Decorating my living room and have decided I hate it :( how can I make it better?

[marne2]

So I had it all planed, colour scheme, new curtains and cushion covers and wall paper, looked perfect in my head. I have just finished painting and my curtains have just come in the post and it looks awful , I still have the wall paper to go out which could make it look better but could make it ten times worse. It looks like young single mans living room, nothing looks feminine, curtains are rubbish ( my fault for buying online ). Walls are a pale grey, curtains are red, black and grey stripes, my sofas are dark brown and now look out of place. I can't afford to start again so the paint and wall paper will probably have to stay! I'm tempted to replace the curtains but this will cost me a fair bit as I have 2 big windows and the patio door .

Anyone else managed to f*ck up whilst designing their living room?

Would go for a mix of beiges and grey. So very plain curtains. Think textures is the way to go to make it more feminine. Lovely loopy / bobbly wool carpet. Woolly cushions, shaggy cushions etc. Lamps with a mesh pattern that make interesting patterns when on or bamboo lamp bases type thing. Logs (if you have a fire) etc.....

We have that paint colour in our living room and brown / light oak furniture.

Our curtains are purple (blueberry?) and I have a large abstract print that ties all the colours together along with purple & silver accessories. I love it.

My suggestions:

Keep the walls taupe, don't use the wallpaper in this room

Sofa/suite sounds fine

Woodwork all white if not already

Invest in some simple cream curtains, will go with everything forever

My choices of accessories would be:

Cowhide rug - would look best with wooden floor
Wool checked cushions
Knitted cable textured throws in greys or creams or navy
Wooden furniture
Large pewter mirror above fire if you have one
Pewter or glass accessories

You could look at New England living rooms on Pinterest and see if that helps.

I think you can rescue it with very few changes.....

Thank you, feeling much better about it, I'm going to look at getting a new sideboard as dh's one is a bit retro ( he brought it home from work, works in a auction house ), our flour is light oak, going to get one large canvas for the wall rather than 4 or 5 pictures that we had before saw some nice brown fur cushions today which I might buy and maybe a brown rug as ours needs replacing.