I wouldn't understand "pick up the room" - the only way I could parse it was in terms of booking a hotel room, as in "I picked up the room for a bargain price".
yeah, but... my mother quickly learned american idioms, and spoke like a native (with a bit of a brogue!) i certainly was told 'pick up (the living room) or (dining room)' as a child growing up.
(and was told my own room looked like
the wreck of the hesperus
a den of iniquity
worse than the black hole of calcutta
terms that had many of my friends scratching their heads..)
actually most of them were meaningless to me until i looked them up.. In the 70's, i picked up a copy of Turners Wreck of the Hesperus--what a beauty.. (it was a mental reframe too.. one 'set of harsh critial words' that had been branded into my brain, became a thing of beauty.. should anyone today say i looked like the wreck of the hesperus, i would say, "Thank You!"
american have their own idioms.. but many are quickly learned.. (we don't get our knickers in a twist... but sometimes our panties get in a bind!)--
