Archives for February 2015

What’s wrong with this picture?  Can you see the two things that bug me about it? Haha! You may see a lot of things that bother you about it that I’m not even aware of, and I don’t need to be aware of them either, because in my obsessed decorator’s thinking I will stew on them and go sleepless over them and maybe even decide to change things up again.

Ughhhh!!! The thoughts of a former perfectionist sometimes creep in and try to take me captive!

The formal living room in our new house is pretty well put together but it probably won’t be exactly like I want it to be for awhile longer either because I have other priorities to tackle.

Like our formal dining room, which you can see across the hall from the living room.  It is still partially stripped of wallpaper and has a whole dining room set that’s waiting for attention.  Since we want to reach new heights in hospitality (Hospitality part one and part two can be seen HERE and HERE) in our new home, that is the first priority.

So let me give you a tour of what we have done in here so far.  This is my Craigslist velvet couch.  Custom made and only a year old when I found it.

This is the view looking from the den into the living room and I think the BIGGEST thing that bothers me about this room is most evident here.  Have you guessed what it is yet?  (By the way, if you haven’t seen the den reveal yet you can take a peek right HERE)

Most of the furniture in this room was either given to me or thrifted.  Only the rug (Catherine by Ballard Designs) and the two end tables (Leilani from Hayneedle) were purchased new, and on sale, after we moved in.

These two chairs belonged to my mother.  I had them recovered from pink velvet to a more modern pattern in gold and black.

Here’s a little thrifted table we found in an antique mall in Anderson, SC.  I say thrifted because you can’t get buys like this on new furniture! 

This desk also belonged to my mom and I love keeping my note cards and pretty writing supplies here.

We found two of these little chairs on Craigslist.  I will eventually recover them but for now the color is perfect for the space!

This was one of my father’s first woodworking projects after he retired.  Each of us girls got something he made and I’m thankful to have this reminder of him.

I chose a rug with muted colors for this room.  It has a lot of greys and taupes and also seafoam green and gold accents.

That brings me to the first big thing that bothers me about this room.  Even though the rug has gold accents in it, the yellow walls just don’t feel right to me. I would really prefer to paint the walls a more neutral “greige” type color.  The yellow makes the room bright and cheery but this color, Sandstone Cove, is still light enough, and has enough yellow undertones in it that it will continue to be bright.  This color will also make our entire downstairs entertaining space flow more smoothly from room to room.  If you look at the entryway above it is already a similar color and eventually the den and the dining room will be as well.

The second thing that bothers me?  After the walls are painted the whole room will be more neutral in color.  That’s the idea, right?  But as much as I love all of the beautiful neutral rooms I see on design blogs, I crave color.  I want to use some of my favorite colors as accents.  The pretty aquamarine color in this fishing float (also one of the colors in the rug) and some brighter peacock blue like the color in this pillow.

So that’s it for now. It sure does take a long time to settle into a new and completely different type of home than I’ve had before.

Next up, I have a couple of Valentine’s Day posts for you (Shabby Flannel Rosettes and a Chocolate/Raspberry Valentine’s Dessert) before I share my Living Room Part Two.  I’ve already been shopping my house for added pops of color and I’ll also be sharing some of the close up details of this room.  I DO hope you’ll come back again.

Blessings,

As a reminder, Farragoz’s Art of Patina is giving away a FREE online painting course to one of my lucky readers. For complete details (with pictures) on the course you can link back to my post HERE.  Then sign up below.  The more boxes you check the more chances you have of winning!  By entering this giveaway you are confirming that you are 18 years or over. Void where prohibited.  The contest will run through February 20th and the winner will be announced when all of the numbers are tallied!

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