I'm certainly no expert but my first impression is that there is no cohesion in your interior and furniture. And I normally like eclectic homes...

I do like your armchair and this probably works with your other seating, but I can't really tell because of the way the photos are taken and also because of the distraction of the coffee table and even more so the fire place 'surround'/shelving.

Do you intend to keep these?

Yeah as I said, it's a rental (you can see other photos in the link at the beginning of my post), so the fire surround and other things built onto / into the house won't be changing. I'm just trying to work around it. :) I'm not sure what you mean about destruction of the coffee table.

Sorry, spelling program... meant to say distraction, not destruction!

Are you allowed to paint the fireplace shelving?

Ah, now seen your original photos. It's a nice room with its French doors and double aspect!

I had a look at the website you named above, and although I could find many rugs that looked good, it struck me that they were all quite thin in nature. I noted that you suffer a little from the cold and maybe a thicker rug would be better. I came across an article about this couple:- Jon-the-carpetman based in France who sell very good quality carpets and rugs.

Whilst I couldn't find a specific rug I did have a go with mocking up different colour choices around a coffee table like this one, which I thought had legs that went with your armchair:-

Yeah it's a lovely house and the property is great, the view is to die for.... just some of the interior is not to my taste. We are living here and renting for a few years while the owners are waiting for Brexit to sort itself. They were trying to sell but are taking a break from it. They see the fire surround as a feature so it has to stay the way it is. They love it, I don't... but I don't tell them that. I'd like it a lot more without the side shelving... but hey, what can you do. I also don't want to buy furniture (we sold all of our previous furniture without previous house) to match this place as we will be moving on in a few years. So I bought what I liked. I just need to get rid of the coffee table and get a rug and coffee table that will go with the furniture I have for when I take it with me and that won't look too awful here.

This is the view from my sofa, so... I can live with the fire surround, I think. :)

Thanks Man About the House! I will have a look at that carpet shop. I also looked at grey but thought it was too much with the greyish sofa and curtains. I think with the house being so beige, and not being able to paint, I'm trying to get some colour in where I can without going too colourful with the actual furniture pieces, if that makes sense. :) I do like green though, as it would go with the chair and everything else.

I thought maybe a printed carpet but I'm not sure that would work, may look too busy with the printed chair.

That view! Magnificent!

I completely follow your thinking now, seeing the bigger picture (quite literally).

Maybe a large sisal (or similar) rug might work?

I'd probably go with a colourful but plain rug, and then go mad with your cushions, you can easily change cushions when you're bored with them...........just ask my wife, she seems to change them every other month............being a gentleman, i pretend not to notice until she says something!

I did wonder about if this may work...

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Rug would work, the same color you have on chair. But I would go with neutral one.

I usually like the colour green, but for some reason I don't feel it works in this room.

Perhaps it's not working (for me anyway) with the beige tiles.

oh damn yeah now that I see it like that the green rug doesn't work for me either. I actually have the matching pillow to that rug on my sofa, the striped one. I thought perhaps I should get something softer for the living room, but maybe with such an indoor outdoor lifestyle, it's better to have flat rugs for easier cleaning. As you can see the downstairs all opens up to the patio and it's open pretty much all day in the summer. I have this one under my dining table in the adjoining room:

(The dining room furniture belongs to the home owners. It was their summer house so a lot of it came from French 2nd hand shops)

Celerygirl, so you agree that a round table is the best way to go? I was looking at square as well but thought maybe round would soften things up a bit. Perhaps rectangular would still work, it's just the tiled table that I hate putting me off?

If anyone is interested in doing a bit of shopping with me, here are a few places we can order from (we are in the countryside in France and the nearest city is 45 mins away, ikea is 2.5 hrs, so most of our shopping is done online for delivery).

https://www.alinea.fr/C-35038-tables-basses

https://www.maisonsdumonde.com/FR/fr/meubles/tables-basses-0d111cc822ed994ad56454e5e4d32f42.htm

https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/catalog/categories/departments/living_room/10705/


Here are links for the rugs available on the first two sites (just in case someone is bored and wants to find a few more options with me!)

https://www.alinea.fr/C-34651-tapis

https://www.maisonsdumonde.com/FR/fr/decoration/tapis-1559ac122904996dcae8be4c5de8fda6.htm

I think the style of table MATH posted works perfectly with your furniture but as it's a retro style also goes with the fire, this is an Ikea one. A large palm (5ft or so) would really add some life and break up the browns

Minnie101, my only concern is that something like that may end up too wide for the space it's in. The rectangular one that's there now is -OK- but I feel like square or round may work better. I'll have to measure to compare. Maybe the oval, without the corners, will seem to fit better.

Hi again :-)

I think you should get a solid cream rug. Or the Ikea jute one, but I think you weren't too fond of that? And when you've got a rug as a barrier between the tiled coffee table and the tiled floor, you may find that you can live with the coffee table. Since you don't really hate it anyway.

I really don't like the tiled coffee table at all, it will definitely need replacing. I also am not keen on a beige rug for a few reasons. Firstly, the walls and floors here are all beige and I'm trying to break that up and bring some colour in, but also, living so indoors / outdoors, the thought of trying to keep a cream rug clean makes me twitch. it's just not going to happen. :P

Sorry, i didn't see the footstool! They also do the nest of tables in the same range (Stockholm)which you could push together a little bit more or separate. Measurements would be good though. I agree with Carolina, I'd go cream (without a yellow undertone) for the rug although I still like the sisal/jute idea :)

Slow posting, ok cream is out :)

Sigh... okay then, no cream... :-)

This one maybe although it would bring out the tones in the tiles?

I'm not Sure if they'd work on your chairs but Ikea also do dining chair covers. If not some cushions could break up the wood or obviously a tablecloth or even just a sheepskin to add some texture

The dining chairs are really strangely shaped, that's why there is nothing on them at the moment. They are really wide at the front and narrower at the back of the seat. So any square or regular shaped dining table cushion fits really strangely.

I would -like- a beige rug, but I know myself and our lifestyle here enough to know better. The bottom of the house is open all summer with us and the dog going in and out. I'd be setting myself up for frustration trying to keep it clean.

I would consider jute, my husband doesn't like the idea of it but I don't mind it. Is it really rough on bare feet?

I just measured and I think the widest I could go for a coffee table would be about 1 meter wide.

I did see a combination like this, which I thought may be work? I do like the stockholm set minnie posted but I'm always so wary when thinking about adding MORE wood. haha