Sorry I'm not a design expert-but your new home looks like a wonderful canvas that you can do all kinds of amazing things with to make it nice & cozy. I'm sure you'll get an abundance of help here on Houzz. Good luck!

Thank you...it's our first home and I just want it to be nice. So decorating it is becoming overwhelming because I don't know where to start.

Well Congratulations! When we did our kitchen & back yard remodel-I created files on Houzz by saving pictures that appealed to my husband & I. I love that you can filter all your preferences on this site too.

I'm saving photos as well but I have noticed my design looks are all over the place.

Since you have a spotlight over the FP mantel, shop for a piece of art to go there. It should be one you love because the colors from it should work through the other furnishings. The window treatment below is too formal for your room, but is to show the idea of hanging stationary panels outside the recess and using fabric or fiber shades at the window itself. I'd use a round table in the dining area and hang a new chandelier that throws light upward instead of down. Down lights wash out the food colors and case unflattering nose and other shadows on diners' faces.

Looks like you have enough space to split the room with 2 small seating groups. I would get a sectional for the front of the fire place and 2-3 chairs for the space across from the stair entry. You should paint the walls to make the space brighter and have large artwork on the fireplace wall to balance it off.

You have beautiful floors.. I personally think the orange should go! you should add some brown/grey/and white furniture. It would look beautiful, you can see in one of our projects we did. And potentially remodeling the fireplace or painting it a neutral color.

Thank you deco...., I was wondering if I should put some curtains on the inside of that window or outside. And I have a table that's comings I will upload a photo maybe you can help me find a chandelier to fit that. Rita should I go white for the color of the walls? And you don't think with a sectional and 2-3 chairs it would take up the space? And Urban design I completely agree about the furniture...it's military loaner furniture until we purchase new ones. This will be the table and chairs that will be in the dining room.

Would this sofa go?

I too love the floors! Quite similar to the sheet vinyl "driftwood" we just installed in our slightly split-level house. You can go either brown or gray tones with that wood, I think.

I like the Ashley living room "suite" (if you do) -- because all the pieces are not exactly the same upholstery but they are tied together. At one time I had one of theirs picked for this house (but the decor went another way). Gray and yellow are nice together!

For the living room window, hang your drapes outside the indent, on a long enough rod they can be drawn ("stack-back") entirely off the alcove. You can leave the miniblinds especially if they are necessary for privacy, or you can replace with good old-fashioned sheers (for that reason). That's for drapes that are NOT fixed panels. A house that is split-level is probably about 50 years old? if those windows haven't been replaced, they are single-pane and energy IN-efficient -- hot in summer and cold in winter.

It is the situation we were/are in. Living room has a 10' single-pane picture window in a 12' bay! May I recommend Ultimate Black-Out Curtains

which are also thermal and stack-back to about 10% of their panel width, or 10-11" for the 112" patio panel. Honestly, they look about like fixed panels when drawn, it is that little space they take. Touch Of Class has all the colors incl. gray, although with mostly different names (!). They will also sent you up to three 3" swatches to help you choose colors. (And if you wait a little while, you can get them to send another three!) We got two patio panels in Putty/Natural and a white rod, and they cover 13'8" very nicely. The best price for long rods was Overstock.com -- Bold Pole for the very long ones and Barricade for the rest.

Agree that you should get rid of the vertical blinds on the patio door. That was the first thing I did here! I did leave the verticals on the picture window and its sidelights, but if I haven't drawn them once in six months, I'm taking them away too! I just didn't want to think about it right away, too many other tasks.

Disagree about breaking up the living area into two 'spaces' (unless that's the only place, say, for a desk). A nice-sized rug (Overstock or even Walmart has good prices on 8x10 rugs) and a sofa + a couple chairs will make that room not seem so large! I personally would not go the sectional route; most are actually less flexible than separate pieces of furniture. But if that's what you are used to and you like it, just watch your dimensions!

It's worth collecting (digitally or paper) rooms you like, even if they are very different -- I went through two or three possible themes for our living room (and entire house!) before what has worked out nicely, came to fruition. As IzEve suggested, it finally came down to my DH picking a sofa! Before that he had only ruled AGAINST things I was considering -- didn't like "industrial" open media center, hated tufted Chesterfield sofa, thought the "country" dining room was too plain... etc.

I see you have your dining set picked and that your dining area is continuous with your living area, so you'll want to ensure that living furniture doesn't clash with the dining. But with the two woods and light gray (or is it taupe) fabric, that should not be too difficult.

