Redecorating the Living Room

Well, we finally did it.  After years of nagging discussion, Mike and I finally got around to redecorating the living room.  We've been in this house 19 years with the same white walls, the same bland window treatments, the same entertainment center and the same furniture (albeit with a slip cover re-do a number of years ago).

I'm going to let you in on a secret, my husband hates change.  The running joke is that what makes our marriage so successful is getting a new wife would require A LOT of change.  When he looks at something that is horribly outdated he really just doesn't see how bad it looks, until he sees how wonderful it can look!  I love how every time I twist his arm convince him to redecorate he admits how great it looks.  Of course he then adds (tongue in cheek) "I don't know why you didn't ask me to do this sooner?"

Here is what we had to work with.

The view of the living room from the dining area

Sorry - I forgot to take the "before" picture before Mike started.  This at least gives you the general idea of what our entertainment center wall looked like.

Don't you love the white on white? I did intend to put up a valance when I bought them.  19 years ago.

As you can see we had a lot to do.  I also wanted to keep our budget down.  The good news - we spent $415 to accomplish this transformation!

Here is where we spent our money:

• Window treatments - $175
• Paint - $65
• Art work - $145
• Cushions - $30 for zippers (the material was purchased four years ago with Christmas & birthday money)

Here's the after pictures.

View from the dining area

New TV & stand replacing the rather large pine entertainment center 

New window treatments

Window Treatments

     If you look closely you may notice that the window treatments are the same as in our kitchen.  Since our living room and kitchen/dining room open up into each other I carried the same color palette through both rooms.  I fell in love with these curtains a number of years ago but put off buying them for the living room because of cost.  

     Murphy's law - when I went to Lowe's to pick them up they were gone.  Discontinued.  No longer available.  Have you ever seen a grown woman throw herself on the floor and howl?  Fortunately the patrons at Lowe's didn't get to witness that either although I was pretty close.  Do you know what stopped me?  I spied the bargain bin with them marked down to........$5 a piece.  While it took me trips to two different Lowe's I was able to find all the pieces I needed for $25.  

     For the blinds I used Levelor Wooden Blinds that are custom cut in the store.  MUCH cheaper than special order and they'll cut them while you wait.

Paint

     When it came to picking out the paint color, the experts recommend using using varying shades of the same color for rooms that flow together.  The wall that the TV sits on is connected to the red wall in the kitchen so we decided to carry the red all the way through.  I also took the other kitchen paint to the store and asked for the same thing only half color.  Guess what, you can't tell the difference!  We should have just used our existing paint and saved ourselves some money!  That's ok, it's painted and that's all that matters.

     While there was no financial cost for the actual painting,  the physical and psychological costs were astronomical.  At least once an hour I heard "Have I told you how much I despise painting?"  to which I would answer "Why didn't you tell me before?  I would have NEVER asked you to paint if I would have realized how much you disliked it."  There is also a little matter of a sore wrist (requiring the appropriate amount of sympathy), however since he broke his bench pressing record today he no longer gets to complain about the sore wrist.

Cushions

     When we first moved into our house we bought This End Up furniture.  It's served us well and we still like it.  The downside is even though I've requested multiple samples I haven't been able to find cushions they make that I like.  Plus it would cost about $1,000 for us to buy the new cushions through them.

     A few years ago I decided that I would make slip covers for our cushions instead.  For about $300 I bought enough material for 10 cushions.  You'll notice that the floral cushions are the same in the before and after picture but I did actually re-make them.  The before cushions were made 2-3 years ago and were faded so I made the  new ones.

     Since the material was bought a long time ago with Christmas money I didn't include it in our cost.  I did however break down and buy new zippers.  My original thought was to reuse the old zippers and write about frugal ways to decorate.  My tip - buy new zippers.  You'll save yourself a lot of headaches!

Art

     Gordman's is where we buy most of our prints.  Did you notice the two floral prints?  They both had minor scratches on them.  When we got to the checkout I pointed them out and received an extra 20% off.  Mike took a red Sharpie to them when we got home, you would never know they were damaged!  The picture above the TV is my absolute favorite!  I'm going to keep my eye out for matching smaller prints and potentially swap them out for the poppies down the road.

TV and Stand

     I did not include the TV in the cost of the redecorating because that was something we would have bought whether we redecorated or not.  Last year our TV broke, we didn't have the money to buy the TV we wanted.  Our solution was to buy a new TV that would work in our bedroom (we needed a new TV there as well) and use it in the living room until we could afford the TV we wanted.  

     We didn't have quite enough money saved up to get the exact set-up that we wanted so we compromised a little bit.  We bought the TV and stand that we wanted but didn't buy the Blu-Ray player or a new receiver for the surround sound.  We'll continue to save the money and pick those up at a later date.

