Sitting Room Redo

Our visit with Mel last week was so much fun, and I loved getting to introduce her to our new hometown on her very first trip to Kentucky.  We took full advantage of the lazy days with no agenda and sat around for hours in our pjs by the fire.  Of course we couldn't resist a little decor brainstorming while she was here, and I definitely needed her help.  After making so many decisions, large and small, during the process of renovating and unpacking, I had hit on some real decorator's block, particularly with the sitting room portion of our kitchen.  Whenever this happens, I find looking to outside input always helps jumpstart the inspiration again.  

The cooking part of the kitchen takes up a little more than half of the room, and at the other end are our built in bookshelves, the TV and a small sitting area.  The kitchen itself is nearly finished now, but the TV section was looking pretty sad.  Because of that I don't have any photos of how it was when Melina arrived, but I'll try to explain.  Here's a really old photo showing where the space is in the house.

The problem in this part of the room is that it all felt too brown, too blah.  We've been using a square natural fiber rug we inherited from my sister years ago (yes, half of what we own is a hand me down:)), which I love, but together with the blonde bamboo floors, the yellowish china cabinet, and the wood door, it was just too much.  Melina and I agreed we needed a punch of color and stopped by Home Goods to check out their rugs.  You never know what they'll have that day, so we were thrilled to find several fun options at great deals.

We brought home our new find, and now I'm working on planning the rest of the room.  I love the colors and how fun and bright it is... but I still need to tie in the other elements of the space.  

 The next major projects in this room are:

1) Paint the wood on the door to match the trim to clean up the look and reduce the brown level in the room.

2) Recover chair and maybe paint the frame?

3) Finish recovering the love seat I bought for 5 dollars (!) in chocolate brown soft tweed fabric.

4) Paint the china cabinet... but which color??  There are so many fun ways to go with this one...

At this point I'm pretty sure we'll keep the rug, but I'm still thinking about another look.  I'm loving the idea of using the natural fiber rug with a zebra print cowhide on top, plus the brown love seat (assuming I ever finish upholstering it!) and some hot pink and black with gold accents.  What do you think??  I clearly need some help:)

xo

Liza