In particular the silk flowers and ficus had to go. I still love those sconces though.
This room holds my little office, hidden away in our old TV armoire.
You can read more about my armoire home office here.
I've spent the better half of 8 months painting my way through every nook and cranny of this house, and one of the most gratifying things I tackled was the natural woodwork that I primed and painted (all the while, a cute little redhead napped on the couch).
One of my favorite elements of this space is the huge window that overlooks a perennial garden.
Lace hydrangea that blooms from August until October is right outside this window, and beyond that you can see the Rose of Sharon bushes all in bloom last August.
The window sill was tiled to match the original rosy wall color (mmmmm, gorgeous right?).
Midway through this painting project, after the walls were ensconced in the lovely, warm off white of Ben Moore's Feather Down but the trim was yet to be finishined, we had a family party, so I put away the paint cans and the next thing you know,
2 months had gone by with the room half-painted.
That's how things work around here.
At long last I got the painting finished, but the hard part remained: pulling it all together.
Let's distract the eye with pretty flowers, shall we?
*sigh*
The whole "pulling it together" part had me feeling like this every time I walked in the room:
The challenge was to use the furnishings we already had. We really wanted a more neutral space than our old living room, so I used our seagrass rug from our former dining room instead of the oriental we'd used before and I love it in this space! My husband's only request was "heavy curtains like we had in our old dining room". I brought home about 10 sets of curtains that he vetoed (and he doesn't usually care one way or the other, so the fact that he took such a keen interest in this topic kind of amused me!)
Here it is today, all painted up shiny and new, curtains hung, but still in need of much tweaking.
Those crazy chairs are calling out for slipcovers but that'll have to wait for another year.
Even the rosy window sills didn't escape a makevoer! {More on the crazy notion of painting over tile to come.}
From my favorite spot on the couch I can see through the Frech doors (that need to lose those brass knobs) into the foyer (calling out for the staircase to be finished) and beyond that, the family room (in desperate need of new end tables).
While I have so much tweaking ahead of me (Robert Frost's "and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep" comes to mind), I can't tell you how much I adore sitting here, listening to my kiddos happily playing outside with the neighbors, thinking about how this house is truly becoming
our home.What do you think of the living room so far?
Come on in, sit down and let's chat about it over a glass of wine.
I always love visiting with you!
Linking up - thanks so much for hosting, ladies!
Beneath My Heart's Best DIY Projects of March
