House Tour: Living Room

Today on the house tour is the living room! This is one of the rooms in my house that got an early makeover and new furniture to serve as a starting point for the decor, but not much has been done since then.  Similar to the rest of the house, I don’t have a before photo, but believe me when I say that I wasn’t good.

The walls began as a ‘contractors’ beige, 30 year old caramel colored carpet covered the floor, and there was a $2 boob light fixture overhead.  Half of the ceiling was missing due to a water leak in the upstairs bath and the fireplace looked like it would blow the place up if touched.

It wasn’t pretty from a decor standpoint either. We had a plaid sectional couch which either covered an entry, or the fireplace.  It was way too big for the room, but even so, we also stuffed an oversized green rocker in there along with the giant coffee table that we still currently use.  The space is small – 12×13.  Large doorways consume two of the walls, and a fireplace juts out on the third wall making furniture placement a big challenge.

Since 2006, we have completed the following:

• painted the walls (benjamin moore’s silver lining)
• recarpeted the floors – originally we wanted to finish the hardwood as we did in the entry, but the floor underneath was so uneven, that we couldn’t have refinished it or even put down a new floor without ripping out the existing floor, and ripping out a 120 year old floor wasn’t on our list of budget friendly renovations.
• installed a ceiling fan
• purchased a new couch, chairs, and side tables
• crafted a media console out of pallets
• cleaned, restored and painted the fireplace and mantle
• replaced drywall on half of the ceiling.

  

I still have a fair amount of things on my ‘wish list’ for this room:

• repair ceiling spackle – the star design wasn’t quite duplicated properly during the drywall repair
• cut down large window curtain rod (it was from another, larger window)
• new curtains  – I’m looking for some sort of light grey/white subtle graphic pattern
• tweak pallet console to look a little more purposeful in the room (add legs and expand some of the cubbies to accomodate the receiver)
• new coffee table
• smaller TV (this has been a discussion point now for some time…)
• ….among other decor things (artwork updates and textile updates)

Overall this room is in a good spot.  Major renovations are complete, the palette is neutral and just waiting for me to go the extra mile with it. With a little bit of patience and some creativity, I am sure that I can make the best of the awkward layout and come up with a plan that we love.

Do you have an awkwardly laid out room that you’re struggling with?

Have a SPLENDID Monday!