advice on type of living room furniture

jillyb

Registered User
Messages
126
hey everyone,

So i'm sooo undecided on how to bring our living room together.

We painted the chimney breast choc brown and the fire place cream which I like the look of.

We have and a brown and flecked cream carpet and duck egg/ brown/ cream /gold striped curtains. The couches are yellowy cream colour but we may be changing them to cream and getting an L shaped couch.

The bookcase came with the place so we probably move that out and the sideboard is going in the kitchen and will be getting a different one for the space. The TV stand is a warm oak and the nest of tables are beech.

i can't decide on whether to get an oak and cream painted coffee table like this One [broken link removed] .I saw it in a shop in dublin but they don't have it online to link it to.

Or else a light oak one see image attached.

I like the matching sideboard to the light oak coffee table but was unsure if I got both it'd be too matched. Our living room is north facing so a cold room so would want furniture to warm it up. Would get a rug aswell for under the coffee table.

Was thinking of putting floating cream shelves above the sideboard and then a nice picture above the couch at the back of the room.

I've attached photos of my living room and the oak furniture.

What do people think?? Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 

Attachments

  • living room.jpg
    3.2 MB · Views: 350
  • lv2.jpg
    lv2.jpg
    3.3 MB · Views: 338
  • lv 3.jpg
    2.5 MB · Views: 250
  • oak coffee table.jpg
    oak coffee table.jpg
    3.8 MB · Views: 329
  • oak sideboard.jpg
    oak sideboard.jpg
    3.7 MB · Views: 330
  • lv 4.jpg
    lv 4.jpg
    4.4 MB · Views: 342
Or I could keep the current sideboard and get the matching open shelf coffee table and paint the legs cream?

Thought the current sideboard is a little dark for the room though?
 

Attachments

  • 112423_1_one-shelf-oak-coffee-table-canterbury_2134.jpg
    112423_1_one-shelf-oak-coffee-table-canterbury_2134.jpg
    33.4 KB · Views: 198
Hi jillyb,

That's a lot to take in probably why no one else has replied :p

These are just a few observations thrown on the page in no order (its too late to think straight) and I hope not to offend and don't forget you did ask:

1. The beech nest of tables do not seem to match any of the wood that you already have or are intending to get. I know lots of people will say that you can put any wood together but you seem to want to match and I certainly prefer if they do. They look too light in quality and therefore don't blend with the other wood or maybe its just me :) If I was spending money on anything it would be to replace them.

2. There does appear to be too much furniture in the room at the moment so you are right to move the bookcase elsewhere.

3. Plain cream shelves would be too close in colour to the wall so you would be better off with wood possibly to match the units when you decide which ones you are going for.

4. I'm not mad about the pouffe, if you do have one perhaps something with a pattern would be better as it seems to differ a lot from the suite. If you do change the suite one to match that might be better.

5. The present sideboard and T.V. unit are very nice and appear to match the door. You are putting an awful lot of unnecessary expense on yourself if you buy another sideboard etc.

6. I do like the painted cream coffee table that you link to but if you are getting it I think the sideboard to match would suit better http://www.greatfurnituretradingco.co.uk/somerset-3-door-3-drawer-oak-and-cream-sideboard One thing that I would say about painted stuff is that it is nowhere near as hardwearing as the plain wood. If you got the coffee table and the sideboard you could paint the base of the T.V. unit and leave the top as is and you might get away with that. The handle on it appears to match already but they can be bought quite easily.

7. I certainly wouldn't buy that unit and paint the legs because you might not like it at all then.

I wrecked my head for a few months when I was trying to change our sitting room around. I'm probably old fashioned and perhaps the unmatched options would be better :)
 
Thanks Sue Ellen,

Really appreciate your reply and no offense taken

The sideboard that's currently there was bought a couple months ago for the kitchen and we just put it there for now til we got a new one as the space was so empty.

So we could leave it there but we'd need something for the kitchen. We really haven't bought any furniture bar that as we got most bits in a deal with the house. (Incl tv stand , , nest of tables and bookcase amongst those)

We painted the kitchen table and chairs too so it's mainly the living room needs work

It's a long room and looks bare at the moment.

I know the cream matching would be better together but im afraid it may be too much.

It's so hard to visualise what different pieces will look like and what would look best. How did you decide in the end!!
 
How did you decide in the end!!

I regularly buy smaller pieces that can be returned.

Another trick is that I get my daughter to photoshop the item into the room. It doesn't give you a complete look/view but just an idea of what it would look like. I've also found that sometimes what initially annoys me can grow on me over time because I get too lazy to do something about it :p
 
Everything you have is very nice, but I think your problem is that it's all very nice individually, it's just not coming together very cohesively.

My advice would be to hold off purchasing anything yet. What you need to do first is figure out what your style is in a nutshell, then it will be much easier to know what you want and it will all work together because it all feeds into the same style.

I would highly recommend the online pin board Pinterest. You set up "boards" to which you "pin" pictures that take your fancy. I would recommend you set up a board for each room in your house, and one "general interiors" one. Then browse through pinterest as well as interior blogs, online interiors magazines, etc (just do a google). Pin loads and loads of images without thinking of whether they're livable or practical or affordable, just pin away. It won't take long before you see patterns emerging. And that will reveal to you to your style in a nutshell.

A colleague did this when she bought a new house and none of her old furniture was suitable. She thought she liked an old-fashioned, cottagey look but when she started pinning to a Pinterest board she realised 90% of what she was pinning was mid-century modern. She was able to furnish her living room very quickly once she realised, and it all came together very quickly. (She got most of the furniture in Ikea, which does a very good mid-century modern look).
 
Hey thanks a mil for your advice.

I'll try that and start from scratch as your right the items I have were inherited and don't seem to work well together.

I don't mind if all of them end up going if it works best
 
There’s a lot of brown (and shades of) going on, are you sure you want such darkness, especially in a north facing room?
I’ve a large lounge in the east end of my house, but there isn’t much natural light, just two Velux’s (N+S) and patio doors (E). There’s a latte carpet and brown leather couch with latte cushions (came with the house). Despite the white walls and ceilings the room is quiet dark. It’s really noticeable if we drape white bedsheets over the couch (by way of experiment). The entire room is lifted substantially.
When the kids are older we’re definitely going to do something about all the brown, new carpet, reupholstery and maybe more.
 
Back
Top