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Ok, now that graduation crazy is done I can come back to working on the house. The basement is still not done yet which means the garage is still packed to the gills and Allen is still sharing my office. So we still can’t find our stuff and we are working on top of each other. Check!
The good news is, the parts that ARE done are so pretty that I’m willing to ignore the rest…for now. Have I mentioned that we don’t have a furnace yet either? But I do have a pretty fireplace so I’m sitting next to that fire right now to warm up my fingers as I type!
Today I am going to share the living room space with you. This is the room that had the biggest structural changes. Lets start with the before pictures.
One thing these pictures Don’t show is the big post that was in the middle of the kitchen and living room. It was huge! Easily 15in by 15in. The real estate photographer was smart about their angles so the post is not seen in any of the listing photos. You will just have to look at my crappy iPhone picture here. When the door to the basement (on the far left) was open you could not fit between the door and the post!
We took out all three fireplaces in the house but in this room we put one back in a totally different location. We replaced the fireplace with a huge window to take advantage of the fantastic view of the tree tops. (See above) We moved the fireplace to the sidewall and ended up taking the window out on that wall because it was totally rotting out and full of mold. (My nemesis!) That was a great move because it gave us plenty of space for built in cabinets and shelves.
For the fireplace, we ended up going with a lovely linear fireplace that is surrounded by penny tile. I had to beg to get the penny tile because, apparently, it is hard to install. If you don’t space it just right your eye can pick up the sheets of tile. I am a huge fan of polka dots and I just had to have this tile. It’s so happy! Tim the tile guy did a great job. We had shiplap installed on the rest of the fireplace and completed the look with a big hunk of cedar cut at our local mill.
As for furnishings, we had some things and I got some things. Story of this house. So the couches aren’t new but the coffee table, rug and side chairs are all new. The coffee table I picked I’ve been looking at for almost a year. It is HUGE and would not fit in my last living room but it works well here because the couches are big and we like to have a place for everybody to put their feet up (or eat dinner at when Allen is out of town. Shhh…don’t tell him!). This fits the bill and matches my new scheme really well!
Love my new chairs too. I shopped long and hard for those as well. I know there are tons of people who buy chairs online but I really like to put my booty in a chair before I buy it. Comfort matters! Thank you Macy’s for having a lovely sale.
I was not as worried about seeing the rug in person because I found a couple places that would easily take back the rugs I ordered to try in my space. Amazon and Rugs USA. The rug in this room was from Amazon and it was the only one I ordered from them so I didn’t personally test their return policy. Apparently they will come and get the rug from you, though, if you want to return it. (Rugs USA I did test. I ordered 7 rugs from them and kept two. It was very easy to return the rest for free!)
Next stop will be the Master bed and bath if I can get some pictures put up on the wall!
Sources: Couches – Pottery Barn (three years ago), Coffee table – Restoration Hardware outlet, Chairs – Macys, Rug – Amazon, Poufs – Target, Curtain – Ikea, Lamps – Cost Plus, Pillows – mostly made by me.