Fireplace Living Room

The laminate flooring is ugly. We will replace it with hardwood flooring, and we need suggestions regarding the color and the wood grain. We need flooring that will highlight the beauty of the chimney. Are we looking for matching tones, or contrast?

There is an ugly balustrade between the living room and the main floor. We would like to hide it. What would you suggest?

There is a 2-inch difference in height between the patio sliding doors and the window. Is there any trick to hide that?

There is a 0.5-inch difference in height between the pocket door and the adjacent door. Is there any trick to hide that?

We hate ceiling fans in general. The current lighting track adjacent to the ceiling fan needs to be replaced.

The shelves on each side of the fireplace are shallow (5 inches depth), so it is difficult to place décor items there.

Existing curtain rods (or what remains of them) are hung too low. We need to elongate the walls.

We placed various pieces in the living room that we got for a penny or inherited. Our goal was to get a feel for the room, and to meet basic functional needs. That does not mean that we like them all (we do not like the painting with butterflies for instance, I guess you don’t either…).

We may keep the following items:

• The couch, which is very comfortable. If you believe that we can keep it, then we can have it re-upholstered if needed (and we can stain the wood).
• Carved cream and gold mirror (inherited) next to the couch
• Small chest with painted flowers (inherited)
• The chimney tools and log holder (inherited), not the screen
• To be discussed: though we are not fond of wingback chairs and caned chairs in general, we fell in love with the upholstery pattern of the chair that you can see on the photos. That chair is also comfortable. We can paint the wood, if applicable.
|| A note on chairs and armchairs: we like to have our back and pelvis well supported. We find it very difficult to find chairs and armchairs that offer good support while being generously filled with foam. Hope you can help with that. ||
• The chimney / fireplace: it is a custom, masonry type chimney with real stones. We are not considering having the stones painted. We can of course stain and paint the wood panels on each side. We can replace the shelves if needed (they are shallow, as shown on the floor plan).
• Please note that the room is adjacent to the backyard. There is a beautiful, airy vine there, that blooms throughout spring and summer (white little flowers). We have beautiful Woodard and Salterini wrought iron patio tables and chairs (inherited) that pair well with that vine, so we may create a sense of continuity with the interior design.

Yes

Paint

Yes, Wood, Area Rugs

What styles do we like in general?

1/ English / country / cottage:

Rooms styled that way sometimes look “stuffed” or overwhelming to us, and somehow outdated. But we like many aspects of that style. It can be both elegant and playful: décor items that are unexpectedly matched; intriguing objects, antiques, and textures; a humorous touch… We enjoy the small details approach. Also, we like the subtle glam or the romantic vibe in some feminine versions of that style (flowers, ribbons, ruched fabrics). We would like to have a fresh approach of that style.

2/ Transitional Louis XV-Louis XVI, and Louis XVI:

Transitional Louis XV-Louis XVI for the fine curves (we love curves), the elegance, and the balance between restraint and frivolity. Louis XVI for the amazing harmony and the luxury feel. Many different colors function well with these styles. They can satisfy people who love empty spaces and clean lines as well as people who like to have many décor items. We usually approach these styles with a classic perspective, a glamorous perspective, and / or a romantic perspective.

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What colors do we like?

Remark 1: we don’t like to have too many colors in a room, and we prefer serene colors over bold colors. It’s OK to play with patterns and accents to bring life into the room, but the palette must not become a patchwork either.

Remark 2: we are open to suggestions regarding wall colors, as long as they brighten the room and remain elegant. We were considering having white or cream walls, with pink and burgundy accents, but we can of course discuss that.

Colors we like in general:
• Whites: usually like pure white, or white with grey undertones. Off-white and cream are also options to warm things up.
• Blues: we like pretty much all variations of blue, from the soft, dreamy ones (e.g., blue hydrangea) to the assertive ones (thinking of cobalt for instance) - and anything in between (e.g., teal). We believe that they would not be a good fit for the walls though. And we might opt for warmer colors here.
• Pink + burgundy: as accents. We are usually attracted to rosewood pink, blush pink, dust pink, or pink variations found among peonies (pale to vibrant).
• Greens: we like green, but not all about it. For instance, we like lush green (e.g., emerald) and fresh green (e.g., mint or turquoise), but we are not that fond of earthy green (e.g., olive, sage, or moss green).
• Gold

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What are some stores or designer brands that we like?

We come from France, and so far, have not found any store or brand in the USA that offer both quality and refined design (assuming that such a combo exists for people who are not billionaires). Let’s say that we are not much familiar with the US offer.

We get excited when browsing the Chairish and 1st Dibs websites, but that’s for antiques and vintage items. Regarding fabrics, we like UK and FR brands (we can import fabrics for curtains if needed).

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Other:

• Sunlight => Please refer to our floor plan. The room is quite well lit on its northern side (from the balustrade to the middle of the couch) in the morning, until 2 or 3pm. Only the balustrade and the pocket door get full sun during the day, but we would say that 60% of the room gets good light.
• Wall color => Yes, we need to change it.
• Wall covering => Paint. Sadly, the walls are textured, so we cannot use wallpaper. And local contractors are apparently reluctant to smoothing the walls. We will remove the popcorn ceiling though.
• Floor covering => We need to change the flooring. We consider having hardwood flooring + a rug.
• Other =>
o Should the ceiling fan be replaced with a ceiling lamp?
o There won’t be any TV.
o No dog, no cat, no kid.