Optical duh!

So, I did remove one of the two easy chairs in my living room. The second one with a matching stool is still there, as it turned out it was mostly the other one that kept getting in the way.
Space-wise, thus, the situation has been getting better. But optically, it still isn´t quite right.
You see, that easy chair has bright red cushions. DH´s couch is dark brown leather, and Grandpa´s easy chair is black. The cocktail chairs have dark green leather seats and backs.  When I bought the red cushions, I thought they´d brighten up the room a bit. But now, with a more minimalist decorator´s eye, they clash with about everything else in the room, apart from having gotten a bit dingy.
As I was intending to replace the cushions anyway, I went to the IKEA website to look for new ones, and found out that they have these now in dark brown leather, matching DH´s couch exactly.
I had thought of buying white leather cushions before, but that was when the only alternative color they had in leather cushions for those chairs was black. As I don´t really like black as a color for furniture, that precluded getting another color than white, even though I knew these would be staining easily.
Seeing they have them in dark brown now, I know what I´ll put on my wish list. Having the same color upholstery for couch and easy chair will make the whole room look more styled-through and put-together.
Besides, while I really like red as a color in general, those red cushions are so dominating the room that I have to keep everything matching them color-wise, or rather, that the other chairs keep clashing with them optically.
Dark brown, dark green and black are close enough together to match, but these red cushions will have to go. Just imagining the brown ones on that chair means thinking of a room that has more optical calm than it has today.
The other problem with our living room furniture is that there are also several different kinds of wood. My furniture was mostly pine and birchwood, so, light-colored kinds of wood, while DH, being a guy, brought darker-colored kinds, like teak or walnut.  Having  these in the same room means even more optical noise than just the upholstery would create.
Now if I could do as I wish I´d toss all of the dark stuff and replace it with birchwood or maple shelving and matching chairs and tables. Unfortunately, DH is very attached to the walnut and teak stuff because it came from his parent´s house as a gift to him. But maybe we´ll be able to put most or even all of it into what is now our old bedroom, which will become his office and den as soon as we can exchange rooms.
It´s amazing how decluttering has made me aware of the visual clutter that our furniture is creating. While there was plenty of stuff lying around on those chairs and tables, I blamed it just on that if the place looked cluttered. Now that most things have either gone or  found their permanent homes out of sight inside some cupboard, I suddenly see that the furniture mix in our living room looks cluttered enough on its own to keep the room from getting that feeling of calm that is what I wish for in interior decor. And I have discovered that it isn´t adding something new that will bring that feeling. Rather, it is removing things.
So, this weekend I´ll be once more going through our stuff, deciding what to get rid of, and enjoying the fact that we are getting ever closer to the goal of having a peaceful and calm flat.



Julia