Updated Living Room

I thought I'd post a few photos showing off our updated living room. I found a few photos from last April to show some "befores".

Old curtains, old entertainment center, old furniture arrangement... "old" handsome man sitting in the chair. :)

Here's our new view from the top of our stairs.

Let's take a walk around my room, shall we?

We moved the couches and tucked them into the corner against the stairs. I wanted the living room to be more cozy and I have always wanted to move our couches together like this. It never worked before with our entertainment center stuck in the corner.

I was worried about the couches blocking the windows, covering the vents and making the room look smaller. I was totally wrong. The room feels a lot bigger. We scooted the couches a few inches away from the wall (like you're supposed to anyway) and now the air vents aren't blocked either.

Have you seen the placemat pillows? You take a double sided placemat, unpick an opening and stuff with batting. Then you whipstitch closed and have great new pillows in less than ten minutes. I love them! (I found these placemats at Target.)

I got this iron rack for a killer deal from Roberts. I think it was mistagged... and then on sale for 50% off. The tag was hiding under a bunch of dishtowels or it wouldn't have still been there, Melonee was just a little jealous. :) I had been trying to decide where to use it for a week or so and then when we rearranged our living room Melonee (once again) had the fantastic idea of hanging blankets from it. Love it too.

I got this "cute" table from the DI. Well, it's cute after I upscaled it. I just didn't have time to do it before book club so it had to wait. Now it's my favorite piece of furniture. I'll show you more later. You won't believe what it looks like now.

I found this rug at Costco. It was an impulse buy. I'm so glad Mel was there because she helped me recognize what an unbelievable deal it was. It's the perfect pattern and color, and of course it was the last one. A fantastic finishing touch to our new room. Besides, I've always wanted a rug to cover up the old stained and yucky carpet in this room.

I am in love with the dropcloth curtains all over blogland decorating blogs. I've been wanting to put some up for a while and even had the cloths. Mom helped me fold and hang them just in time for bookclub. Could not be easier! and I love the ruffle look along the top. I really want to add a trim, either ribbon or maybe spraypaint a pattern... you know how I love spraypaint.

The look good closed too. And block a lot more light than my old ones.

Here's one of the placemats I didn't turn into a pillow. Looks good on top of the new entertainment center. Mel did all the "staging", she was awesome.

 
Cute basket to hold magazines and some fireplace candles. I love the candles inside the fireplace too.

We moved the bookshelf across the room into the corner that used to hold the TV. Hung some cute shelves I got for a great deal from Roberts (again) and made a cute little reading nook. We love our books.

The other corner has one of our gray chairs, we moved the other one into Marisa's room awhile ago. (Every girl who loves to read needs a chair they love to read in.) I love these chairs. We've had them since we got married, then Mom had them for awhile, now I have them again and they are holding up great... which doesn't keep me from wanting to recover them. 

The little cupboard I also got from the big sale at Roberts. It matches my little shelves and I love the farmhouse look.

Here's our view from the big couch in front of the windows. I refinished the rest of those bar stools I started a year ago and put one next to the TV. The other side has an antique "music stand" that I found at DI. I don't know if I'll paint it or not. I really like the color and it is an antique.

I love to move furniture around and give things a new look. I never thought about it being hereditary but I know Mom loves it too. Well turns out Thomas loves it too, he walked in the house and said "Mom! I love it! You moved the furniture around and it feels like a brand new house... like we just moved in... I love it when it feels like that!" So funny! Who knew?