Hello AT,

I am in a decorating rut and am in desperate need of advice from all you wonderful ATers! Basically, I just moved into this beautiful apartment, and I have all my basic furniture, but I need a way to inject some color and personality into my living room...

Attached are pictures of my living room, and also of the curtains I am having resized and hung around the sliding door. So basically, I am looking for a colorful area rug that doesn't clash with the black brown/off white/taupe curtains. I am also hoping to pull a color from the rug and paint the kitchen backsplash in a matching color (such as hot pink or orange) since it is all one big open space.

I do not have pictures of the kitchen, but basically it is all white (countertops and cabinets), with black appliances and the same maple wood floor. I also want to find throw pillows and other accessories to add life and energy to the space. I love what I have so far, but I cannot live in such a sterile colorless place!

Any suggestions/recommendations would be happily received!

Cat

Dear Cat,

Your space is beautiful and dying for color! Aside from an obvious red infusion, olive or a sagey green (warm) would work very nicely here in a rug.

We would go with these green tones in the rug and pop red into your cushions, artwork in the dining room and perhaps a table lamp to the right of your sofa.

Also, the curtains seem a bit too safe on the color score and quite busy.

Hold that.... we just took another look at them. They are a daring choice and could work. Not much color, though, so you want to make the other pieces work harder.

We recommend you take a look at Baker's more contemporary collections as they work in a palette that we think you'd really like.

Anyone want to take this on??