Our living room is open-concept with our dining room, so many of the changes that we have made to this space mirror those of the dining room, which I posted about last month. Here are a few photos of what we started with in the living room.
The updates that we have made so far include painting the walls and trim, installing new dark wood plank laminate flooring, and adding ceiling molding. We also refreshed the fireplace by removing the old wood-burning stove and hanging a mantle. We liked the existing stone that surrounded the fireplace, so luckily, no major overhaul was involved. Here are some photos of the progress…overall, I’m very happy with how it has come along!
All of the living room furniture is from our old house, and while I do hope to make some cosmetic changes to it in the future, for now it works. The TV stand and bookcases that flank the fireplace were custom designed and built from scratch by my brother. I love the shape and style of them, and as they hold sentimental value, I never plan to let them go. But they are definitely due for a refresh! My brother had originally stained them a medium tone, but I later stained them a darker, almost black shade to match my coffee and end tables. I didn’t do great work on that stain job and never went back to correct it, which has always bugged me. And now, due to the small size of our living area and addition of the dark floors, I feel like the dark furniture is too much and wish that I had left the pieces their original color (go figure). So someday I plan to lighten them back up, or perhaps paint them white to brighten up the space.
I still have some projects to do decorating-wise, as well. Some of the new frames that I added are still in need of photos, and I’m not entirely sold on how I styled the bookcases. Also, I need to figure out what to display on the two vertical shelves that I hung on either side of the TV. I went for shelves here instead of art because I wanted something with enough depth to cover the small gap between the wall and mounted TV (you could see the power outlet and TV cord from the side before we installed the shelves). I found these particular shelves/wooden boxes at Hobby Lobby and love the rustic look of them, but I think that they are actually meant to be used as table-top organizers as opposed to hanging shelves. The little cubbies are extremely small, so whatever I do find to display on them will have to be tiny. I have a few photo projects in mind that might work, but I don’t think that the shelves look horrible empty, so those projects are low-low on the priority list for now!
Products used:
- Wall Paint – Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore
- Trim Paint – Simply White by Benjamin Moore
- Flooring – Home Decorators Collection Laminate in Dark Hickory from Home Depot (I think this color may be discontinued now, but here’s a link to a similar shade)
- Mantle from Wayfair – purchased unfinished and stained using Minwax stain in Espresso