Living Room Progress - Part IV

It's been exactly 5 months since my last progress report on the living room and I'm ready to show you what we've done since. It's not much because we've been working on a few other areas of the house as well plus, life gets in the way sometimes. You know?

Here was my to-do list back after the last update:

Short Term: Art above bar, feature above sofa, planter for free
Long Term: Bigger TV, hardwood floors, built-in entertainment unit / bookcases

To recap, this is how the room looked before we moved in:

This is how it looks today:

Art above the bar and planter for the tree can be crossed off the short term list but I still haven't found a feature for above the white sofa. I had planned to try the large mirror we currently have standing in the kitchen but am too lazy to tackle the whole let's-try-hanging-a-gazillion-pounds-on-the-wall project. My other plan to paint a giant canvas has not come to fruition either. Again, that laziness. It got to me.

But...I can also now cross 1.5 items off the long term list which in my opinion trumps my one fail on the short term. You may notice that our TV has grown a bit. It's now a 42 1080P LCD up from a 32 720P LCD. And since we got an amazing deal on it, I don't feel so guilty for skipping ahead on the plans.

Same goes for the bookcases. I eventually want built-in bookcases for this wall but that can't happen until we install hardwood and that can't happen until we magically pull some cash out of....nowhere. So for the time being, I found these for a steal ($30 each!).

Just for fun and because it never gets old (at least for the person trying to show off) here's another photo of the room so far in a Before/After comparison:

I probably won't be working on this room for a while and turning my attention towards the master bedroom and sorely neglected kitchen and office room. But never fear, I do have some plans for this space once I'm back at it:

Short Term:feature above white sofa, pillows for brown sofa
Long Term: new matching sofas, built-in bookcases and perhaps fireplace?, crown moulding, hardwood floors

As you can see, I dreamed big with the long term plans because well, since it's going to really long term, I might as well dream big!

Previous living room posts: Potential Layout | Progress Report: Part I | Progress Report: Part II |

Living Room Progress - Part III

This is part three of the progress report and I suspect it will be a work-in-progress for a while yet so expect progress reports like a never-ending Hollywood franchise. This is post-cleanup because we were having guests over. It's still not magazine-perfect but whatever! It's much better than the before (which no one needs to see).

As a refresher, here's the BEFORE of our living room taken before the previous owner moved out.



Looks just sooo cozy, right? This is what it looks like now...

From the hallway


From the kitchen


From the living room looking out


This is with full sunshine outside. As soon as it's a little overcast, the room becomes quite dark. But I decided to embrace the lack of light and create a cozier place rather than go all white. I find it's difficult to get that picturesque all-white look without help from natural and studio lights anyway.

There's a few short term improvements I'd like to make:

-Art above the bar
-A feature above the sofa (we have a giant mirror that may work)
-A planter for the tree

Long term wishlist (in order)?

-Bigger TV
-Hardwood floors
-Built-in entertainment unit / bookcases

Previous living room posts: Potential Layout | Progress Report: Part I | Progress Report: Part II |

Mini Progress Report

Just a super quick update on the home decor front.




I purchased the mirror for a mere $30 at Homesense on Boxing Day and hadn't found a place for it since. I hesitated to hang it between the curtains because it seemed too big but when I showed my husband, he said it looked fine there. Now that we have the dramatic lighting, the larger size seems to fit quite well.



The framed black and white photo was a find at Goodwill back when we were in the apartment. I love how well both the chrome frame and photo itself looks against Benjamin Moore's "Silver Fox" paint.

I'm really hoping to have the bedroom painted within the next month or so and a few other minor projects complete. Expect another update soon!

Paint The House - Part II

We did it! We finally made a decision - after a bit more deliberation in store. We came home with 7 cans of paint, rollers, paint trays, etc. and about $500 lighter in the pocket (eesh!).

But I'm super excited because we did end up getting Taos Taupe (for the living room) and Silver Fox for the hall/stairs/landing. We were originally going for a gray or taupe for the bedroom but I had the idea of going for a violet-gray. Cam wasn't a fan so I suggested a light blue instead - something smokey and calming, instead of cute and cheery.

We ended up going with Smoke. The name is a little misleading. Yes, it is gray but more like a calm sky covered by gentle clouds than cloying smoke. I found some examples of each paint color used in a room. You'll notice it can look quite different depending on the lighting.

BENJAMIN MOORE SMOKE

image via styleathome.com

image via decorpad.com

BENJAMIN MOORE SILVER FOX

image via decorpad.com

image via decorpad.com

BENJAMIN MOORE TAOS TAUPE

image via decorpad.com

Can't wait to paint the walls so we can finally unpack and I can start decorating!