Living Room Update

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We are about halfway done with the living room, and I thought it would be interesting to look back and see how we got here.

Here is the first glimpse of the living room.

That's J, standing in the doorway to the kitchen. We weren't even living here yet! The first things we did were pull up the nasty carpet, remove that weird little shelf, and did a little surgery on the ceiling fan (the light didn't work, and I hate overhead lighting, so J just took out the lighting kit).

This is a little inspiration board I whipped up that week.

How much of this actually happened? Well, we still have the sofa. The Crate and Barrel lamps were the inspiration for my spray-painted blue lamps with homemade shades. The silhouettes are still adorable, and I'd still like to make some for our nascent salon wall. I'd planned on painting our MCM office credenza that wonderful mustard shade and getting a rug in the same color. Well, that's when we planned on painting the room a nice chocolate brown. That didn't work out. And the mustard against our pumpkinish tan walls would look...odd.

Now, those Anthropologie curtains? I'm still in love with them. They are still over $200 a panel. I've looked and looked for a suitable stand-in without success. I think that's one reason why I've had such a hard time coming up with a workable window treatment for the living room. I love these curtains SO MUCH and nothing else comes close.

Then I was wandering around Urban Outfitter's website, checking out bedding, when I found this.

It's actually a tapestry. For $39. And there's mooooore than enough fabric to create two ceiling to floor curtain panels. And I was all happy and thinking I could totally make them work as curtains.

Here they are side by side. What do you guys think? Because now I'm convinced the tapestry is hideous. I think the pink is throwing me off. #thelivingroomwillneverhavecurtains

ANYWAY. Here's the living room today.

A look into the living room from the hallway at the credenza I straightened up back in the day. I'm still planning on painting the case gray and maybe the drawers white. Oh, and an Emily photobomb! The rug is folded back because Guest Dog is a disaster. Yes, the hardwood floors look awful. They are clean, but they are in terrible condition that only refinishing will fix. We're going to get there someday.

Standing in the foyer looking over the sofa to the dining area. The most complete part of the room. Love my Duncan Phyfe dining set and vintage Harland Young horse painting.
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A close-up of our current table scape. Yes, the table really is that shiny!

Looking over to our future salon wall. The bookcase is destined to move into the spare room/future den. I like the things I've hung up so far. There's just not enough of anything. And why did I hang our embroidered quote like that? #ihavenoidea The side table also is moving into the future den. I love it, but it's just so big! I think a couple of little ceramic gardening stools would give us somewhere to prop our feet/set a drink without taking up to much visual (or actual!) space.

My Target vase, which I found on clearance for $2 over the summer. It's a close cousin of the West Elm version. I love how it looks sitting on some of J's National Geographic collection.

So we still have SO MUCH LEFT. But I wish I had better before photos, because this room has come so far. It's now actually a nice place to hang out, read, play with the pets, listen to music, have dinner, and work (I'm usually camped out at the dining table!). Curtains are obviously my most important next project, but I'm also planning on recovering the dining chairs, adding to my salon wall, painting the credenza, and moving out the bookcase and overgrown side table.