Five Years Ago we loved into our house and this is what the living room looked like:
I loved the large bay windows and how the room was open to the kitchen. Last Wednesday I shared you the Google Image of our house before we bought it. It had a massive tree in front. You can see a winterized version of the tree here.
This was how the room looked for a little while.
Our living room was the last on the lis to rehab. Mostly because I just couldn’t decide how I wanted it to look. Here is the transitional stage. (Sorry for the bad picture)
The fireplace was what was throwing me off. It was very red and I don’t love the color red as the main focal point in the room. I do love read accents but this red was defining this room. It took a little patience to get Lee on board with painting the fireplace but when I finally did, the room just came together naturally.
We built the bookcases to flank each side of the fireplace and I covered the Ikea Lack floating shelves with fabric. I was nervous to do it, but I am so thankful I painted the fireplace, and Lee is too. We use it every winter so painting it did hinder its purpose. I never could decide what to put on the mantle. I tried different things but everything I could find was too big or too small. To be honest, I kind of liked the minimal look.
This is my favorite little nook with my rock star chair that I found on Craigslist for $50. I read my bible here every morning. I blog here. Its my favorite spot.
Here is an up close shot. I made the bible poster and the book cover art here. I also have a stack of all my favorite design books.
The other side has our television and all of our electronics. We don’t have cable but we do have an antenna. See how we installed that here. Read here and here on how we watch television without cable. I also found this chair on the side of the road and recovered it. This chair is my husband’s favorite chair. He usually pulls this back to the couch and watches t.v. in this chair.
Here is the view of the living room from the kitchen. I bought a carpet remnant and cut it to fit the room perfectly.
I built this ottoman/coffee table from an Ikea Lack Coffee table.
I made a tray from an old cabinet door and it is the perfect place for coffee and drinks. That is Lee’s car that he made to race when he was little. Are you impressed? I am.
I needed extra seating but I did not want to block the window. We bought a love seat originally but I returned it. The hubs built me a bench and I made a cushion. Its extra cushy and I love laying on this bench and taking a nap. The bench is as big and as deep as a love seat.
I also made these curtains out of fabric scraps I had on hand. They are all different weights of fabric. The trick was to make sure the heaviest weighted fabric was at the top and bottom. I had to calculate my stripes based on how much I had while still making the two panels identical. I didn’t have enough blue and white for the curtains to be long enough…so I added black. Random, but I love them.
Here is the view of the room from the fireplace. You can see how our hallway goes back to our bedrooms. I found my couch at a local store called Brashears. Around here, leather and tan couches are king so I was thankful to find a grey couch with modern lines. The pillows are from target and Ikea.
In this picture you can see how the living room flows into the kitchen. I love how open and cozy it all is.
If you have followed this blog long you know I have a love for all things Danish Modern. I had no intention of getting a new entry way dresser until I found this dresser for $50. I made the chalk board quote wall out of framed drywall.
I style this area often, but this is how it has been for a while. I found the F sign for $1 at a flea market, I love vintage books and the jar is full of the Christmas cards we received this year. I like to pull one out every once in a while and pray for that family.
Speaking of drywall, I used fabric covered pieces of clearance drywall and ikea frames to create this gallery wall. You can see here what all the art is on the wall.
The frames go all the way into the hallway. I love how it turned out and I ofter catch my self looking at them all and smiling.
Its been a progress and I have loved this room, especially on a cold winter night with a fire. It looks much different today because we have started packing it all up. I wish I could put it all back.
