More decorating advice

coasterqueen wrote: There should be a decorating forum as much as I post on this topic.

I am still working on our master bedroom, so no pics to show you yet. I'm also working on our foyer. We want to paint it and some day we are going to tear that door out and put in a wood door with one side light. We still can't figure out for the life of us why we picked that door with two sidelights. It looks terrible there and such a small space, ugly door with brown trim, ya da ya da.

Anyways, I bought a new foyer table - one that I can put all my breakables without Megan playing with them. She's constantly touching them. Also I want to be able to put some village pieces there at Christmas time since my other village area is full.

The room used to have a smaller foyer table, a brass mirror and a traditional style rug.

We changed the mirror to a silver, got a bigger foyer table and the rug you will see in the pics is the one we absolutely LOVE for that space, but it's too small so we have to take it back We can't find the perfect size rug - this rug shown is the perfect style we wanted.

Ok, my need for advice is what to put on the table. Right now I have this lamp I've had around and I had some silver frames in my closet that I never got around to using. I think it's too much silver, though. Isn't it? Any other ideas. Oh and the plant shown will have a different pot. I couldn't find the right pot to put the plant in. Any and all ideas welcomed.

FYI there are several pics so be patient. Oh and P.S. You don't have to tell me how hideous the blinds on my door and side lights are. I already know. It was a temporary solution a long time ago for the enormous amount of sun we get in through those windows most of the day - a temporary solution that became permanent because we were too lazy to figure something out. Hopefully one day I'll do that.

coasterqueen replied: #2

coasterqueen replied: # 3

Oh and we'd like to paint that room, but haven't figured out the color we want to do and the worst thing is because of the way the walls are and how they continue down the halls we can't figure out where to stop the color.

avory&samsmom replied: Wow. Very beautiful. You totally should be an interior designer

Our Lil' Family replied: I LOVE that table!!!!! It's fabulous! And you did a great job with the runner...PERFECT! I think the lamp is fine and maybe one picture. I'm not sure yet what else to put on there. Let me think on it.

Jamison'smama replied: What about some neat candles/holders or a decorative clock?

ETA. It really looks great. I love the whole look and the table is fabulous!

Maddie&EthansMom replied: Wow you have very good taste, Karen!! That's beautiful!

Boys r us replied: It looks really nice karen...let me ask you..why are you taking the rug back? Maybe in person it looks bad..but in the pics it looks great. I don't think it's too big!

AlexsPajamaMama replied: Looks very nice! I really like that rug too. The frames and lamp look good with the silver mirror..maybe if you want to add more color to the table you could add accesories in colors from the rug you choose.

CantWait replied: I love the table, and I don't think there's to much silver at all. The rug is a little on the small side though. As for the windows, would frosting them maybe cut out on the light?

maestra replied:
I agree- the rug is a little small for that space. But I don't think I've ever seen one in the type of shape you would need, like a runner, but wider.

I was also wondering about frosting the windows- or what about screens on the outside? In Az we put up sunscreens- I just did this on the west side of the house, and majorly cut the heat down in that room. I don't know if it would mess up the look on the outside though.


BTW- reading your posts about your house has finally inspired me to start decorating mine- after living here two years! I've done the girls' room, but not the rest, because they all need painting, and, well, I suck at it.

coasterqueen replied: Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Nichole - The reason I want to take the rug back is it is too small for the space. Before I had a 4 x 6 rug and that seemed to work. Anything bigger and it consumes the entire space. Anything smaller is too small. I've searched a dozen sites and can't find the one I want. I'll keep looking.

For those who mentioned frosting the windows - that's a good idea. I didn't think of that. That would be a better temporary solution than the blinds. We will eventually tear that door out and put a wood door with only one side light. For some reason when we built the house I thought I HAD to have two side lights because it seemed right. Now I realize the space is too small and would look a bit bigger with a smaller opening.

We are also going to tile the floor some day but that is awhile off.

coasterqueen replied:
I'm glad I could inspire you. I suck at painting, too. I tried to paint one room and Dh had to repaint it because I did such a terrible job. He hates painting too, but I've been able to persuade him into doing thus far.

maestra replied:
I found out last night that dh's cousin works as a house painter. I'm hoping he might want a job on the side, because it took almost 3 coats to do the walls in the girls' room. I was painting it purple, plus the coat on the walls is flat, so it absorbed a lot. We went with a semi-gloss, since they tend to leave dirty fingerprints everywhere- that's why my living room needs to be painted so badly!

coasterqueen replied:
That's awesome. Hopefully he can get it done for you.

Our livingroom was painted in December and the prints are still terrible. It needs another paint job for sure.

moped replied: YOu have a lovely entrance, but I do agree that the rug is a bit small - the 5x7 size might work best, but I don't know the width of the entrance...........
I have no advice because I am a decorating looooooser

coasterqueen replied:
You are not a decorating loser Jen. If you look at my 1st picture - each tile is a foot so 5 tiles would be the 5 foot width rug - it would literally take up almost the entire width of the foyer. Dh thinks that would look funny. I'm not sure.