Hi---since you want to keep it bright and rich, I suggest Muted aqua/turquoise blue. Pics for inspiration-second pic the furniture and drapery hues would look great with the gold. Good Luck! Love the BOLD Yellow... :) [houzz=][houzz=][houzz=]

As the appearance of the garden has a modernist style with the straight lines and concrete furniture how about a Mondrian influence and add a bold strip of blue? It is a pond and with the right shade it could look really relaxed and contemporary. My daughter's suggestion is a chalky lilac!

What a fun space! Love the pillows...I agree with above, lower all the frames, but not so low little ones can reach. The art should fall at eye level about 5'4" for walls and for behind the sofa not more than 12" above it. Then keep the width about 5" inside the sofa length on each side. Your frames are small so you need the close together for impact. I would start with some pretty curtains for the door and large window and then a simple Roman shade for the small window- since your girls play there you don't want anything they will grab hold of. http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/query/how-to-hang-a-photo-gallery

Mona you have seen exactly the dilemmas I'm facing with this room so I really appreciate your comments. I was focusing on no1, but really 2 and 3 are on my mind too. In terms of getting some continuity between the rooms I was planning on recovering the dining chairs in a fabric to tone with cushions/throws on the white couch, ottomans in a matching tone, and pulling this colour scheme through into cushions in the formal lounge. I love the spring colours at the moment (greens, blues etc) which you can see i'm playing with at the moment but you might be able to see the painting in the formal room which is orange, red and yellow with a blue/purple base. So I'm very keen on colour and so tired of the brown carpet and neutral walls. I was also going to restain the dining table and chairs to a dark mahogany colour, and change the bar stools to something more modern. re: rug closer to sofa, I've done this and it looks off-balance with nothing else in the space. It seems to work better in the middle of the carpet area at the moment. Perhaps thats because I haven't ordered the ottomans yet. I don't want to add a coffee table to this room as prefer Ottoman to put feet up on. I've attached a pic of a rug, do you think something like this would work better? re the wall: yes this is the major for me at the moment. It is a TV room so tv and speakers stay and I wont be adding any custom cabinetry. The idea was to increase the space in this room by removing all of the cabinets and they are now in the adjoining room. The speaker covers have not been painted as I needed to work out what wall covering to apply, and colour etc. so once they are painted the wall colour they will blend in better. The idea of shelving has merit, I'll have to have a think more about that... Any other thoughts you have are appreciated.