Leeza you are an angel!!! This home was built in 1989 and was flipped by a very nice guy who lives in Alaska and wanted to make a profit so he did his best to get it up to par for the market. This home was the most updated home we seen in Alaska and decided to buy. The windows have not been replaced and you can feel the cold Alaska weather!! We have started buying black out curtains for this reason and for the long summer days. We are trying to update it but find it extremely hard given what's available in the local stores here. Our bedroom in the bottom half of the house that sits in the ground...so we are talking about insulating the downstairs to make it warmer. I found this light at lowes and was thought this probably would work over the dining room table?

I like that light/lamp, very contemporary, and goes with the XX-back chair color.

Wow you're in Alaska! I'm here in So.California and don't need thermal drapes near as much as you! except maybe more in the summer!

I will try to get some better pics this evening to show our thermal BlackOut curtains. They come in many lengths -- 45/54/63/84/96" and two widths only -- 56" and 112" (I don't think the shortest ones come in the long length.) They look very rich for what they are -- I ordered a different brand from Amazon and sent it back based on color, but it was also nowhere near as polished looking as these.

Our house has 8' ceilings and we are used to cathedral ceilings for the last 25+ years, so I went both wide AND high on the living room drapes. However, with the (nice) cove molding at the top, the 96" panels drag on the floor! Not enough to call it "puddling" which is not a look I admire anyway, so hemming or having them hemmed is on the list.

Oh, and I forgot to mention -- these drape-like curtains are also MACHINE WASH & DRY!!!

This is the Barricade rod (end):

It comes in lengths up to 144" (12') and a single UBO (ultimate blackout) curtain of 56" literally stacks-back onto the 'return" or part that goes back to the wall. This rod avoids drafts around the ends of the curtains and I recommend them highly. Someone "panned" them in a review as looking like pipes! Well if you get the silver, I suppose so! After all, that's what they are, tubes with elbows.

The Bold Poles are also nice, and we had to get one for the 14' bay coverage, and also used one on the den window which is visible from the living room.

Where in Alaska are you? Somewhere with a Lowes... (we also got our kitchen/dining/entry lamps at Lowes, I was going for the wine-cellar/tavern look which I think we got).

Well, back to unpacking for me! We only moved 2.5miles so I'm doing it in stages and re-using the boxes.

We are in a town called eagle river...very small and quaint just like I like it but still close enough to anchorage. It's a different way of living here but I think I will get the hang of it. Those curtain rods are amazing.love the look of those! So I just took this test to find out what design look I like and it said transitional. Never heard of that before but I started looking it up and I do love the look.

Argh, I had a nice long chat written here, and my browser crashed. As it does daily. Guess I need to try Chrome, after years with Firefox and getting others on Firefox.

Anyway, transitional is part traditional (or some other set style, I think) and part contemporary... But which parts can be different for each person! Of course, implementing any style is individual I guess.

I thought your XX-backed chairs look slightly "Country" and your end chairs are a type I've seen recently on Pier 1 and Pottery Barn, so contemporary but they may be a revival of some other time's style. (I did consider those chairs for this house, in fact!) So yeah, transitional.

If you incorporate a lot of different styles, I call that "eclectic." But some people use eclectic as pretty much a synonym for "bohemian" AKA hippie chic. You'll also see people using contemporary and modern as synonyms, but in decorating terms, Modern should be restricted to Mid-Century Modern -- think Eames chairs, Saarinen tables, Eichler houses, Danish Modern anything.

So here are pics of my thermal Blackout drapery-like curtains, well, one end of one full-length 112" wide curtain. Open and closed.

Both halves:

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Leeza love your curtains they look like they are thick and block out all the light. I decided I'm not going to get curtains until I have all my furniture in. I did go and buy a sofa and chair for this space today though.

Diona,

Yes even the lightest color (which is I believe what I have) blocks ALL.THE.LIGHT. When you get your swatches you can see the black threads from the middle layer, but you don't see them at all in the curtains, which (I didn't mention) are finished the same front and back.

Your sofa/chair are strongly leaning to the mid-century meaning of modern, I think. They look nice together -- haha just noticed the sofa has two pillows that match the chair, so they are meant for each other! I like that, no worry that way!

I said your hanging lamp was contemporary, but really it is transitional between modern and contemporary and will work well with the living room set not too far away.

I think you're going gang-busters!

Did you consider the rug they have in the display? Looks pretty good with chair fabric (on my screen anyway).

Here are a few ideas for your new home from a design project we completed: