Now it's beginning to work! Luv the rug! A few more red showstoppers, and I luv the post about matting your family pic, and larger frame for it. Looks like you might be a bit uncomfortable with the great post idea of moving your sofa out into the room away from wall. If so, could you accept putting it diagonally from the entrance doorway, across that corner where it is, stopping at the edge of your window? That's a bit of a move outward, still can see the fp and tv, and show off your new rug, which could go diagonally in front of the sofa. Then, if you like that, after a while you could move it on out as Deb K suggests. Sometimes intermediate steps are more doable for us than those big changes.Same with painting; if you could first paint just the fp wall, then later paint other walls...seems some color would really make it more homey. Would you cosider a quite contemporary fixture for the light in the center ceiling? Maybe a bit of red could go there!

Shutters sound like they would be a great addition to your new almost at the beach house. Is it an open concept? If so while you can change things up a bit you'll want to repeat some element and ensure that everything looks great together. Even the rooms you're thinking of putting drapes in might benefit from shutters or wood blinds for both looks and light/privacy control. Also be aware of how these windows will look from the outside. When choosing fabrics look at your existing furniture for inspiration or a piece of existing art or if buying new furniture think about the windows as you do. Everything in the room ties into each other. Ideally you would have swatches and samples of every finish in the room from flooring to window coverings and everything in between including wall colour, area rugs, bedding ect to help make your final decisions easier.

squeakerd - it is really hard to get a perspective on the whole area but if this is part of a much larger area then I feel you need to first decide just what you want as the end result. Do you just want your entire area to be one open plan or do you want to break it down into visually defined areas within the open plan. As you have the area now, I don't feel any cohesiveness between your table and the sideboard, I think I would move the sideboard to the end wall, it looks more like it would belong there, even just by the shape of the room. Definitely a larger rug will define the space better - just be careful of any trip hazard with the door nearby - but before you decide on the rug, consider window dressings and whether you want things plain or introduce some bold patterns and what colours look best in the area. Artwork can go where your sideboard is now, but again think colours and impact of design on the whole area. It is all very well to build a room around one piece, but you need to look at the impact that piece will have on other items and what limitations it could cause. I would suggest you set aside some serious time to look through photos on Houzz, especially if you can find areas similar to yours, till you find what appeals to you, put the photos into your ideas book and use that to build your room. I have found this invaluable in the past and it has saved me many an expensive mistake.

Hi, love that you love bold colors and patterns. I think a rug that will help to highlight what you've started in your space without competing with it would be beautiful. Because most of your patterns are medium to large in size, I would probably recommend a rug that has some black in it and even with a pattern but with a different scale pattern (much larger or smaller/more subtle) than what is shown in your pillows, chair and lamp. Here are some examples.... Mostly of rooms with bolder (black and white) patterns and the rugs that were used with them. In pic 3, a rug with a larger scale pattern was used in combination with pillows, drapes with smaller or no pattern (and with black/white contrasts). Your space would be the reverse application I think....like in pic 4. I also love the idea of a bolder, more contrasting in color (like the colors of your pillows, etc.) of a cowhide rug. Perhaps even a hair on hide rug.