Living Room Before and After!

Some of those we love, who may not live nearby, have been asking for some pictures of our house.  And I finally got around to taking some "after" shots on a day that was sufficiently sunny enough for me to take pictures. :)  But of course I thought I would include the "before" as well!

Here is the living room before:

No, that is not painter's tape around the window.  That is dark, dark teal trim around the window.  Like, took four coats of white to cover it, and it still needed to be touched up.  That gem of a color will make an appearance in some other rooms too.  She was a beauty. 

 

 Here is the living room "during"!  There's Melly, painting her first room ever!  You should have seen her excitement when she was realizing how awesome it was looking.  She was giddy.  She was the best painter helper ever.

Here is the after!!  The paint color is Martha Stewart Silver Drop.  I have a gray obsession, therefore the whole house is gray.  :)  Fun Fact: we bought the floors online without ever seeing them in person, but knew that we would love them because the color is called "barnwood".  Turns out, we were right!

 These curtain rods were Hubby's idea.  When he said, "Let's make our own curtain rods," my first instinct was that he was either kidding, or trying to just trying to save some money.  Then he insisted he had a specific idea, and googled around the show me what he meant when I didn't quite understand what meant by "steel pipe".  A few days and a few trip to the plumbing aisle of Home Depot, and there we have our curtain rods!

We love the industrial look, and the mixture of metal and wood, and we are really trying to incorporate that into our home.  I love how these turned out, and love even more that Hubby had an idea, looked into how to do it, and we made it happen with our own two (four?) hands.  I love being able to create and decorate with his help, it makes the house such a product of what we love.  I'm pretty impressed with Hubby over this one!

 Reading nook.  Now all I need is some time to read!  Oh, you will notice some new lighting choices as well.  Limitted ceiling lights in this house, so now I had to make lamps my friend.  I hated them, but we are cordial now.  I discovered super-bright bulbs, and cheap(er) lamps at Home Goods.  (Part of what I disliked was their price. Ugh.)

Here is our fire place!  Mantles and I were always meant to be together.  I've always loved them.  I already changed this mantle like 7 times, at least.  Just THINKING about Christmas makes me giggly with excitement.  Oh, the possibilities.

Also in this picture is the first thing we bought for this home, that firewood basket.  As soon as we looked at the house, I knew I wanted that baby to be filled with firewood waiting to be burned.  (Or newspaper, waiting to be kindled.)

 Here's the mantle as it currently sits.  My favorite is the family picture by Gina Lenz.  Just in love.

So there is our living room so far!  I'm so hesitant to hang anything on the walls, but I know we'll get there eventually.  For now, we are enjoying the clean freshly painted walls. :) More projects and adventures, coming soon!