Creating a Cozy Den

Den, before we moved in.....click all pics to enlarge.

Another room in our home that was fun to put together is our downstairs den. The livingroom with fireplace is just above this room, same footprint. I knew when we first looked at the house that this room would be perfect for my entertainment center & chocolate brown leather loveseat, just as the upstairs greatroom with the fireplace would be perfect for the more formal furniture that is up there. I wanted the feel of this room to be more casual cozy, a place to kick back, relax and watch TV. Those 2 pieces were my starting point for this room, so I thought you might enjoy seeing the process I go through to put together a complete and finished room.
This rug was one of my first finds for the room, a great buy at TJ Maxx, all wool (8x11 for $200). I loved all the colors in it & knew I wanted to bring some blue in the den, so it was a perfect find. I already had the brown leather loveseat, the entertainment center & then added the rug to the mix. This rug was the jumping off point for bringing all the other fabrics in here. And, I might add, this is the first time I've let a rug dictate my choices for fabrics. Usually it's the other way around & I have the furniture pieces before I choose a rug, but I hear all the time about choosing a rug first. This is just the only time I've ever adhered to that "decorating rule" since I happened upon a rug I couldn't pass up. My motto is...rules are meant to be broken & I do it all the time. As in, I mixed this contemporary ottoman in with my traditional furniture. I fell in love with it after seeing it on the floor at Macy's. It has 4 pullout trays all around the sides that I knew would come in handy for drinks and mixing contemporary and traditional is done all the time now.
I had always wanted chocolate brown leather & so I bought this loveseat for my den in Georgia. I knew I would always be able to use it in a familyroom setting. Next, I spotted these window treatments in a catalog called, The Company Store. They were on sale and I got them both for less than $100. They are not lined, but I loved the fabric & knew they would look great with this rug. Again, it was a good hunch & I really like them in here. They are on a simple metal rod hung with rings. Oh, and the rod was found at a yardsale too, can't remember how much, but very cheap. If I remember right, it was gold & I sprayed it black to work in here. I start to lose track after awhile of just what I've done to things. Floor lamp was a yardsale find for $3.00, lampshade came from Walmart. Ceilings downstairs are 8' while the upstairs is a loftier 9'. This is the first time I've ever had 9' ceilings & I really do enjoy them upstairs.
These 3 pillows were yardsale finds, $12 for all three (they were custom made by someone). They had all the colors in the rug, so were a perfect complement to the room. The lidded pottery vase in the window was also a yardsale find for $5. I later found the candlesticks on closeout at Hobby Lobby & they look like they came together. Candles were found at Hobby Lobby too (1/2 price of course!).
A yardsale find, this little desk is tucked into the corner beside the entertainment center. Paired with a wicker chair that was painted black & a leopard print yardsale cushion, it's a perfect little spot to accesorize & it fills up the corner very nicely. That's a woofer speaker underneath in case you were wondering.
There's one of my yardsale lamps that I picked up for $5, as well as the oil painting above it. It was also $5, I just had to get it framed and I found that wooden brown frame on closeout at Hobby Lobby for $5 too. The faux hydrangeas were also a yardsale find, as was the large finial.
This piece is older Henredon & was a pretty shade of stained wood, but I decided it was a good candidate to paint black & use a little gold Rub NBuff on the legs to bring out the detail. It has such lovely details & now they show up very well. Those are faux books on the desk.
Entertainment center was purchased when I was living in GA & it has served me well too. This is where my shell collection is hiding, on the glass shelves. The clock ($5) and iron/wood wall hanging ($3) are from yardsales too. Many of these accessories I already had, so I just reused them. Many came from yardsales, especially the things on top & on the shelves. I love moving things around from room to room & adding in those yardsale finds are a great way to add personality to a room. Almost every item on the top came from yardsales over the years.

Entertainment center shelves with my aqua blue and seashells. The rug has some aqua blue in it, so I wanted to bring in this shade to my accessories. I love how it looks with the shells. More shelves
Top of Entertainment center. Most all of these newly added aqua pieces came from yardsales.
So, the only 3 pieces I bought to finish pulling this room together (other than a few accessories) is the reclining chair (by Lazyboy), the gold chenille sofa (by Rowe), and the chocolate brown round leather ottoman (by Bernhardt). The color in here is by Sherwin Williams, called Believeable Buff. It's on the same color strip as my gold color upstairs, Whole Wheat, and is one shade lighter. It works well in this lowlight room to bring some warmth in here. Oh, and see that cute little end table. Found it deeply discounted for $100 at a local furniture store. I knew it would look great with my entertainment center, so I put it in the frontseat of my car & brought it home. I was right, it worked great. It's really wood too, which I always look for. The metal lamp I've had for many years & it started out gold finish, so I painted it to a bronzey tone. Added the new shade from JoAnn's. Our house is a split foyer & here you can see the stairs coming down from the foyer, as well as a glimpse of the stairs going up to the greatroom. Just to give you an idea of our floorplan. You can also see a peek of my office nook through the doorway there. That's where I hang out a lot & visit all of you! The laundryroom is just beyond my office nook. There's another bedroom & full bath down here too, so it makes for a nice space when we have company visiting. Also notice the botanical grouping on this far wall, which you'll see closer. I'd love to add a long bench under these one day when I find the right one. Here are the botanicals up close. I got these off of Ebay for a great price & had them framed at Hobby Lobby by buying their open frames for 1/2 off, then adding the mats & glass. Very economical way to frame a pic. Shelves were also from Hobby Lobby, 1/2 price. I've started back with my shell collection in the last few years & have found many of these at yardsales too. The big "M" also was 1/2 price at Hobby lobby. I painted it darker bronze.
Overall look at the room. Hopefully this will give you some ideas on putting a room together. Large map print over the sofa came from Homegoods for around $80. Again, the major 3 pieces for this room were the recliner chair, sofa, & leather ottoman. I shopped around until I found pieces that fit the budget & then special ordered both the chair & sofa, so I picked the fabrics for them. I decided this stripe on the chair would be a great complement to the rug & that meant that the sofa needed to be a solid.

One very important decorating tip for you: I have learned over the years to keep large items of furniture solid & neutral & if I really want print accent fabrics, to use them on a smaller piece, like a chair or pillows. It's worked out well for me, so I think I'll stick to that rule. This sofa fabric will be very versatile with many other fabrics down the road, no matter how I change out the window treatments, rug, or even the chair.

EDITED TO ADD: A couple of people asked about the furniture arrangement being towards one end of the room & the reason for that is that to the left of the botanical prints and to the right of the entertainment center is the door leading to the garage, so that is why the room appears to be stacked towards the window side of the room. It was done intentionally, as there is a natural pathway from the bottom of the stairs over to the garage door. That traffic pattern has to be kept open. I do realize that the wall on that end looks a little bare from the pics (but not so in real life) and one of these days I will find a nice long bench to go under those botanical prints. Have to keep that traffic pattern open. Just wanted to clarify that!

Hope you enjoyed the tour of our cozy den! And maybe that will give you an idea of how I pull together a room. Some people get stuck in the planning mode, but if you have a starting point, think things through, then you can add all the elements in one at a time until you have a room you will enjoy living in with your family. I've really enjoyed how this room came together.