The room looks lovely. The rug is too light in fabric weight - it could be dangerous if someone caught their toe under it. And as mentioned by others - you need some colour. I know that it is advised by some people that a mat should go under the furniture, however, that is not always possible.

Thank you robandlyn. I am definitely leaning towards the karndean especially for the kids. I might use it for a splashback?? hi the interior therapist. Thank you for your reply. The budget that was put into our build (by the builder) makes hardwood floors an extra $23k. Although the 600 x 600 are expensive to lay it still comes in at less than half the price including bathrooms. We had hardwood in our last house, I liked it but it scratched and dented with chairs and kids dragging their sandy bikes inside. i am worried that I will choose the tile and hate the cleaning and potential slippery accidents in summer but I worry about the look of karndean....... is it very plasticky? I have some samples but it's very hard to tell from such a small piece. Is the tile we have chosen too 'busy' for all areas? Maybe I have really bad taste and it's an ugly tile lol Thanks so much for all your help guys :)

I agree that it can be upsetting at this stage but your timber will all darken naturally and the difference will become less obvious over time and once you have furniture and rugs in place it's likely to be one of those issues that only you and no one else will notice. And I defy anyone to not have something like this in their house which has been newly built/renovated. I know this isn't terribly helpful but I don't think ripping anything up to start again or going to great lengths to seek recompense from supplier/installer is going to help your blood pressure either (by all means raise concerns with them and ask for suggestions from them).

In that room I would go a bold patterned rug. It's a low contrast room as so much of the existing colours are harmonising. I like the distressed patterned rugs you've chosen but I think you should steer away from pastel versions and go a bit braver with a brighter colourway. Your room can certainly take it and I think you will be more pleased with the higher contrast. You also need a very large rug (3mx4m) otherwise as you've found with your existing rug, it's too insignificant against the scale of the room and furniture to make a reasonable impact. While the rug size I've mentioned seems huge you have to remember it's going to have your couch and ottoman sitting on it and then the room will be framed by a wide band of your floorboards. A rug that size will be in scale. To finish off, pick out a colour or two from your rug and put cushions in those same colours on your lounge. It will make a huge difference to your room.