hypothetically speaking ...

Let's say you inherited this house but it came with certain conditions:

1. The furniture had to stay. (Other than the barstools, those can go. And maybe the coffee table. But you have two rough kids, so keep this in mind.)
2. The kitchen had to maintain it's same footprint, granite and appliances. (For now.)
3. The wall color needed to stay the same. (It's SW Universal Khaki - a slightly gray/green neutral.)

The rest (I realize that doesn't leave a ton) is fair game. Light fixtures, TV built-ins, rock fireplace ... what would you do?

~ Would you rip out the rock fireplace, install drywall and a more traditional mantel? Or would you install some sort of mantel on the existing rock? Or not do a mantel at all?

~ Would you totally reconfigure the TV built-ins to lose that stair-step thing going on? Would you move the TV over the fireplace and make that whole unit a bookcase/storage piece?

~ What you would do to add artwork and color?

The nitty gritty pics {to show you the bones}:




{Yeah, I know. What the heck is going on with that huge frame? I can explain later. Since this is now your house, you can decide whether to paint the frame and put something in it, or put something else there altogether.}





The prettier pics {a tiny bit of styling involved}:













Furniture details:
The sofa is a linen-ish slip with taupe piping and a small ticking stripe on the back cushions. The chairs are a barely-off-white matelasse.