Home: Living Room Redo

I'm a gal who loves change. 

Combine that with my love for interior design, and I'm happy as a peach by simply moving around a couple picture frames. 

Because of this, Mr. Darcy is used to coming home and finding decor in new arrangements throughout the house.

Due to the fact that we currently rent our town home, we are unable to paint or do any "major" DIY design changes. However, a couple weeks ago, we sold our old couch and purchased some new-to-us furniture. Rather than just swapping out the couches, The Hubs and I decided to flip the entire room.

On a Saturday afternoon, we both sketched out our ideas for new furniture arrangements, and then we presented our ideas to each other. The Hubs impressed me with a couple good ideas, and we combined our efforts to fully maximize our living room space.

Well, what do you think?!

Click here to see what the room looked like when we first moved in.

Man! We didn't realize how huge this living room was until we moved our furniture around.

Moving the TV above the fireplace was one of the best space-savers. Also, it is much more conducive for movie nights with family/friends.

This red sofa is my favorite- it's so long and so deep. It's literally the perfect napping conch.

Jon calls this his "Man Chair". (No seriously, he kicked me out of the chair so he could practice his bass playing skills.)

We just love this large Ikea coffee table, given to us from some sweet friends. It was the perfect addition, and it the second shelf houses our laptops and my Real Simple magazines perfectly.

Our teal flea-market-find now houses all of the electronics. And holla- my record player is now back in motion! The sheer curtains also hide any cords from the TV to the outlet. (Ain't nobody got time for cords hanging out all over the place.)

This gallery wall is one of my favorite additions to the room. More about this detail to come!
These two white chairs form a quaint reading nook, of which I am currently blogging from (since Mr. Darcy kicked me out of his man chair).


It felt so great to take the time to sketch the room, and use the best of both of our ideas to maximize the space. It was a total team effort!

We love our new-to-us furniture, and this room is now our favorite room in the house. In the mornings, I love to just sit in this room and prepare my mind for the day.

So, whether it's rotating all the furniture in your space, or merely swapping out a few accessories, I challenge you to change something in your home decor. The freshness may inspire you in more ways than one!

Chirp.

Well, I finally did it....

For a while now, I've been pinning pictures of teal-painted kitchen tables. 

It became very obvious that I developed quite a liking to this "look".

This is the Lenox fine china set we registered for our wedding 2 1/2 years ago. 

The pattern is appropriately called Chirp.

Little did I know how prophetic this Chirp pattern would be.

My Mother-in-Love (yes, that's what I call her) gave this table to my husband during his bachelor days. We decided to keep it after we got married (although I don't think Mr. Darcy quite envisioned the plans I had for his table).

Enter my newest obsession- Annie Sloan chalkpaint. 

I have yet to master the dark wax (or the clear wax, for that matter), but I am loving how easy it is to maneuver this paint. 

And the color choices? Way too fun to stick to the neutral tones.

Am I right?!

One Saturday, while The Hubs wasn't home...

I covered our tile kitchen floor in plastic and let out my inner Picasso...

It was interesting crawling around the kitchen floor, trying to adequately cover each inch of the table and in between every crevasse of the chairs. (I know one thing- next time I'm investing in knee pads!)

However, the hard work was totally worth it!

Here's the (somewhat) finished product...

Well, what do you think?!

One day, when we own our own home, my dream kitchen will have gray walls, white cabinets, and lots of crisp white accents. Then our breakfast table will truly pop!

Remember the predecessor of this whole project- my Chirp fine china?

Well, if you ask me, I'd say the whole color-coordinating worked in my favor.

I was pretty giddy when setting the table for dinner last week. :)

Oh, and Mr. Darcy? Don't worry...he loves how his table turned out.

I say somewhat finished because I'm still considering adding the Annie Sloan dark wax, which would create a distressed look. What are your thoughts?

Be Our Guest

The guest room. Ugh.

Up until now, this room has served several purposes, and none of them well, causing a severe identity crisis:
bedroom/bathroom for guests to use during their stay
home office for both Jon and myself
storage room for everything that hasn't found a "place" in the house (AKA the junk room)

We have been focusing on a word in our house recently: simplify.

This word is being applied in several areas of our life, but in this case, we applied it to our "stuff" being held captive in our guest room.

We have been cleaning out the guest room- throwing away papers, organizing important items, and even selling things that are nice, but we simply just don't need.

Man, it feels good to clean out and simplify!!

In the midst of this simplification process, I decided it was a perfect time to "redo" the guest room. After all, our families both live out of state, and they will need a place to stay upon visiting us.
(Remember I said I sold items online? Well that cash was just burning a hole in my pocket. I was in search for some killer deals!)

These are before pics of our "guest (miscellaneous) room":

This redo involved my first try with Annie Sloan chalkpaint! Although I didn't opt for the dark stain/antique look, I still loved working with this paint. There was no prep required before use! It gave such a fresh look to pieces our families have had for nearly twenty years! 

Reclaimed furniture = my favorite.

The best part of the redo- most things used in the room were items we already had in other areas of the house! We just recycled them for a different use. 

The only items purchased were: one new lamp (TJMaxx), one new curtain panel (Target clearance), and Annie Sloan chalk paint/wax.

So... what do you think?!

Working on a next-to-nothing budget, I am beyond pleased with how the room turned it.

It really is a calm, peaceful, inviting space now.

Family, come be our guests!

The stockings were hung...

Wow. Was the last time I blogged seriously back in the early fall months?!? Yikes.

So much has happened in the last couple months.

Life has been packed full of blessings!

Today, on my last day "off" before returning to school after Winter Break, I want to share a few highlights.

Warning: Over the next couple days, I will blow up your Google Reader with several posts.

***

Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year.

I have always loved helping decorate my parents' house for the holiday season, and now that Jon and I have a home of our own, the holiday decorating tradition carries on.

Here are a few photos to share our First-Married-Christmas "sparkle":

I hope your home was filled with Christmas cheer!

Entry / Living Room

A table from my Granny and Paw-paw

Our "guest book" painting from our wedding reception. Painted and signed by friends and family!

So...we still have to print wedding photos of our family... until then, we have these nice models. :)

Kitchen / Half Bath

Our favorite room of the house...the kitchen.

 The Keurig...l.o.v.e. this thing!

My Granny's beautiful milkbone bowl!

Okay, I promise there really is some organization going on in here... Just showing "the ultimate" spice rack. Great idea, Jamie!