Family room design - any suggestions?

[NewJeffCT]

My wife and I recently bought a new house, or had one built for us is more like it. One aspect of the house is that it has a large family room - I think it is like 17' x 20'.

Right now, it is pretty bright & neutral in its design & color. The walls are white, the fireplace mantle is white. We have two white bookcases. The berber carpet on the floor is a light beige and that matches the slightly darker beige tile around the fireplace. Our big screen TV is a silver 51" Sony. The entertainment center is a very light wood color with white drawers/doors. The sofa/loveseat combo is the darkest part of the room, but is still sort of beigish. We also have a leather rocker/recliner that is a light cream color.

The room has 5 windows, so is pretty bright. The only thing we have on the windows are white mini-blinds.

We want to add some color, most likely by moving the sofa/loveseat combo out of the family room & into the living room and then replacing them with a new combo.

My wife has suddenly gotten the hots for red furniture. Any opinions on red? It would still match the neutral colors and give the room a bright splash of color. Any other suggestions? We're not looking for anything too outlandish/outrageous - we're in New England after all.

[Kahuna]

1. Red and tan goes together. So you wouldn't be grossed out

and want new carpet. Works for me! Also, I have a red geometric print sectional in my office. I love it. It's so bright and cheery.

[demnan]

2. You could try

an lounge chair that is rose and a sofa with a rose/tan print. It would brighten things up and tie everything in.

Another thing you could do is paint one wall a different color. My cousin painted the wall where her fireplace is medium blue, that way the white fireplace stands out.

You could do the one wall where the fireplace is in a rose color and match with the furniture, for instance.

[Beer Snob-50]

3. We are redoing our family room right now also!

We had paneling and a dark blue shag rug in there (we have been in the house 10 years and have finally gotten around to updating it) As I liked the paneling, I am having the room painted terra cotta with a beige berber rug. In my opinion that gives the room a warm, welcoming feeling.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. A subtle (rust) red would work, with perhaps some white and beige throw

pillows and blankets. And then beige and rust material overlapped over the top of the windows. Have fun!!!

[madaboutharry]

5. I think tan and red look

good together also. You might add some additional window treatments with a tan and red color scheme to tie it together. Something to compliment the window blinds that are already up on the windows. Great accessories in red will be easy to find to finish it off. I would just make sure that red is really something you want to live with long term and not get tired of.

[DemWitch]

6. EGADS... it's a sea of white!

If you went with bright red furniture, you eyes would probably retreat to the back of your skull with all that white... What you could do is tone down the white walls by using a light beige sponging over the white, two varying shades of beige would work better. Buy a darker shade of beige and whiten it a bit for the two different shades. That way the white won't be so stark against the red furniture. As far as the red goes, you can go anywhere from Fire Engine red to a burgundy. A burgundy-ish furniture set with a subtle beige pattern would probably work better than Fire Engine red. My living room set is that Ultra-fake-suede stuff that you can toss a pizza on and just wipe off, I forget the name of it, (microfiber something or other) but it's nice stuff. It comes in a gazillion different colors and patterns, and since it's suede like, it shades a bit when rubbed, so it's not really a solid color. You can accent the color also with fake plants and flowers with a red/burgundy color on the leaves or petals, lamps, vases, etc., so the furniture isn't the only thing with a strong color in the room, which will also tone it down a bit...

[NewJeffCT]

12. my wife likes things bright & cheery

We upgraded our kitchen cabinets from the standard oak to white & all our kitchen appliances (save the stovetop) are white as well. The counter top is like a sandy beige color, which goes with the hardwood floor in the kitchen.

[Cheswick2.0]

7. Red gets tired quick

I'd settle for red pillows or even a repaint on the walls. Mybe a warm golden beige, add new couch and chairs but make them nuetral and add lots of red pillows, throw quilt etc...

[Ready4Change]

8. Think of beige as the rice in a meal.

Then think of the red as the main entree. That's fine, but to have a satisfying meal you need a little (and I mean LITTLE) dessert. Maybe some beige throw pillows with fine green trim, matched with some other small elements with some similar green shades, like an area rug, small vases, etc...

You don't want the green and red to be fighting each other. One needs to be clearly dominant. But by using a greater and lesser color, both will come to life.

BTW, I'm not a designer. My wife watches a lot of home improvement shows, so some of that leaks into my brain.

Have fun.

[Nite Owl]

9. Red furniture can be

expensive to replace if you get tired of it. Walls are easy to repaint if you want a change. Or a bright area rug to break up to light colored carpet. Pillows, art work, throws can add some color too that would be easier to change.

[lpbk2713]

10. Before you get the interior walls up.........

pre-wire for telephone, data, cable TV, and audio (speakers). It will save a lot of trouble.

[NewJeffCT]

11. house is done

the house has been done since June 30.

Unfortunately, had no clue that my wife wanted a home theater system, or we could have had the room wired for it ahead of time. My wife is the one that nixed central vac & several other upgrades. So, I figured that wiring the family room for surround sound/home theater was a pipe dream and that I would rather argue for upgraded roofing or a paving stone walkway instead of something she would obviously never approve of...

Who knew that everybody in China has home theater systems and that my wife (originally from China) wanted one?