Advice please - how to decorate new house?!

[Dinosaurhearmeroar]

Hi everyone

need some help - moved into a new house on December and struggling to decorate hall and playroom shelves. I know it looks off, I know it needs something but I am overwhelmed! I look at Instagram and see inspo for what I like but struggle to put it into action. Walls are staying the colour they are (dulux Egyptian cotton) for foreseeable so can’t change that. Decorating suggestions please - candles, lamps, pictures etc? The tv area is so dark but I’m not sure what to do - battery charged lights?

thank you x

ps rug has now gone and we plan to change front door to lighter colour with windows.

You need personal touches to bring it to life: pictures, plants, ornaments, books, lamps. Obviously don't go mad and cram it with stuff.

I think part of the issue is that the shelves are too high and the mirror (is it a mirror..) is also hung far too high over low pieces of furniture - it looks as if both had taller pieces of furniture or a bigger tv underneath originally? Adding another shelf above the tv would help, as would a taller pieces of furniture of furniture under the mirror. How is the room currently lit?

I don’t think there’s much wrong with the hall except that it looks rather bland— hang some art on the walls, and have a more exciting rug that uses some of the colours from the art? Our hall walls are a not-dissimilar colour (F and B Dropcloth), but there are paintings in strong colours on the walls, and a kilim runner on the floor.

Thank you both - we’ve just had the shelves done 🤦‍♀️ so I’m a bit stuck how to rectify it. Should I turn mirror vertically? It’s a hard space as it was a fireplace years ago but that has been removed and now we have a y breast which is rly hard to decorate. The box underneath is my daughter’s toy box - should I put a little cushion top on it? And cushions? To make it look like another seat option? Tv is going to be changed to a bigger one bit even then it will get swallowed up. Just not sure how to sort 😔

You don’t need to turn the mirror round, just lower it by a good 8”…and when you hang pictures hang them lower in the wall too. When they’re too high like your mirror is, it put the proportions of the room off.
Your hall is off to a really good start-as others have said, some pictures on the walls (not hung high!) and you’re there.
The lighting in the living room looks a bit stark -do you have cool white bulbs in lamps? Try changing to warm white and you’ll see a difference with that alone.
For your living room shelves, take your time and put things on them one or two at a time, then they’ll be more “you”, rather than buying a load of stuff all at once. It’s taken me 3 years to have “stuff” I like-photos, some ornaments, a couple of plants, in my house and I love how it’s come together-I’m presuming you’ll be in your house a while so allow it to happen organically

You can get backlights for the tv, we have some hue ones which look great & brighten the area up.

What are you going to put on the shelves?

I agree with more pictures on wall. Houseplants will also soften it. You can get good fake ones from IKEA if you think you will kill everything

I think broadly what you need to do is to lessen the blank spaces between both mirror and shelves and the furniture below them, which is what’s looking proportionally ‘off’.

Yes, I’d experiment with hanging the mirror in portrait rather than landscape format, and see if that helps, or put the toy box elsewhere and put a taller piece of furniture in its place? If you don’t want to insert another shelf beneath the ones you already have because you’ll eventually be getting a much larger tv, I would probably put a trailing plant or two on the bottom shelf so the empty space looks less glaring. Unless you’re planning to replace the TV unit at some point, in which case choose a taller one.

Yes, the level at which things are hung on walls is absolutely key. It’s something I’v never personally struggled with (I can see when something is in the right place/at the right height without necessarily being able to articulate why), but some people can’t see it at all, and it’s almost always a matter of things hung too high rather than too low.

id hang the mirror portrait and a bit lower so it’s comfortable in the space, it seems squashed towards the ceding atm.
also all the lines - the shelves, the mirror are running horizontally , so moving the mirror should help, and a s a pp said, som houseplants, especially if they dangle over the edge of the shelves to soften the horizontal thing.
hall is lovely - that floor! Gorgeous, where did you get it?!

I think you could turn the mirror lengthways. I'm not sure it will look any better lower down as its a long space and you have those high shelves either side. A larger piece of art lengthways might look better though. The TV side looks unbalanced because there's one less shelf and the TV is small. Then you need to dress your shelves etc.

The hallway just needs some colour to break it up, maybe a plant or two?

thank you everyone! Really great advice. Will take your tips and try it out this wkend.

re floor - we moved into house like this so not sure! Would you like me to find out? X