Decorating Update: Living Room

After reading a recent post by our super-talented online designer, Abby, I realized I never posted proper "After" shots of the living room space she helped us transform.  Abby was a delight to work with and I'd highly recommend her if you're looking for a little help in updating a space in your home.  Don't take my word for it, her work speaks for itself. Just as a little refresher and because everyone loves a good "Before" and "After," here is what our living room looked like when we first moved in. Before:

With our old furniture:

Abby's Mood Board:

After:

We love our new space.  I especially love all the color, while still maintaining some of the neutrals.  I was scared of the grasscloth but I'm thrilled with the way it looks.  The sectional is Ikea and if you ever had any reservations about their products, I can tell you it's a great value for the money.  It's very comfortable and the slipcovers are washable!  The custom pillows (all from Etsy) really add that color punch that I was looking for and gave me the jumping off point for the bookshelves.
I hope you've enjoyed the tour of my living room!

Design Dilemma

I need your help selecting the lamps for our bedside tables in our master bedroom.  I bought some that I loved in the store (not telling which ones) but once I got them home, Wes wasn't so sure.  In an effort to be a good wife and respect his design choices, I looked for another option.  I found a similar style, similar color, just a different base.  I think we both have our winners but I wanted to gather your opinion.  Which do you prefer?

the glass base?

or

the ceramic base?

A Delightful Design

I decided to enlist some help in decorating our new living room space.  I have always wanted to hire a decorator, mainly because I don't trust my own style.  I've always been happy with my end result but always wondered what someone else would have come up with.

There are some design dilemmas in the new house that I knew I wouldn't want to tackle with everything else going on.  It had been so comforting knowing that someone else is handling that room and I haven't had to stress about it.  You know, marking something off the ever growing list?! 

I follow quite a few design blogs and several of them offer online design services.  That may seem impossible to accomplish without seeing the space but with the internet, online shopping, and a handy dandy camera, it's very possible and quite easy - easy for me to say, I'm not the one doing the design! 

I ended up selecting Abby at A Delightful Design.  Our styles seemed to mesh well and I couldn't be more pleased with my selection.  We've had several phone conversations and I've uploaded a ton of pictures to her.  I told her I wanted to keep the main furniture from our old house but I wanted it to feel different, more grown-up if you will.  She posted a little introduction to our space today on her blog and I wanted to show you that as a "Before".  Hopefully soon I'll be able to get her design plan in play and post some "Afters".

I'm addicted to the pin

...to Pinterest.  It's starting to make me feel inadequate.  I could never do every project or make every recipe I have pinned and for this mark-that-off-your-list kind of girl, that's frustrating.  I have set up several boards for the various rooms in our new house and while I love looking at the pictures, I haven't found the time to actually try to implement any of those designs.  That's also frustrating.  I want it all and I want it now.  Too bad.

In the meantime, here are a few of my inspirations.

 

I thought this would be such a clever thing to do with a key from our first townhouse and first house.

We have a lovely side porch and I'd love to paint the concrete like this!

I love this for one of the boys' rooms or their playroom.  It's so fun and educational too.  Oh but that would be 26 nails I'd have to put in the wall.  Too much for me to commit to right now.

My current obsession is to find a cheap dresser that I can paint for our master bedroom.  Two of our large pieces of furniture wouldn't make it up our stairs, so I need something to put our tv on and to give me a little extra storage.  Craigslist has let me down so far but I'll keep looking.  I know the right piece is out there somewhere.

I'm also obsessed with gallery walls.  I love the look of them but again, that's a lot of nails to commit to!

Then I see recipes like this and I want to stop decorating and get in the kitchen.

Now Pinterest needs to come up with a way to send someone to your house to magically transform your house/kitchen/project into what you saw on the web.  Until then, if I like then I'll have to put a pin on it!

Our New Home

This is the place we now fondly call home.  I'm anxious to show you around but being the perfectionist that I am, I have some more work to do.  The previous owners had just completed a complete renovation and addition to the house, before accepting a job out of state.  We feel so fortunate to have swept in and got their practically brand new house.  More to come but I wanted to at least give you a taste.

Open House

One thing you need to know about me is that I'm a very private person.  It's not always intentional, sometimes I just think people don't care to know everything about me.  I realize there's a huge gap between being open and telling your life story but I still continue to struggle. 

I say all of that to say that I've been keeping something from you.  No, I'm not pregnant, nor am I going to be a contestant on Top Chef.  We've put our house on the market!  

I'm only a few weeks late in sharing that bit of news but I guess there was a part of me that hoped we'd sell it in a matter of days and then I would tell you about it.  So we haven't sold it but we have had quite a few lookers.  That first week was full of let downs.  We had showing after showing, with not a single offer.  I realize that's how this process probably goes but it's all new to me and remember, I'm impatient!

We had our first open house this weekend and our Realtor said we had about 10 people.  I even made them homemade chocolate chip cookies and had water bottles out for the taking.  Wes made fun of me and said that was surely to seal the deal.  Hey, whatever works!  At least they know the oven works (:

Now we just sit and wait.  Did I mention I'm impatient?  Wes has told me countless times to think about something else but really, what else is there?!  I know he's right; I'm going to end up with ulcers if I don't give it a rest.  So, if you would, say a little prayer for us that we find the perfect buyer who wants to create a houseful of memories just as we have over the last 9 years (oh and that I won't get ulcers from worrying!). 

Maybe one of you knows someone or is looking yourself to buy a home in Kentucky.  We live on a quiet cul-de-sac, have great neighbors, recently finished our basement (copied from an episode of Divine Design on HGTV), and are in a great school district.  Spread the word, if you know someone who might be interested, feel free to shoot me an email (de5181 (at) aol.com)! 

Here are a few pictures from our listing.

Do you think I'm crazy?

I came across this post on Centsational Girl (fabulous blog for inspiration, by the way) and it immediately got my wheels spinning. Well actually my wheels have been spinning for a while because I'm ready for a change in my house. We've lived in our house for 7 years and have had the same color on the wall in our foyer/kitchen/family room the whole time. Lately I haven't been feeling the khaki-green color and have been secretly longing for an elf to come in and paint it overnight. I think the strongest hatred right now is my kitchen, which is unfortunately, where I spend a lot of my time. It's the size but it's also the honey oak cabinets that match the floor and therefore create a terrible orangish yellow color for the entire room. I don't think there's any color I could paint the walls to lighten it up or fix it. But when I saw this post where she transformed her blah honey oak staircase to this fabulous dark mahogany/walnut color, I was smitten! I thought I could give it a whirl on my banister and then if I like it, I could move on to my kitchen cabinets. I wasn't too keen on stripping, sanding, taping, painting but then I saw this post and she just stained right on top of the wood. It gave me hope but now I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to try it. What do you think? Here's the before (hers not mine but mine looks practically the same with the same carpet, walls, and floor color):

And here's the after. Please note I'm just talking about the banister, not the wallpaper and moulding on the wall. Baby steps people, baby steps!

Isn't that amazing how that little touch makes such a big difference?!