Help! Next rooms - living room and dining room (wall mirror, hardwood floors, fireplace)

[stook1]

My previous post was about the kitchen... Next room of interest for us is the living and dining rooms (and wet bar). Any great ideas for what we should do? Pretty much anything is fair game. Our current living room furniture (which some day will land in the lower level den, not pictured) actually goes MUCH better with the home style the current owner's furniture.

Our living room furniture consists of a tan leather sofa and loveseat (transitional style --- maybe more on the contemporary side) and we have a 4ft square glass coffee table with sort of a chrome industrial look base. We also have a deep red, tan, and cream colored geometric pattern area rug.

For the dining room, we do not have much at this point. We have a very large farm style wood table with the chunky squared rectangular legs. We need new chairs and we could use a buffet of some kind. The table looks like this one: http://www.potterybarn.com/products/...angular-tables except without the leg supports... We were thinking of painting the table black.

In terms of bigger changes, we have debated various flooring options other than the carpet. We have also discussed painting, though we aren't sure about colors and also not sure what to do about the wood beams and trim.

[GaryH3]

From the description of your furniture, it doesn't sound like you want to emphasize the wood or go towards rustic in any way. I have seen beams painted white; sometimes that looks good, sometimes not so much.
The living room looks huge and those high ceilings add to the cavernous look. Maybe paint both the walls and ceiling a rich, somewhat darker neutral, then paint all the trim and beams white? Are there any lights in/on the ceiling? Some track lighting would add to a modern feel and can really put some nice washes of light up there so it doesn't look like a cave at night.

[maf763]

The mirror in the dining room would have to go.

[Hopes]

Is it me or is the architecture a mish-mash of rustic and contemporary and outdated?

The beams and the stair railings don't go with the fireplace and the wetbar counter area. They clash.

Yes, the mirrored wall has to go. The baseboard and doorway trim needs to be painted. And definitely paint the trim around all of the windows.

Leave the wood beams untouched for now. They will help the staircase railings not look as out of place. Live with that part for a bit to see how you feel.

I think wood flooring would be the best choice.

[nightcrawler]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Is it me or is the architecture a mish-mash of rustic and contemporary and outdated?

The beams and the stair railings don't go with the fireplace and the wetbar counter area. They clash.

Yes, the mirrored wall has to go. The baseboard and doorway trim needs to be painted. And definitely paint the trim around all of the windows.

Leave the wood beams untouched for now. They will help the staircase railings not look as out of place. Live with that part for a bit to see how you feel.

I think wood flooring would be the best choice.

No, it is not you, I too was thinking along the same lines.
I see too many different styles competing with each other.

I will go with what you said, because i was thinking the same thing.

It has to be one style then follow it through.

[kinkytoes]

I really like the house! The room with the high ceilings reminds me of one of those houses in Aspen. You know the ones where you can see the snow covered trees through the windows? My suggestions are:


1. Replace the carpet with a good quality hardwood floor and rugs properly scaled for the room sizes. The carpet looks really pretty and warm, but based on my experience it will get pretty dirty.

2. I would hang the curtains at ceiling height in the dining room.

3. I would invest in large artwork, and hang it higher on the walls in the rooms with the high ceilings.

4. Leave the beams unpainted. If you live in a climate with cold winters, I think I would go with the slightly rustic (wood, greens etc) feeling in the room. If you have the chance to see snow-covered trees during winter, I think it will look lovely.

5. Cosy it up – If you’re in a climate with cold winters, I imagine the living room would get pretty cold. How about a (modern or contemporary) large velvet sectional? I’m feeling green or olive. Paisley wool throws? Definitely warm wooden tables and perhaps a warmer color on the walls.

6. Fireplace ? LOL It’s not my money. I like the slate, but I'd change it out for a higher mantel/surround with rough stone and wood. I do think that room is more rustic, and I'd probably go with it.

7. Bar – Lucky you! I would avoid stuff like Budweiser signs and go w/ shiny stainless steel utilitarian stuff in the bar. There are bar accessories that look nice on the counter. Shakers, ice bucket etc. I would probably use wall mirrors in the bar area instead of artwork.


Have fun decorating.

[stook1]

Thanks for your replies!

This house in CT so we certainly have cold, snowy winters. To be honest, we are thinking about de-rustic'ing the house a bit. For example, we were also leaning towards painting the wood trim, possibly including the beams.

In terms of the style going forward, we are leaning towards more of a modern Spa look rather than the more stark black/gray/white look. We will probably do hardwood floors on this level in the house. Not sure what else exactly. We're probably going to hire an interior designer to help get us started since it is a little overwhelming trying to decide on colors etc.

The other option for the floors is to retain the area rug in the center of the living room but surround with several feet of hardwood along the perimeter which also doing hardwood in the foyer, bar area and dining room.

By the way, we are not big drinkers and may lose the bar area all together when we renovate the kitchen so that we can move the kitchen out several feet closer to the living room. This would create some more room for soft seating, den type space at the far end of the kitchen.