A Little Wishing and Dreaming - Living Room Inspiration Photos

I'm sitting here on this rainy yet abnormally warm cloudy day, still in my pjs and sipping on a big cup of hot tomato soup. Does it get any better than this? Mmmmm....

Are you like me and love looking at photos that inspire you? I've been trying to come up with ideas for the living room to implement down the road, so I've been pouring over lots of photos. At some point, we'll be replacing our bulky, old sofa and love seat with some lighter, classic style pieces with perhaps a European feel. I don't know that much about furniture periods or styles - just what I like and what I don't like. I'm thinking of going with a sofa, two chairs, and a big round table in the center of the room. I'm not big on "ornate" though a little here and there is fine (like the brown mirror I hung in my living room last week). The overall look that I'm going for is something like you would imagine in an artist's cottage retreat in the country...a little eclectic, but simple. So I would like to mix a couple of different styles - the simplicity of farmhouse pieces with the beauty of "European in feel" pieces (namely the upholstered furniture). I love this sofa covered in ticking. I just want to melt right into it!

And look at these antique chairs covered in a dramatic red and white print (click to enlarge)...I'm not sure that I could ever pull off using something like this in my space, but I can see it being beautiful in someone's space somewhere! Imagine them with crisp white linen pillows opposite a white cushy sofa with similar legs.

I really love the freshness of this room, from the ceilings to that big, beautiful blue flower arrangement on the table.

And more flowers and interesting ceilings... I must say that I am in LOVE with the shade of blue on the doors - very French. And notice the darker black accent pieces like the frames on the mirrors and the chair? Cottage isn't just about white anymore. It's amazing how fresh even black can look with the right contrasting colors.

The walls and ceiling in this photo are very quaint and charming. Love that sofa, too!

A true French room! I love *everything* about this room. I can see our living room going in this direction if I could find all the different elements - and especially those yummy chairs! In the future, I'd like to replace the the TV with a plasma and move it to the wall opposite the fireplace (the wall the white chair is on here), but hide it away in a cabinet similar to what is pictured here. Then the TV can just *poof* go away!

The old mirror, urn with the greenery, and monochromatic tones of this space are just lovely.

Of course, I can't design my room around every bit of all the inspiration photos I just shared, but there are elements of each that I like and maybe somehow, I can pull together something of my very own that looks and feels nice. I like the frumpy antique sofa, the idea of using two chairs instead of one love seat, the nice big floral arrangements, the interesting ceilings, the big hutch, the large old mirror, the monochromatic color schemes, and maybe a touch of that blue I covet so much. Lots to think about!