While the wood
The beauty of shelves is that they let you show off interesting objects, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be interesting objects in and of themselves. Brown and black are a great combination, just be wary of making a room look too drab. Here, surrounded by light walls and flooring, they pair up (and pop out) nicely. Creating balance and symmetry in a room doesn’t mean that, if folded in half, one side of the room would lie perfectly on top of the other. The television is flanked by a cabinet on one side and a shelf on the other.
They’re not carbon copies of each other, but because they’re the same height and all the pieces are made of the same dark stained wood, there is balance and harmony. Neutral doesn’t necessarily mean devoid of color. The muted aqua on the walls here warms up the rooms but keeps the feeling light. Pieces are all in the same dark tones, we went lighter for the sofas, the rug, and the floor. This way there’s a good mix and the room feels warm and inviting.
This living room was also designed to fulfill a couple of functions. It’s the place where the family can entertain and just hang out and talk and the room where they can watch TV.
Flat-screen TVs fit pretty nicely over a fireplace, but in this case I purposely put the TV on the opposite wall so that if they look one way it feels like an entertainment room and if they look the other way it feels like a cozy room for hanging out by the fire. That, my friends, is known as maximizing your options!. All the little items on display in your house, whether they’re books, candles, shells, or a collection of porcelain dolls from the ’50s, say something about you. They tell a story (and let’s be honest, some- times it’s a bizarre story) about what you love.