Living Room

I mentioned awhile ago that I had been making some changes to our living room decor ever since we got new couches.  This week I had a chance to go out shopping all by myself (a rare treat!) and I hit every thrift store and antique store in town.  I came home with several new (old) treasures that really went a long way into pulling the room together.  I played around with my new finds this morning and decided it was time to finally update the blog with photos of our current living room.

There was a lot I really loved about the room when it was this way.  But when we got our new dark gray couches everything began to feel really dark and heavy.

And there were things I definitely didn't like about the room before.  The lack of seating was frustrating.  We could really only seat three or four people comfortably.  Also, the little TV tray we had been using as a side table wasn't really working for us.  The broken lamp took up most of the space on the table. And while the artwork "matched" it didn't really have any personality.  It was like hotel room art.  Blah.

Now we have a lot more seating thanks to having a love seat instead of an overstuffed chair.  And that little orange swivel rocker was a $5 score at a thrift store in Albany.  It's everyone's favorite seat in the house.  Our new rug is the right size to hold all our furniture and it really seems to make the room feel bigger.  I found the side table at another thrift store in Albany.  It used to be a kitchen table but I sawed the legs down to make it work for our living room.  And the yellow lamp and shade are from Target.  My 'Exegesis' art adds depth and texture and the room feels like us now.

Speaking of the table that I cut down (and also sanded to get rid of the super ugly and badly applied stain) Noah has set up a little reading nook underneath it. We want to rig up a light for him but for now he uses his headlamp.  That pillow was a Christmas gift for Noah. I wasn't sure how it would go over since it's not a toy but Noah was so happy on Christmas morning when he opened the box!

The piano helped in giving purpose toward the front of the room but it always seemed a bit lackluster over there.

The bigger rug and a few accessories helped tie both parts of the room together.  See that vintage suitcase and the globe on top of the green cabinet to the left? Those are two of the treasures I found the other day.  I'll show a better shot of them later in this post.

Here's the same angle of the room but from a few steps back.    That orange door on the left is another of my treasures.

I never knew what to do with that blank space to the left of the green cabinet.

This old beat up door had been sitting on the porch of an antique shop in town for months!  They let me have it for a song and I'm planning to put some artwork in the window frame part and then hang the whole thing on the wall.  It's quirky and unexpected and I just love it.  I also love how it fits in with the vignette on top of the green cabinet.

It's hard to tell from these photos but the water on the globe has really similar blue and green swirls to the artwork over the couch.  I love the deep colors of this vintage globe and the orange-y vintage suitcase goes perfectly with it.  The wooden sign on the right was one of the items I got at the Summit View Bazaar last year.  My Beautiful Mess was directly across from me and I stared at that little sign all day, falling more and more in love with it as the hours passed.  Thankfully, Heidi was willing to trade with me.  She got some cool jewelry and I got the sign and this little welcome mat below.

I love the simplicity of it.  And that little orange 'hi.' just feels so perfect for our little house.

I'm amused that I pointed out my messy kitchen before.  It's equally messy today.

I love how colorful the room is now!  There is pattern and texture and depth and interest.  And there are two cuddle blankets.  It's very important to me to have blankets to cuddle with.

Here's the boring music corner again.  I know that it doesn't help that the shades are drawn and there is no light in the before picture.

Now the piano and guitars feel like part of the same room.  And the room feels so much bigger.

Here you can really see how small the old rug was.  Another thing I disliked about this rug is that you could see every crumb, lint speck, and fuzzball thanks to the dark brown background.  It constantly looked dirty.  So annoying. 

I saw this rug last summer on an episode of the HGTV show Junk Gypsies.  When the decorators laid it out I said aloud, "I need that rug!"  My sister-in-law was watching with me and she agreed.  I spent months hunting it down and when I finally found it the price was way above my price range.  But then Geary surprised me on my birthday by saying I could buy it.  When I went to look at the rug on the website it was on sale and I purchased it so fast!  It's pretty wild and crazy but we love it.  Crumbs, lint, and fuzzballs still show up (there is, after all, a contrasting color of dirt for every background) but they don't seem to glow in the dark the way they did on the old rug.

I'm still on the hunt for the perfect clock for this room.  And I know I'll change up the accessories on the piano when I find some different thrifted treasures.  I would also love to make built-in floor to ceiling bookcases all along that back wall.  And new baseboard molding is on the wish list, too.  But for now, our living room feels like home again. And it feels good!

Thanks for sticking it out through this whole tour of our living room!  I hope you enjoyed seeing it.  I know I enjoyed sharing it with you. :)