Hi everyone!

[neverfinished]

Gosh... anyone else's life nuts? :D

Sorry for the absence! My new goal is to do better!

I'm still waiting for a good time to start on my projects. Summer break is around the corner! I plan to start ripping into the first day! I'm very excited to get started.

I actually have the ideas on the kitchen, main bath and office. I'm totally stuck on the family room tho. It's an long room with the path from the kitchen to the office running right thru it. Not good planning on my part when we put the addition on, but hindsight you know :o. I'm going to try and up load pictures for some help. I have struggled with this room for so long! Last summer I painted it a lighter tan color which I am not happy with. I bought caramel colored slipcovers for the sage sofa and loveseat but I can't decide if I like those. terrible I know, don't tell my dh! :rolleyes: I think my biggest problem is that I LOVE color and there just doesn't seem to be any in there. It's very neutral. My favs are blue (not dark and love aqua) , green (i swoon at that springy green color) , yellow and RED. love red! I get positively giddy if I see anything with polka dots.. I guess I'm trying to figure out the color for the walls mainly and maybe some furniture placement suggestions. I also have not done a thing to the windows. I bought bamboo roman shades, which of course are still in the box... What about window treatments? any suggestions? I'm not sure if I should keep the slipcovers on or take them off and have sage green furniture. Someday I will replace those but.....:rolleyes:

As patient as my dh is with everything I do, I'm pretty sure he is getting sick of the changing thing as much as I am. Not that I don't love to change things around, maybe adding in a few new things every now and again. but the main part...I just want to be happy with it.. walk in and think OK, this looks good! It's hard to relax in the room when all i keep thinging about is how to change it....

wow..did I ramble? I'm going to try and put some pictures of the room in an album... wish me luck LOL...if that doesn't work, i'll just post them here.

I KNOW you all have terrific ideas and I'm desperate for your help! your suggestions for the kitchen table etc were so totally ON!

[neverfinished]

Ok....that was easy! I added the pictures in an album.
You can see that the loveseat does not have the slipcover on it.
Also, in one of the pictures you can see how it is open to the kitchen on one side and office on the other. please ignore that office mess... I haven't begun to tackle THAT yet! how do they end up like that anyway? :D

[mac78]

I love your round coffee table and your ceilings. It is a very nice space. I just went thru this.....neutral vs color.....I ended up neutral in my family room....too neutral. Still not sure I like my paint job. You have a great space.

[chyna]

Not sure why but I can't find the album but from what you've described, no wonder you're going ho-hum about the room. I'm wondering if maybe it is the accessories you've added to the room and not so much the wall color. Like maybe you need some vibrant accessories in there. Change the slipcovers to red instead of the tan/brown, add some yellow accessories. What if you brought the trunk from the deck/breezeway in and used it instead in the livingroom? The blinds may actually work then since they are darker than the walls and add some richness to the whole thing.

Not sure why but I'm thinking tropical. Didn't we do this on the breezeway last year? :p

[neverfinished]

Hey chy.... I think i go thru this yearly! lol... :D

I was thinking that too. maybe I just need brighter "stuff".... I'm wondering if maybe a soft yellow on the walls... I LOVE the idea of red slipcovers! that would be fun! I have a cabinet that houses the cds/dvds..maybe I could paint that turquoise? :rolleyes:

[cheapdiva]

WHAT album??!! Don't tease us! Where are these photos?
I feel like I am stuck with a hood over my eyes and can't see a thing - agghh!

[cheapdiva]

Found it!
chyna - click on nevers name and it will take you to her page - then on the right hand side you'll see the album.

Hood off!!:p

[neverfinished]

oh thank goodness! I thought I messed that all up!!!

Ok, now that you have seen the boring..yawn...space... HELP! :D

[RoseMary]

Very nice room! If you paint the cabinet be sure and post! I love the ideas of red slip covers, too.

My living room is fairly 'dull', so I'm going to paint an old coffee table that I have a red color that I'm using in my kitchen. I thought that might add a nice patch of color to the room. (If the weather would just cooperate, I could get that job done!)

[cheapdiva]

Okay now that the hood is off and I can breath again, here are my thoughts:

- find fabric (2 or 3 prints) that has sage, tan, red and blue in it. If you can sew make pillows and curtains out of these fabrics to tie the room together. If you can't sew, ask a friend who can - swap out painting or cooking dinner for her family (several times) and ask her to do the sewing. You can help by cutting out things or ironing pieces while she sews.

You have at least 3 different colors on furniture in that room and you need to tie it together.

- have long panels fabric panels made for the windows - you can cheat by buying a length of fabric because you can split it down the middle since you aren't actually going to "close" these panels. Hang the bamboo shades also. You need to "soften" the room and the windows and using one of the matching fabrics (with the pillows) will visually pull the room together and break up that long space.

- consider painting the coffee table - red. Or find great accessories in red to put on it, like a red tray with some glass pieces or books with red bindings.

- above the sofa have a montage of pictures and a few 3-d items to again, break up that long expanse. Just make sure that there is some theme to what you put up there and try to keep the frames one color - like black. That way you can have a variety of things above the sofa but it will look like a collection of items. And go beyond the usual family portraits . . . how about pictures of something you love (besides family members). Maybe even a collection of china plates? Mix it up though.

Okay . . . who else wants to jump in?

[Breezy]

neverfinished ~ since you like the color red and you mentioned soft yellow walls how about painting the walls a light soft butter yellow or something along those lines ~ red or red/white checked slipcovers on sofas would look great against the yellow walls. You could accent with touches of white and aqua or blue. I've seen rooms done in those colors and they look so fresh and pulled together. Best wishes and please post pics so we all can see how it turns out.:)

[chyna]

I just didn't click far enough. :o Anyhow, I think the walls are fine as they are but you do need some more color in there. There is a good start with the blue blanket, red thing on the coffee table (I didn't get the pic big enough to see what is was). MHO is that you just need to add more accessories in there with your colors (red, blue, yellow), the neutral walls may actually work in your favor that way and if you should get sick of the red/blue/yellow or just want ot mix it up more you could do that with little effort. Don't forget that black is an accent color in that room with the tv and other electronics.:)

[RoseMary]

Cheapdiva's idea of a wall of pictures would look great. I'm working on a wall like that myself (have been for about a year:o) If you don't have enough pictures, you might add mirrors of different sizes in with them if the wall is not facing another mirror.

I like the idea of having all the frames the same color, but it's not do-able in my case, as some frames are very old and some are new, so I wouldn't worry too much if they aren't all the same color. And, make sure that they are not all the same size--mix 'em up! There was an example of a wall like this in one of the last two or three issues of Country Living (I can't remember which issue).

If you decide to paint the walls, I agree that yellow would look great on them:)