WIP – Decorating

Today I have a few before and after pictures to share with you.    Some of the before shots were obviously taken at Christmas – so ignore the Christmas tree and just look at the colors and the furniture arrangement.

These are photographs of the main living area in our house.  We had this furniture when we moved into this house 10 years ago.  I was pretty tired of the dark colors and Joel’s spot on the couch was quite worn out.  It was time to pick out something different –  but we hate furniture shopping, so we kept putting it off!

Since Carter arrived, we have also been looking for a softer coffee table.  Joel made all the mission style furniture in the living room, so I am sorry to see it go for that reason – but those corners are just too stressful to have around with a toddler!

This is the dining room before.  I loved the red for a long time, but I was ready for a change – something lighter and brighter.  (By the way the lake view is out these windows, but they get blown out when I try to make the rest of the photograph show up.  It’s so hard to photograph high contrast areas . . . the window look bright white and everthing else looks darker than it really it )

I am sure I will miss the red at Christmas time.  It was always fun to decorate a red room with Christmas things.

Here is the new paint color I chose – big surprise right?  Everything I do has some aqua blue in it.

The living room has been lightened too.  We now have two swivel chairs so you can talk to the people sitting on the couch, or turn to watch TV.  The new layout works much better.  And see the softer “coffee table”?  Now the only worry is the stone corners on the fireplace hearth, but that isn’t changed so easily.

The chairs are supposed to be a lighter version of the paint in the dining room, but the colors are so hard to photograph.  The blues look off, the greens look very yellow and the yellow looks brighter than it actually is.  Hopefully you can use your imagination.

I am still working on the TV wall.  I found the media stand at Home Goods and I am trying to decide on some sort of photo arrangement.  Any ideas?  I am not sure what else to do.

I am still on the hunt for some pillows to pull all the colors together, but in the meantime I have been finding some fun geometric prints.  I found an Ikat print to make a slip cover for the ottoman.  I plan to change it out seasonally, with different prints.  I attached it with Velcro so it’s easy to change or wash.  Does anyone else see things in Ikat prints?  I see a dog’s face in this one.  I’m not sure if that means I need a psychological evaluation or not!

I still need to make some runners and quilts for the space – again to try to help pull things together.  The furniture arrived last December but I haven’t shown this to you yet because I still haven’t decided if I am done yet.  I still think it need some “tweaking”.

But aren’t houses always a work in progress?  Or is it just me?

Stop back later this week – I realized that my 5 year blogiversary has come and gone and I missed it.  I think there should be just a little bit of a celebration!