Before and After: Living Spaces

There are two living spaces in this house,

one at the front which I call the living room,

and one at the back which I call the family room.

 Living room at move-in,
ugly carpet, popcorn ceilings and all.

 Family room at move-in, ditto.

 more family room,

 and another angle of family room.

 This is the first manifestation of the living room.

The walls were painted a coffee color and we installed

some molding on the bottom of the walls as wainscoting.

The furniture was just moved in from our old house, as-is.

 This is the first look of the family room.

The walls were painted blue and the furniture,

again, came straight from the old house.

 A look from the living room into the family room.

You can see it is very open, but the family room was

an add-on and has a separate feeling to it.

I decided I wanted an all-white room,

so I covered the leather sofa with linen

and painted all the furniture white.

This worked well for awhile until I thought it would be a better fit

to move the all-white room to the front and the older (and more colorful)

furniture to the room that held the television and got more family use.

 A good idea until I realized it meant not just moving furniture,

but rugs, artwork, chochtkies and large shelves as well!

 It took quite a while to get everything moved,

 and I lived with combination rooms for a week or so.

But, eventually everything found their proper place.

 Mostly white and neutral, with a touch of pale blue,
very light and airy.

 The family room got a fresh coat of yellow paint

and a lot of color!

Both rooms continued to evolve,

with various furniture coming and going,

sometimes from room to room and back again,

changing from one season

to the next.

Sometimes bringing in new rugs and drapes,

slipcovering and painting the old,

and trying out different art and pillows.

Until we come to the present day,

combining the new 

with some of the old.

Using the same flooring throughout the house

gives it a good flow,

 and also makes it feel larger.

But I never know how long anything

in this house will last.

In fact, see that chair in the corner?

It's in the middle of a makeover as we speak!

Mantel and Living Room

January is always a great time to do something new in the living room!

Once all the Christmas decorations and wrappings

are put away, and the room is cleaned,

I seem to want to move the furniture around!

With a new couch in the family room,

the old one moved in here right before the holidays.

I didn't have any time to play with arrangements then,

so now was my chance!

For Christmas, I put the couch facing the fireplace,

with the back facing the entry. This was so the Christmas tree

could still be in the window.

 It worked okay, but it really closed off the living room,

so I tried a new spot after the holidays.

I moved it under the front window and started moving

around the rest of the furniture that I was determined

would stay.

It was a little better, but still feeling pretty crowded,

and the two wing chairs were giving it that closed-off feeling again.

I knew something was going to have to go, whether I liked it or not!

As soon as I moved the table out of the corner by the bookcase,

the room made sense again!

It opened up and felt more spacious.

(I moved the table to the family room, which meant

something had to go in there, too, but that's another story!)

Once I had the furniture figured out, I was able to move on to the mantle,

which is where I usually like to start!

 I loved this new chalkboard so much, I brought it out again!

 This time, I paired it with the usual white pitchers,

as well as silver candlesticks and an ivy wreath.

The final product makes me happy!

A Quick Furniture Reshuffle

We have lived in this house for almost 5 years now, and the living room furniture
has been in pretty much the same place, even when the furniture was different.

1st couple of years.

2nd couple of years.

I decided to move the wing chairs in front of the window

and the table across the room.

This simple difference really opened up the room

and made it feel larger.

It also allowed me to bring in a couple more chairs

and set up a little desk area, something I was really needing.

I also really like have the two chairs close together like this.

It makes for a nice conversation spot.

They coordinate nicely, don't you think?

For detailed instructions on making these slipcovers,

see here

and here

I thought there wasn't any other way to arrange the furniture in this room,

but I am so happy I finally tried something different!