Living Room Then & Now

Back when we first moved into this house my main focus was redoing a horrible no good very bad kitchen, you can check out photos of the kitchen remodel here.  Back when we first moved in we didn't have a rug for the living room, we had dark curtains and ugly flesh colored walls.  They don't look to bad in these photos but I promise you, it was like Silence of the Lambs on the walls.

I finally painted the brown brick on the fireplace. I am also hoping to paint over the sassy brassy parts soon with high heat paint in black.

The back wall is not my least favorite part of this living room. It looks like someone forgot to finish the bookshelves. For now the TV is there but I am hoping to convince Mr.A to build some built-ins and move the TV over the fireplace to make one focal wall instead of two. Then we can tear down the half finished bookshelves and do something else, like board and batten so we don't have to drywall.  Good thing we have Ms. A in the picture, otherwise there wouldn't be anything cute about that picture above!

If I could paint my living room again I wouldn't choose such a bright color,  I'd go for something softer but still an aqua/turquoise type color.  I think if I told my husband I wanted to paint the living room he would cry.  He read this last sentence and said it would be more like weeping. Good thing he thinks I'm so cute!
I am hoping to get our gallery wall over the couch done this week but with the kids on Spring Break it might just be too much for this week, seeing as I'm already redoing the dining room chairs and table.  have I ever mentioned that I think I have project ADD? Does anyone else do that?

I'm linking up at:

An Adventure to get Ektorp

Oh the adventure we went on yesterday, all for the love of Ektorp! Friday night was crazy enough, hubby had a gathering planned for the worship team at our church, just a fun night to hang out, eat and play music. He was the planner of this event so we had to get the food, get out to the barn and also pick up the U-Haul trailer before the place closed. We needed a U-haul trailer because we were planning on heading to IKEA to pick up Ektorp and company. The nearest IKEA is 2.5 to 3 hours away depending on traffic, speeds at which we drive and how many potty or food stops we need to make with 4 children. Plus we never can leave on time, ever. Seriously.
Friday night at the lovely party we receive a phone call from the sitter, daughter E is puking. NO!!! The trip to IKEA was called off. Too make a long story short, she threw up twice on Friday night and was fine by Saturday morning. We decided at 8:30 to head to IKEA after all. Frantic we run around, loading a puke bucket, paper towel and various other items.
To make this longish story even shorter, suffice it to say, we left town at 10:20 after the trailer lights not working, low tires on our vehicle, buying a plug for the trailer lights, etc. Cue the snowfall....and we arrive at IKEA at 2pm.
We made it in and out of IKEA in an hour after trying out a few sofas, chairs, deciding on a sofa and two chairs and purchasing black toilet brushes for the neighbor. All with 7 kids, 4 adults and 350 other people at IKEA that were in our way.
The trip back was even more treacherous with icy roads, people off in ditches, fog and driving in traffic with a U-Haul trailer bouncing along behind us! The kids all slept on the way home and we pulled into our driveway safe and sound at 11pm. We then unloaded the trailer and put our furniture together because we couldn't wait until the morning! It took us maybe half an hour to assemble a sofa and two chairs, slipcovers and all.  I also would like to warn you now that I did not iron or steam the slipcovers, they went from the package to the furniture.  I'm not really an ironing kind of girl, I'm hoping that over time and with some body natural heat they will iron themselves out.

So this is how the room looks for now. I'm still debating a few things but I'm really liking it! I also took a picture of the buffet we purchased off Craigslist last week.  I want to paint it white possibly, not sure if it will stay in the living room but that's where it is for now. 

  I'm loving the brighter feel of the room!  We'll see if the curtains stay or get moved to the dining room and the coffee table might need to go too.  What do you think?  Are we crazy to have white slipcovered furniture with 4 kids and a dog?

Painting the Fireplace

When we first moved into this house I was very excited to have a fireplace, my first ever home with a fireplace! I had visions of her in white and not a flesh colored piece of beigeness in my living room.  (What a scary dark dungeon of a room this was!) 

So I set out to paint her white. Well soon the kitchen project was taking up all my time and I never really got back to the fireplace. This is what she looked like just recently:

And finally a few weeks ago, I got around to painting the brown brick with primer:

Next up I want to paint the sassy brassy right off this little lady. I plan to use Rustoleum High Heat Paint in black. Here are a few blogs that have some pictures and or tutorials on how to paint the brass on a fireplace.

http://themagicbrushinc.blogspot.com/2009/11/paint-brass-hardware-on-your-fireplace.html



http://oursuburbancottage.blogspot.com/2010/01/de-brassifying-fireplace-surround.html



http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/01/how-to-paint-a-brick-fireplace/

I also found a few great before and after pictures on BHG. Check out these before and after beauties out!!!

