I wonder if any lovely Houzzers would let me know how you'd style my sofa? It would be amazing to see some mock ups. You could follow my rough brief below or go with whatever you like to help me to think differently.

I'm not loving the current bold colours/patterns and I think I'd like to tone it down a lot, as per the inspo pics below. We also just got a new oak effect laminate so I'm now looking at rugs too. Any suggestions for rugs would be great also - I've never ever bought one before! I'm always reading about the golden rule of making sure the rug is big enough to go under furniture legs... is this really essential in your opinions? I've seen some lovely rooms by interior designers where this isn't the case. The footstall can stay the same or I can recover it with a new piece of fabric (I've done this a few times already as I get bored quite quickly).

We have two very small boys and we like to relax in our home so I tend to go for things which can easily be cleaned, are fairly inexpensive, or forgiving fabrics/colours.

ps. The room isn't finished yet (missing skirting, TV unit needs to be wall mounted and wooden top added, wall pics need lowering...).

More pics in the comments....