General redecorating tips

• Focus on what's important to you - The blinds were a "must" in my decorating plan.  The cushions were pretty worn and would have had to be replaced sooner or later, the paint was something I wanted but not required and the TV wasn't a necessity at all.  When working with a limited budget I would recommend prioritizing your wants/needs and then working down the list.
• Reuse what you can - you'll notice that I didn't change my lamps, shelves, vases, etc.  I still like them and they still fit in with my decor.  By not replacing the knickknacks I saved myself quite a bit of money
• Re-purpose items from different rooms - see the candle on the coffee table?  That was actually in a different room but wasn't working that great.  I've moved it to the living room and like it MUCH better.

Since we finished the room I've decided that the front door sticks out like a sore thumb.  Guess what's next on the list?

You might also like:

Keeping the Living Room Semi-Company Ready
Keeping the Kitchen Semi-Company Ready

Remodeling the Kitchen

12 Decorating Projects for 2012

At the beginning of the year I decided that this would be the year that I did something about those decorating projects that I always "meant to get to" and never did.  I created a list of 12 items to accomplish and have been working my way through them.

The one I recently finished was the wall in my bedroom.  This wall has stood empty since our room was re-done about 4 - 5 years ago.  I never quite knew what to put on the wall and it quickly moved to the bottom of my priority list.

When it comes to decorating, my biggest issue is what to put on the wall.  Should I hang a print?  If so, what kind of print?  Would family pictures be better?  How about a shelf?  If I hang a shelf what would I put on it?  I'm sure I'm not the only one out there with that dilemma.

The decision to hang family photos came mostly from the decision I made regarding the connecting wall between the living room and the kitchen (you can read about that here.)  The frame that I took down was one of my favorites and I wanted to make sure I re-hung it where I could appreciate it.  I then decided that if one side of the window was going to have a family picture the other side should also.

I bought some wall words at Hobby Lobby (note:  they usually have coupons on their website, if you have Internet on your phone you can pull up a coupon at check out saving about 40%.  How cool is that?!)  I printed out some pictures from our recent trip and picked up a collage frame to put them in.  The whole thing took me about two hours (including shopping time) to finish.

Voila, a project to cross off my list that didn't cost me a lot of time or money. 

Have you recently completed a decorating project?  Feel free to share it in the comment section.

I'll be linking this up at Organizing Home Life

January Decorating Project

When I look around my house I see so many things that need to be done around the house but I just never get to. When I started thinking about what I wanted to accomplish in 2012 I decided to tackle those decorating projects that never seemed to make it to the top of the list. 2011 was my year to organize, 2012 will be my year to decorate!


Back in January I listed 12 decorating projects I wanted to complete in 2012. I chose this first one to tackle because honestly, it was the easiest one to do and was bothering me the most!

Does anyone remember when there used to be phones that hung on the wall? You know, before we carried them around in our pockets? I know I’m dating myself but I’m sure there are some of you out there that remember house phones.

We haven’t had a house phone in over two years, but we still hadn’t managed to get rid of our house phone. This phone was a hunter green (matched my hunter green counter tops – how’s that for coordinating) and hung on our deep red wall. In full view of everyone. Everyone who knew we no longer had a house phone number.

The problem with getting rid of the house phone was that it was connected to the wall. The wall which would have a big gaping hole if removed. The wall that is deep red and difficult to paint. The other problem is that when we had a house phone I had solved my decorating dilemma by hanging up a picture that I absolutely loved and really didn’t want to remove. What’s a girl to do?

I decided to head to one of my favorite decorating stores, Hobby Lobby, and see what they had in the way of solutions for me. I decided that I didn’t need “the perfect solution” but one that I could live with until I stumbled upon something that I absolutely adored.

Before I left I measured the minimum and maximum dimensions I had available. When looking for items to hang on your walls this is important since sizes look very different in a store versus hanging on your wall!

After wondering around for about an hour, picking thing up and putting them down, I came across a picture of the Eiffel Tower that fit my dimensions. My kitchen has a little bit of a French theme to it, so it piqued my interest a bit. I decided to take it home to see how it looked on my wall.

Long story short, the picture is still hanging on my wall and I’m pretty pleased with the overall result. I don’t LOVE it, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when deciding what to do with a space.

1. What are you trying to accomplish? In my case I really just wanted to get rid of the phone and get a comprehensive look to the wall.

2. Do you have to love it or are you willing to compromise? This is a spot I was willing to compromise on, there are times when I’m unwilling to compromise

3. What size do you need?

I've found Hobby Lobby and Gordman's to be great places to find reasonably priced prints.  The selections change frequently so if you find something you really like I'd snap it up, it may not be there next time.

Here is the picture I ended up putting up.  I repurposed the other picture for a different part of the house that I'll share a diffferent time.

 
A few years ago I changed all the lights and handles in my house to brushed nickel. I'm debating whether I should switch out my light switches to brushed nickel as well, what do you think?
 
Have you done any decorating recently?