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Living Room Tour
Today I’m about to show you photos you’ve never seen before on my blog. They are just about the most common photos you’d see in any home decor blog, but I’ve been almost too embarrassed to let you see them on here, until now. Welcome to my living room tour!
I don’t even know why I’ve been holding back on showing you these, aside from not feeling like this room was ready for a debut and my own doubt that they would look good enough to post. But I’ve decided I’m taking some risks and just going to put them out there. How about that?
I know you’ve seen parts of this room before, but did you realize you’ve never seen the whole thing?
This is the living room in our 113 year old Colonial home. The photo above is the view when you walk in the front foyer and look to the left, you see this part of the space. You can read more about some of the projects I’ve done in here like the zebra ottoman, getting real couches, and customizing my curtains. Oh and how I finally up that extra long curtain rod, it’s about 150 inches end to end just to span the window mouldings.
Working on those curtains was an ongoing project. It took me a few tries and many months to find the curtains that I wanted and then even longer to sew on additional fabric since our ceilings are 9 feet tall and our windows are huge.
This isn’t meant to be a detail post, just an overview of a space you’ve never seen before in my home. These black shelves are a piece my husband acquired in college. I’ve contemplated painting them, against his knowledge, but like the look of them in front of our walls. The paint is Creamy Mushroom by Behr paint. Plus there is more black in the space and it connects those accents.
The shelves collect special items across the seasons. The 58 is the number of times Dan signed his name on our mortgage papers, so it’s special to us and this first house of ours. Can you believe it was that many signatures?
If you turn around with the shelves behind you, there is the silver dresser that I painted. It stores our tools and miscellaneous items like fabric I intend to use for some project or the other. Read about how to hang items in plaster walls here, which I demonstrated on using those wedding photos above the dresser.
This is the first view you’ve ever actually seen of the full couch. I wrote about how to frame that large map here and the postage stamp art here. The other maps are from our honeymoon {of the Bahamas on the top left} and a framed piece of fabric {bottom right}.
I’m seriously considering spray painting the frames of the mirrors on the wall {on the far right} white. What do you think of them? This room has a lot of tan going on and I’d like to get rid of some of it. Tan walls, tan rug, tan couch, tan frames. Too much!
Here is a sneak peek of a project I did recently, that striped pillow is a knock off. Can you guess where from? I’ll post about the how to make it soon.
And the lamps need some life right? I plan to spruce them up sometime, but I’m still trying to figure out exactly how.
Here is the total room shot. This is looking in from the dining room and was taken with our new Sigma 10-20mm Lens for our Canon Rebel T3. Dan wanted to get it for more photography work he is doing for his job and this was the first I had tried it out. I love how much it gets into the shot. I can’t wait to see what it does when I photograph the bathroom.
And how about that to spice up your Wednesday? Some never-before-seen photos of my house. Read more about the blue velvet coffee-table-turned-ottoman here.
But of course like any space in our house I’m dreaming of things I’d like to still do to it. Here is the living room wish list:
- Paint the large back wall in a medium charcoal grey – I’d love to do that in American Clay, which is not quite a paint, but an environmentally friendly product that is designed to give some depth to a wall. Aside from the fact that I’ve been dying to do an accent wall, I think it would look amazing here.
- Line the inside of the lamps – For this I’m picturing silver contact paper like this. And I’d love to cover the shades with a chunky material to give them some interest. I even have a piece of fabric, I’m just trying to figure out how to get it to stay on.
- Get a new rug – I just found my dream rug for the room here. It’s a little out of my price range though 🙁
- Build our own media center – Something with doors and a connecting bridge across the top would be cool. We have the perfect corner, now we just need the time and supplies.
- Make seasonal pillows – I’d love the time to change out the pillows for the change of season. Now I just have a few that we use, but holiday pillows in silver or gold would be so fun right?
Thanks for coming on the living room tour.
Looks fantastic Jessica! I love the map on the wall!
A wish list, a home do list, you name it, I make it when it comes to decorating my house!
Jessica, I think you’ve done a lovely job on the room. Personally, I’d paint all the picture frames black. That would look chic and sophisticated with your taupe couches, and coordinate well with the black etagere. = ^ )
I agree with Cathy about the frames. I LOVE the idea of silver inside the lamp shades! I’m going to do that in my son’s room, but I would also paint the lamps black, too!