By the pictures of your living room, you don't seem afraid of color. Would you consider bringing some of that same color into the dining room?

A dark wall would really bring out the art:

DIS you cannot imagine how much the one main, one neutral, one accent helps!!!! It's SO hard to choose. Obviously gray for the neutral. Contenders for accent and main are: greens, mauve/reddish purple, blues - can you help me choose? I'm looking for color palette generators now.

I am now shopping for DR chairs, cabinets and a large rug.

The chairs are slip-covered and they are Ayden. I'll check your link and compare pricing vs new.

Neutral - gray

Accent - greens, mauve/reddish purple, blues (cant decide!!)

Main - greens, mauve/reddish purple, blues (cant decide!!!)

Using the three choices above, does this rug for the DR still work ? I see beige/tan, gray, green, slate blue/ gray and reddish-purple when looking at this rug on the L&G website. Guess I'll wait for the swatch to get a better idea of what it looks like in my house.

And good news! The redecorating budget has been approved for an additional 5K! Not a tremendous amount, to be sure, but I think enough to get some things in place.

We are empty-nesters, no grandchildren (doubt there will ever be any). We have always made-do with whatever was cheap/free/thrifted/estate sale finds and although we have been ok with the arrangement, it's time for more attractive rooms.