Dave and I love our light-filled rooms. The living room and our bedroom floors are covered in light oatmeal colored carpets with cream walls, color choices that enhance the feeling of light and spaciousness. The colors are fine except combined with our furniture the rooms are bland.
Our stressless chairs are mushroom color leather with light beechwood and the couch is a strange combination of cream, pale yellow and pale rose-purple. We got the chairs when my parents died.
Stressless Chair from Mom
We bought the couch because it is super comfortable – I sit there every evening – and good quality and marked way down because it was someone’s rejected custom order.
Living Room Couch Fabric, Wood Trim and Table Leg
The furniture is good quality but these aren’t our colors. Dave and I prefer warmer colors, like caramel browns, rusts, amber or green. We added more color with wood tables, mostly warm shades like the table leg shown next to the couch fabric above, and with our collection of carved birds, ceramics and glass.
Eventually we’ll replace the carpet, maybe go to hardwood with throw rugs, or carpet in a warmer color. We don’t want to lose the light and open feeling we get from the light colors but we want to eliminate bland and go for something that feels more like us. Of course financial reality will no doubt strike!
In the meantime we made one small change last year that paid color dividends. The hardwood hallway that runs along the front of the house and is open to the living room had dark gray-brown runners left by the prior owners. Last year we replaced those worn out pieces with three of these lively rugs. (Color in first photo is more accurate.)
Runner in Hall
We like the color and it adds warmth without being an in-your-face type of design. Of course the rugs have been cat approved, a worthy bonus!
Runner in Hall
Sue Cleereman says
I like the runner, it looks good! I recognize those chairs, glad they are still in use.