decorating advice..who wants to help me decorate?...pics added!

[arianna]

First, let me say that I LOVE your wood floor color.

Do you want to decorate the living room in a more neutral color or you want something really different?

When ever you decide to choose a wall color you have to start with things you can not change in your room. Your floor is dark brown, your sofa is tan. Both warm colors. You can go at Lowes or Home Depot and get paper samples from all the colors they have and then under day light and again in the evening under you lamp light put your paper samples between your floor and sofa and see what colors match both but in the same time give you some contrast. Usually the color of the curtains shows the favorite color of the homeowner. I think you like warm colors, burgundy and fall colors. You can use those colors for accent colors.
If you want to stay in a neutral color, then I will choose for walls a darker tan (lighter that the floor, and slightly darker that your sofa) just enough to give you a little bit contrast for the sofa and be a change from the white. I like the color of your curtain, but I will recommend a darker burgundy. Then you can use that burgundy as your accent color with burgundy pillows on your sofa.
My other choice (witch is my first choice) it’s a more bold color.
Turquoise (my favorite). Turquoise will accentuate and show off your beautiful wood floor as well as the fire place. It will go well with the white part of the fireplace as well as the wood mantle. It’s a cheerful color and goes very well with all your cherry wood color furniture. The tan sofa will go well with the turquoise as well and you can use brown (match the floor) as your accent color for curtains and pillows. Small items in gold, orange (like fall ornaments) can be added for decorations and lots of green plants will give this color combination a more exotic but peaceful look. Once you put all the other colors over the Turquoise, then the turquoise becomes a background color and doesn’t seems so bold any more. For a more dramatic look I will paint the ceiling a pale gold (like a sunset).

Darker tan color (once you put curtains and other wall decorations it becomes only a background color again)

as you can see I have tan sofa and chair and it still stands out when put against a tan wall (as long is a different shade of tan).

 

[Dar]

@ redhen.. yes its comfy and both ends are recliners... its the best couch I have ever bought... I had leather before this and will never go back to leather (although right now I am missing the leather cause the dog puke would not have stunk it up).. the tan in the top of the curtains is the same as the sofa...

@ arianna.. I LOVE your colour scheme... the curtains are a dark red almost burgundy, the colour got washed out with the flash




I forgot to add the room is 30 feet long by 15 feet wide 12 high


I like being bold but I think I am afraid to be bold cause of the size of the room... bold can be overwhelming very fast in a large room.

If I paint a darker tan I dont want it to wash out with the sofa so if i went many shades darker then the sofa so you dont loose the sofa in the wall... I can then be bold on the fireplace (which is no longer functional just decoration now)

 

[SillyChicken]

I noticed the last pict looks like it has hole patches. (insulation blown in?) You may want to sand and prime those spots really good before painting.

 

[Dar]

Quote:
you are exactly right

I am priming the WHOLE room before I start not just spot priming... I dont know whats under the contractor grade paint they used on the walls but i can wipe it off with a baby wipe

 

[Kansaseq]

I'd go with tan, taupe, or a deep, muted/antique gold or yellow.

 

[arianna]

This is one of the hardest things to do when you decorate, to find the right color for the walls.

My turquoise was a "brave" color, that's why is only in the bedroom.
I still think you should try the paper samples of different colors and see what goes well with both your floor and sofa. Since you have a such large room you can even go darker.
Do you have any preference of color in mind, any particular style? I love watching other people decorating, one of my favorite channels are HGTV. You can learn some few good tips from it. Candice Olson uses a lot of brown and silver/gray combination in her style. It's a more modern look, but it always looks so elegant and luxurious. I mention that since you have some gray furniture as well. My favorite is "color splash" with David Bromstad, just because I like pastel bright colors, they cheer me up.

Please let us know what you decided.

 

[Dar]

Quote:
the grey furniture wont be lasting much longer after the painting is done DH wants a new TV so the BIG honkin unit will be going and smaller neater looking stuff in a dark wood finish will be going in its place

not that I have shopped for it already...LOL

 

[FruitChicken]

I just have to say, you're brave for having a tan colored couch with dogs sitting on it

Personally -- I'd look at industrial/commercial wallpaper, like the stuff they use in upper-end coffee shops like Starbucks and Panera. You can get it online for cheap. I would probably pick something with some gold texture in it to pull the color from the floor. I'd probably also go for a dark espresso/mahogany furniture scheme to balance it. That's just me....