(Honey if you are reading, stop now. )

Some ideas for my fireplace in the future if we tear down the wall with the bookcases some day, I thought maybe we would build bookcases alongside the fireplace instead.
I had to promise Mr.A no more projects for a while, so maybe this will be down the road.  A girl can dream, right? 

Do you have a fireplace?  Have you painted yours or left it as natural stone or brick?  I would love to see them!

My new lamp and pillows

This past weekend we stayed overnight with some friends that live in Minneapolis. They of course live near all sorts of wonderful stores that I don't have near me. I had never been to Marshall's before, which is very similar to TJ Maxx. I found these super cute paisley print pillows for only $15, which was a steal for two pillows!  I am hoping to add more pillows so I don't have to divide them up between the couch and the love seat.  For now, I added just the plain blue pillow to balance it out.

I also found this lamp for $40 at Marshalls.  I had a hard time picking a lamp and it's not like I could easily bring it home, try it out and return it. 

I needed something to put on the table with my lamp.  I went on to The Graphics Fairy Blog and found these cute pictures to print out and put in frames. 

I also happened upon this picture at Hancock Fabrics the other day. Can you believe it was only $5! Yes, five dollars. It isn't the most awesome picture ever but I liked it because it had hydrangeas on it and I needed something new for the living room anyways.

And here it is after a coat of paint on the frame:

Here is a picture of part of the living room with all my new accessories, what do you think?  Should I add more to the wall and if so, what should I add?

I still am not sure of the pillows with my curtains, it's not bad but maybe drop cloth curtains like the ones featured here would be better?  I can use the curtains in the living room in the dining room instead so they won't go to waste!  ;)

I also redid the mantel and came up with this, (pretend you can't see the fan blade in the mirror):

Living Room Redecorating Part 2

After moving stuff around in my living room the other day, I left it with the big couch against the wall facing towards the fireplace. I really loved the white dresser in the living room but the arrangement of the furniture wasn't doing anything for me.
Last night Mr.A and I moved some stuff around and now, I really like it. Here it is.....

Oops, I forgot to move the basket of dog toys and the cable, oh well, just keeping it real.    I am hoping to get a different couch and replace the love seat with two chairs.   Mr.A found a couch for me so now I need to find a slipcover. 

My Living Room - redecorating help!

When we lived in our last house we had both a formal living room and also a family room. We had beautiful couches for the formal living room and nothing for the family room. Mr.A & I decided on some nice brownish red leather couches that reclined for the family room. When we sold the house we knew that the colonial only had one living room and we weren't sure what to do with our couches. We ended up giving our formal couches to some friends of ours and we kept the leather ones. If only I could change my mind!!! The leather couches are just not working with the style I want. They are dark and bulky, they do clean up nicely with children but that's about their only saving grace. Of course Mr.A thinks they are comfy and loves that they can kick out and recline, he just doesn't see that style wise they don't work in this house. In addition to the couches not working, my living room is long, narrow and has two focal point areas. One is the fireplace and the other is the built in bookshelf that at some point had to have been messed with, some pieces are missing. If pieces aren't missing then whoever built the bookshelves never finished. I've tried to find some before pictures but there aren't many.

The living room when we first moved in.

On the left after the lamp is where you enter into the living room.

This is the color the room is now.

The way the room looked before I moved stuff around yesterday.

I always forget to take before pictures!  Yesterday I decided to redo the living room by rearranging the furniture.  Because the room is long and narrow I can never find a good place for the big couch.  It is always against the wall across from the fireplace.  I brought in the dresser that was in the dining room, took the sheer curtains from my bedroom, dragged a chair up from the basement that's waiting to be redone and switched around my pictures on the mantel and the wall.   These are the after pics.

So my living room needs help.  I hate the bookshelf looking half done.  I put the piano under it because I don't know what else to put there but I really want to move the piano to the dining room.  I would love a new couch and some chairs not a love seat.  I am on the hunt for a coffee table and am not even sure I like the wall colors.  So, anyone have any suggestions?  I am going to post a few more pictures of when I had the couches facing each other before I moved the white dresser in the room.  Maybe I could move the dresser where the piano is, Mr.A is not going to want to move the piano but we can do it.  I  think I'm going to go with the set up below but would love hear your suggestions and comments.  Thank you!!