Even though I would consider it far from finished, I thought I should take a few photos and share how our living room is coming along since we've made a lot of changes over the past few weeks. I have the 'before' photos to compare.
This is the room that greets you when you first walk in our front door. First, the fireplace. I am so excited to finally have a fireplace to use during the winter.
Below is how the fireplace looked before moving in. It was painted a creamy color similar to the beige on the walls. I gave the fireplace a fresh coat of white semi-glass paint. You'd be amazed how much brighter the living room is after that simple update.
BEFORE view from the front door:
And AFTER:
I'm hoping that adding two fabric accent chairs will balance out the room against the leather couch, metal coffee table and brick fireplace. I think the fireplace needs something to soften up the space a bit since that corner of the room feels a bit masculine. It also needs a pop of color to liven it up - like a bold, bright printed vase with a house plant where the horse print now sits (it's blocking the front of a black storage door).
BEFORE view towards the front door from the fireplace:
AFTER view:
Yes, the wall behind the stairs hasn't been painted yet. Since it stretches to the ceiling of our second floor we are waiting until we tackle the upstairs hallway to paint that wall. I think one of us will need to get the guts to stand on a ladder on the steps to reach the top of that wall.
I've been wanting to do a gallery wall like this since I saw this one on Pinterest. I'm still picking photos trying to find the perfect ones to print and fill the frames. The 'bench' below the frames is actually Lucy's toy box. We have larger toys (princess castles, tents, etc.) stored in the coat closet under the stairs. The rest of her toys are in her bedroom (see before and after photos of Lucy's bedroom here). There is a large beige area rug behind the leather couch which is where Lucy takes her toys out to play.
This couch. Jordan and I talked about owning a leather couch forever, but the price of them had always kept it a dream. A few weeks after moving in we received an unexpected refund from the last mortgage payment on our townhouse. Since the refund was almost the exact amount of the couch we saw it as a sign to go ahead and treat ourselves. I found this couch on sale on Overstock and scored and additional 10% off since I had previously made a number of furniture purchases for the new house. Overstock is great about constantly sending coupons after you make a purchase.
We also wanted to purchase a new coffee table. I found this box frame coffee table from West Elm. While $350 is more than we wanted to spend, we received some Pottery Barn gift cards for Christmas and held onto them knowing we'd need to make some furniture purchases after moving in. We also received an additional 10% off by signing up for their emails. I love, love, love this coffee table. The cowhide rug was an Amazon purchase I made when we were still in the townhouse. We sold the house soon after it arrived so it never made it out of the box until recently.
Hooray for grocery store peonies!
Here is a before shot of the view towards the living room from the kitchen.
And an after shot. I haven't decided for sure, but the plan is to put two white accent chairs either side by side in front of the window, or opposite each other on either side of the coffee table (window side and kitchen side). I'm planning Ektorp Tullsta chairs in white since they come with washable slipcovers.
And one more photo facing the kitchen. Kitchen tour coming soon.
You might have noticed that the vintage dresser turned bar from our previous dining room now serves as an entry table in the living room. Disregard the silly paper towels under the legs. Until I can find a way to remove them I want to avoid scratching up the floor with the rusty wheels. The dresser styling also needs some work (the frames don't even have photos), but like I said this room is still in progress.
I'm definitely happy with our progress in this room, but it still doesn't feel finished when I'm standing in it.
What we've completed:
- repainted the walls Benjamin Moore 'Moonshine'
- changed out the door knob on the coat closet and front door
- repainted the fireplace a semi-gloss white
Still to do:
- add crown molding and possible casing to doorways
- finish painting far wall behind stairs
- purchase chairs to put by fireplace
- fill frames with photos
- style entry table and fireplace
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