quiet. I think choosing the rug first is important because your subtle accent colors need to come out of it or it needs to be neutral itself. Your hutch is also traditional. Otherwise I have no problem leaving it in the living room. I like the rug in the left hand side inspiration photo.

I like the furniture arrangement Manon suggested. Look for chairs with contemporary dark legs like in your inspiration photos. Consider painting your tables black if you want them to look contemporary. They may not work though. You could sell them and get more contemporary pieces.

Interiors International, Inc. Your room is having a definite personality crises. You need to pick a style. Some things mix well together and you get a nice eclectic look. This is not easy to achieve it takes a delicate touch. This balance should look easy but in actuality is very difficult. That little fur rug is cute to layer on top a larger rug but can't stand on it's own.

Manon Floreat I agree that the chair is a bit traditional for the contemporary style you like. I think the color is good, but like emzc and Darzy, I would like to see it a deeper. Attached are a couple of chairs from Room and Board in a light camel that would work well with your rug. The shape is more transitional as well.

I'd also consider a lighter coffee table with the rug to keep it from becoming to heavy.

MAlps For starters the rug and couch pillow have got to go

emilysmith2 Thanks Manon! I am learning a lot from you all and I appreciate your patience with a decorating newbie :) My husband really likes those more traditional chairs we found but also likes the look of the "budget living room" that was posted above. If we do that one, we would pretty much need to start over. If we stayed with the traditional pieces we have (couch and potentially the chairs), would this rug work (using the arrangement Manon suggested)? If we used this rug, I am guessing that the lighter coffee table would not work. Is that correct?

Darzy I like your first rug choice better. You can mix the traditional furniture with the contemporary rug, toss pillows, art, etc.

collettec I agree with Darzy and like your first rug choice better as well. I think the second one is too busy. The one thing that I noted that you should check actually with any of your furnishings is how it looks with the existing furniture and so you just need to know that the reds and oranges in the first rug would work well in terms of color with the existing couch and flooring, when you get the rug home - do like it though. Also like the club chairs that you chose. I would keep what you have that does work - in this case the couch and then build from that instead of a whole new expenditure, unless you don't like it. For the coffee table, given that the chairs and couch are more traditional think you should go for a coffee table that is more transitional, a mix of modern and traditional. Something like the coffee table in the Jane Lockhart inspiration pic - something square and simple I think would work well. Perhaps either a gray top, or grayish or a gray or black square glass coffee table that also has modern simple lines like the Jane Lockhart inpiration pic coffee table would work well.

emilysmith2 So we decided we could not make the couch work and my husband purchased a new couch and two chairs. We still like the Budget Room inspiration photo above and have been looking at mirrored coffee tables and sunburst mirrors for the far wall. What do you think of any of these accessories?

emilysmith2 Here are a couple more items that we were considering for the room (rug and coffee table)