Living Room Dreams
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, April 21, 2013. Filed under: Decor, Home
My living room right now is very beige. I mean very. Beige carpet, beige walls, beige sofa. The dark wood furniture and window treatments just add to the overall brown scheme. I try to incorporate color through throw pillows and blankets, but that's just a tiny spot of color in all of the beige. Take a look:
The gate between the living room and the dining room is for the dogs for when Husband and/or I have to leave them home alone. We close the gate and they have free reign of the kitchen and dining room. It makes it easier to clean up any puppy messes that may occur.
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| The view of the living room from the dining room. |
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| The view of my living room from the front door - and our older dog, Squirt |
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| And the view from the den and coming down the stairs - and more of Squirt. |
The decor in this room is fairly bland, as well. I hate the entertainment center. It's a pain in the butt to keep clean, and the shelf for the DVD player is all the way at the bottom, which messes with the function of the remote.
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| Please excuse the mess; I was too lazy to pick up, lol |
I'm also less than enamored with this table. I picked it because it fit so well in the opening of the sofa (if you can't tell, it's a sectional with a chaise on the left and a love seat section on the right). What I didn't plan on was Husband using this as his dinner table every night, so what inevitably ends up happening is crumbs get stuck in the grooves and we have to vacuum them out. It's nasty!
We've got two of these leaning bookshelves - one on each side of the entertainment center. Around Christmas, we move both bookshelves to the right of the entertainment center, then we put the tree to the left of the TV by the window. These bookshelves encourage me to fill them with stuff, but I don't have a lot of cute stuff in them, and I don't think everyone that comes to visit needs to see every single TV show that Husband and I own - which is kind of a lot. And I want to get Criminal Minds, too - love that show!
Anyway, I'm less than in love with the torchiere lamps, as well. They're so bland!!
I like our bamboo window treatments, but I'd like to put some nice valances or cornice boards or something above the windows for more decoration and a classier look. The picture frames are family photos and pictures from our engagement photo shoot, so they haven't been updated since April 2010. I feel like this wall could be used for cuter decorations. The one thing I do like is at Christmas I use Command hooks and stick them up there, and our 4 stockings (mine, Husband's, and one for each dog) fit perfectly in the "empty" spaces.
We also have this random little crooked wall in between our foyer and Husband's Game Room (AKA the den) and I feel like it's screaming for a cute little secretary desk.
As random as it seems, this clock is the thing I love about my living room. I got it from a home decor store here in southeastern Wisconsin called Kirkland's. I love the blue color, and the distressed look. It hangs above our TV, but I need to bring it down a little from the ceiling. It's a little too high right now.
We also have a large sectional that is that faux suede material. I stained part of the couch with the dye from some of my super dark jeans - I find that dark Old Navy jeans have dye that rub off on everything, no matter how frequently they are washed! I think the sectional is too big for the space, and it closes the living room off.
I've been daydreaming lately about what I want my living room to look like, and I thought I'd share some of what I've come up with.
I want to replace the sectional with a sofa, then get two chairs and put them to the right of the sofa, over by the wall of windows. I don't want to push the chairs right up against the wall, but rather have them "float" out a foot or two from the wall. This combination is one of the options I've been thinking about. It's the Ektorp sofa from Ikea in Abyn blue, and two Ektorp armchairs in Svvenby grey.
Another combination I've been thinking about is the Ektorp sofa in Svenby grey and two of the Ektorp Jennylund chairs in Sagmyra grey/check. I'm ridiculously in love with these chairs. They make me happy. :)
I want to build the Becca trunk from Shanty2Chic and use it as a coffee table, and use it to store blankets to keep them off of the couch. On the wall between the windows, I want to put up two of these glass bottle jar wall vases, also from Shanty2Chic. (What can I say, I love those ladies' style!) Between the chairs, I want to build that cute little end table, which is from the fabulous Ana White. I also want to refinish a dresser or a buffet, and replace our entertainment center with that.
My goal now is to start figuring out what colors I want, other than the grey and blue - accent colors, and the color for the paint and stain for the building projects. I also need to keep an eye out for some alternative lighting solutions. There is no built-in light in this room other than what we get from the windows, so I need to have lamps...I just want ones that are much bigger.
I'd love to paint the walls later down the road, but I want to hire a professional or something for that, because due to the open concept layout of our house this color covers the entire bottom floor (except the den and the half bath) then continues up the stairs and throughout the upstairs hallway. That's a lot of paint!
We're also planning on ripping out the carpet and installing hardwood floors but that project is a couple of years down the road.
Even without changing the painting and flooring, redecorating the entire room is still a pretty big undertaking. It's going to take me some time, but I'm hoping it will look completely different - and elegant and stylish!
Thoughts, ideas, comments, suggestions? I'd love to hear them!!
April 22, 2013 at 8:55 PM
UGH!! I have the same problem!! Except unfortunately I'm going to be living in this apartment for the next two years probably and can't paint anything! I'm DYING to put some color in this muted, beige place! I totally hear ya about the bookshelves, too. I like having bookshelves that don't necessarily display everything I own for all my visitors and the world to see (my husband doesn't understand the aesthetics of this--he thinks bookshelves are to hold stuff, but I'm trying to teach him that they are to make your home look inviting and cute ;) Can't wait to see how the room turns out when you do it!! <3 gabby