Help decorate my apartment

Zek

My apartment has been very sparse for a while now and I've decided to finally do something about it, but I have no sense for decoration. In particular the main living room is large with lots of empty wall space and I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm hoping to come up with something a little classier than covering it all in posters like a college dorm. I tried putting up a shelf over the desk but the drywall is crap and doesn't support much weight. Anybody have any pointers? Pics:

Also thinking about putting a rug on the floor here, any ideas on shape/color?

Skoal Cat

Pick colors and go from there. I went with black, white, and silver for accents in my main room (splashes of color here and there too). Some of my favorite wall pieces are framed black and white fabric with really great patterns that I've put in random frames I from Goodwill that I painted a matte black. You could wrap the fabric around cardboard or thin plywood, but I also added a layer of foam so that the fabric fills out like a cushion almost.

My kitchen is filled with the most ridiculous and random artwork I've found. Anytime I find something really fucking off beat, it goes in my kitchen.

noir_blood

This is something the gf and I did with our current apartment.

We bought a bunch of different size black photo frames from the dollar store, and then just grabbed some comics, magazines, and cheap art books and just started cutting out things that looked interesting. We call it our nerd wall.

Bagginses

Install cordwain and tapestries.

MagicToaster

I agree with Skoal Cat, choose a color scheme and let that be your starting point.

Iruka

Do you ever open that window, with the TV in front of it? I would probably put it against the wall with the closet, so you can regain the window for light. A good way to dress up the back of a couch is to find a hallway table that covers its length, Gives you a surface for decorative objects, like potted plants. It you do that you can hem the curtains and have some knee level bookshelves under the window, if you need more shelves. Something to hide the cords over by your computer table would be nice too. Not to mention a more appealing, covered trashcan.

Potted vines are hardy little things, and can really add a lot of life to a place. We have quite a few that we've clipped and gotten new plants from. we have one growing down a china cabinet that is a nice accent. It adds a little green.

This site http://colorschemedesigner.com/ is great. pick some colors and make a note of them, once you have a theme in your head, it should be easy to shop. You have some neutral stuff, so some color to offset that would be nice.

As for art, are you in an area with an artist community? Galleries with high priced oils are not the only art venue, you might find local people doing cool stuff. You might also try Etsy, or just buying canvas prints.

Skoal Cat

My favorite pieces in my kitchen of random were found in a parking lot, in a friend's closet when they moved into a new place, and a resale store in some tiny ass town in the middle of nowhere. Art is what you make of it.

Bagginses

From what I can see, there's only one window, so mirrors (and other shiny flat objects) are necessary to brighten up the room.