Living Room {my house}

The living room in our house has undergone many transitions since we moved in. Painting it was only the latest development and I am sure there will be more to come. 

This is what the living room looked like when we bought the house:

Believe it or not, the "custom drapes" were actually advertised in the flyer on the house as if they were a good thing. We wanted those spider infested 1970's drapes gone as soon as possible. Unfortunately custom shutters take time. So we were unable to part with the drapes for a couple months. And what we discovered after taking them down was they weren't actually painted behind. After living with white drape lines on our walls for almost a year, we finally did something about it a couple weeks ago. Ian patched the holes, sanded down all the walls and painted. 


We went with a grey color. If you have never dealt with grey paint before, apparently there are way too many grey choices. Brown-grey, green-grey, blue-grey, purple-grey. It was hard to figure out what we wanted. We ended up going with a purple-grey and like our choice. 

I can't find a before picture off hand, but after painting we re-did the layout of the room a little bit and it really opened the room up. Also, I had to rehang my photo wall and I am glad I did. It looks a lot more uniform the second time around. 


Before:

Now:

I am really grateful that years ago I worked at Pottery Barn and snagged most of the stuff in our living room with my amazing discount. We definitely wouldn't have the furniture that we do without that discount. 


Here are some of the details of the room. 

This is probably my favorite piece of furniture in our house. I coveted this chair for a year or so before finally getting it. And given that Pottery Barn no longer sells this exact chair, I am glad we got it all these years ago. The pillow we picked up in London before moving back to the states. This chair is actually where I take all of Isla's month pictures. When I turn the chair around to face the windows, it has great light and makes a perfect spot to plop a baby and go all paparazzi on her. 

Spike was an engagement gift from one of Ian's friends. He is always a conversation starter given that his assets are on display. 

There are still a few decorative touches I would like to add to the room. Things like picture ledges on the wall with the big window to display our photo books. And eventually finishing the photo wall, though I have a feeling that one will take time. 

And you may have noticed that even though I have two kids, there are no toys or the such in here. After trying out toys in the living room, I decided I enjoyed having it more as a retreat away from the kid stuff during nap time and in the evenings. Toys do migrate in here, but at the end of the day are picked up and stored in another room.