First, let me say these photos were taken three years ago of our living room, however, I still wanted to post them to show the progress we have made, because in short, we have made a lot.
Don’t get me wrong, with many of the house projects, we take 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. It truly is the pitfall of HGTV and Pinterest. I think I know what I love and then see something on Pinterest or Chip and Jojo breakout onto the scene and all of a sudden the curtains that I just spent 30 hours making no longer go with my vision.
Here is the road we have been down with the interior decor of the house:
- January 2014 – We moved into the house and for the longest time my style had an art deco flare. I loved/still do enjoy glamour, black lacquer, gold and heavy contrast, so to bring some of this style into our new home, I purchased IKEA curtains, black grosgrain ribbon and rolls (upon rolls) of witch-a-stitch to make curtains inspired by these and they were amazing. I love them, but they didn’t live in the living room very long. Grommet curtains don’t exactly scream “formal living room”. In the meantime, I filled the living room with items that were a hodgepodge of pieces from apartment (i.e. the black console table and NURSERY table lamps I found at Home Goods. The shades are a lime green houndstooth that I covered with black fabric).
- November 2015 – Chip and Jojo were just starting their rise to the all mighty farmhouse chic king and queen. I thought, “yes, that is what my house needs to feel warm and homey. Note, rustic chic has NEVER been a style the appeals to me. NEVER. I don’t know what I was thinking. It had to be the combination of the changing temperatures in Minnesota and that HGTV was playing Fixer Upper on a constant loop from 2014 – 2018, and this is when I found the decor blog Dear Lillie. To achieve this look, I went out and purchased the Ritva curtains from IKEA, a plaid blanket, and a horribly gigantic armoire that was completely inappropriate for the space. However, a few great decor decisions came from this era of the living room: I purchase white Ribba frames in various sizes to create a collage going up the stairs. I filled the frames with black and white personal photography. We also tackle painting the doors in our home. I went with the same color Dear Lillie painted the doors in her first home, Benjamin Moore – Mopboard Black.
Scroll through the three photos below to see what was the living room looked in it’s farmhouse chic era and finally the color pallet of the new living room.
The Plan
So, you are probably asking yourself, “well where does all of this leave us now?”
It leaves us in a very, very good spot. I have sold or thrown so many pieces to give the living room the clean start it needed. All three chairs and console table are sold, the rug has lived as long as it could, but with two dogs, it is now in the trash, and finally the table lamps, mirror artwork, mirror frames and armoire are moved to storage.
So, what have we done to change the room? Last fall, we painted the entire fireplace and Ryan put crown molding throughout the living room. These two small architectural changes have made such a difference in the overall presentation of the room.
I’ll share more inspiration photos soon, but in the meantime my vision board below is a little bit of what I have up my sleeve.