living room

Here's an introduction to our (blank) living room. 

If I had to define our style, it'd be coastal, ahem "Cape Cod Cottage," with antique and traditional accents.  

The room has some very wonderful details including a coved, tall ceiling, built-in bookshelves (with changable spacing), a working fireplace and matching square windows on either end of the mantle, which are covered by accordian shutters.

I would ideally love to orient the space around the fireplace wall, which I'm happy to show has a very large mirror that, per our request, came with the house.

Alas, because we have our TV and its stand in the space (both I hope to move to our finished basement, once we finish it!), the focus is shared with the right wall, opposite the front picture window.  Initially, this wall was going to have an art arrangement, which I'm now moving to the back wall so that it is reflected in the mantle mirror.  I'm picturing mostly antique book illustrations in gilt frames. 

I'm hoping the art arrangement will help transition the living room to the dining room through the wide archway.

 Because the front door opens directly into the living room there's opportunity to create an entry way, which may have a storage bench and hooks. 

As you can tell, the house is white; white, white and a bit more white!  We've been in our house for three weeks and I still can't decide if I even want color on the walls.... any of the walls!  It'll come, but for now, I'm very content creating bright spaces defined by neutrals and cool tones.  With enough wicker baskets and ball jars, any space is beautiful, right?