Home decorating dilemmas

Well, I’ve reached a bit of an impasse in my home decorating. I don’t like the color of the futon cover, but can’t decide what new color to make it. I really need to get a swatch, hold it up to my various treasures, and see what I think; but most online shops have only a limited range of swatches (nowhere near their complete line). So I think I’ve decided to decorate around the issue: I’m going to hang all my treasures and then figure out what color the futon should be.

I have discovered, to my distress, that some of my treasures simply clash. I finally found my stitched pieces–Teresa Wentzler’s The Castle, Teresa Wentzler’s Lily Maiden, and a pattern called Royal Rose whose author I can’t remember. They’re gorgeous, but two of them clash with my overall decor in the living room (so they may have to live in the bedroom or hallway). The beautiful blue tapestry I commissioned while in Laos doesn’t match the living/dining room either, and may have to be banished to the front door niche, along with one of my Tibetan thangka (religious painting of the Buddha). The only things I have right now that definitely belong in particular places are the silk rug from India (over the futon), The Castle (which shows a dragon wrapped around a castle), which goes over the dresser, and two Lao silk tapestries, which hang on the living/dining room wall. What to do with the two other tapestries or the Tibetan thangkas or the lampshades I got in Vietnam…well…so much to figure out!

(I will definitely post photos once I get it all worked out.)