Our Family Room...

I am linking up to Show Us Your House @ Thrifty Decor Chick today.  Today's feature is family rooms.  There are some fabulous ones over there and I have oodles of ideas churning in my head.

We have one family/living/great room in our house.  It's a decent size but I always like a formal living space (we've only had that once & I am sad to say that we used it for a pool table).  My husband says there's no need for a formal living room - I guess not if it houses a pool table! :)

Our family room is to the left of our front door.  This is the view as you walk into the house.  I think the lighting is horrible in the room.  We have two large corner windows  & a tube skylight (hate it) over the red chair, so you'd think there would be plenty of light. It just always feel dark to me.  When I open the blinds it's too hot with the sun in the summer, although the winters aren't too bad.

The view as you walk in from the front door.

We have a leather sofa (easy to clean) which is curved and I really like it.  The curve gives it a little something extra.

He's always right there with me.

 This is the display on the largest ever coffee table.

My new pillow cover - an attempt to lighten things up.  I love it!

Coffee table/couch view.

Below is a view from the corner windows looking out.  The red chair is my husband's and can't be moved (for TV viewing reasons) and the tan chair is mine.  I am not in love with the tan chair but it beats the old, huge recliner and it's pretty comfy.

View of the coffee table from the sofa.

Looking into the room from the hallway.

A few mantel views.  The TV hangs over the fireplace.  I have a love/hate relationship with that.  It's out of the way up there but makes decorating the mantel a bit challenging.

Close up of the plate I made at 'Color Me Mine' and my DIY mercury glass vase.

Here's the window corner.  I LOVE corner windows but these drive me crazy sometimes.  The blinds are closed here but still let in quite a bit of light yet the room is still kind of dark. And, doesn't everyone have a dog bed in their family room?  Please tell me you do!

My other little window dilemma is this:  I want to add some sort of window treatment-other than the blinds.  I was thinking a panel on each of the far ends - nothing in the corners as I think it would be too heavy.  Any thoughts?  Ideas on colors?

There are a lot of individual things I love about this room but I feel like it just doesn't pop.  Some areas of the room seem really sparse and some feel too busy.  I know this is a share your room post but maybe I need therapy instead!  I think I need to paint the room lighter - right now it's a very light tan (Barely Beige by Sherwin Williams I believe).  Again, I welcome comments and thoughts. :)

Thanks for taking the tour or our family room!