Before and After: Family/Living Room Swap, Part 2

 

This is the second part of my Before and After of the Great Room Swap! (You can see part 1 here)
 I had a hard time finding before shots of the living room for some reason, but I managed to gather enough to give you an idea of the changes.


Before: this was the look last January


After: the fireplace stayed in the same spot, but everything else changed.

Before: right side of the fireplace bookcase and chair


After: replaced with white bookcase and blue rocking chair, it has a lighter look


Before: left side with a big club chair



 
After: the drop cloth wing chair and ottoman look great here

Before: the first spring mantel this year

After: the new spring mantel

Before

After: the table and lamps stayed but everything has a much airier look 

with the white curtains and chairs

Before: this was the usual look for the mantel, with one of my favorite pictures,

a print of Plymouth, Mass

After: I really love this look!

(I hung the picture in the new family room so I can still enjoy it)

The walls stayed the same, with white batten and board paneling and a coffee-colored paint, but with the furniture switch, it has such a brighter, airier feel to it.

Family Room Update: Progress!

You remember a few weeks ago when I wrote a post at 3 in the morning because I just couldn't stop thinking about swapping out the living/family rooms? And the next morning, I began the process of moving furniture, rugs, nic-nacs, ...

Well, I finally got the family room painted, curtains and pictures hung.

There's still more to do, like paint that big, white armoir!

 But I am very happy with the results!

 The room is so bright and cheerful!

The armoir doesn't even bother me too much (although I will get around to it eventually).

Next, some before and after shots so you can see the difference!

Post-Holiday Clean Sweep

After putting away all the Christmas decorations this year, 

I still feel a need for calm.

Usually the place looks a little bare when the tree and all the garlands, bows, angels and Santas come down.

 But this year, the house still feels too crowded.

 It may have something to do with having all of

 my daughter's belongings taking up space in the shed, garage, spare bedroom and even spilling into the living room while she takes some pre-grad school classes out of town!

 But mostly I think it's that we just have too much stuff!

In fact, one of our goals for this year is to go through everything, and I do mean everything, and either sell, give away, or throw away as much as possible. 

We are looking into ebay!

So, I thought I would start by looking at a couple places in the house that are making me feel overwhelmed.

The couch is an easy fix. I am going to make 2 or 3 large pillows and get rid of all the smaller ones.

Something like this.

The bookcase is more difficult. I love books and I love just about everything on these shelves. But it is a little busy, so I will try to de-clutter here as well.

I like the styling of this one.

But these pictures tell me something else. Both of these spaces are in the same room, a room with a really intense color on the walls. When we moved here, I was rebelling against 2 years of living with a neutral color palette while selling our house, and 6 months of a rental. I knew when I put this color on the walls that I would tire of it, and now, after 2 years, I think the time has come.

 I want to keep the robin's egg blue of the bookcase backs, painted furniture and accessories, so the color has to coordinate with that.

I am thinking maybe

a nice soft gray,

a pretty yellow,

or another neutral.

Any suggestions?