Living Room Make over

It's done. It's been 5 years in the making and its done.

I've never been happy with the way the living/dining room has been put together. It's never felt cohesive or put together.

The room is difficult to arrange. Part of it is a "formal" dining room and the other part the living room.   I decided when I moved in that the "formal" dining room would become the living room squared. It just made no sense to use it as a dining room, I already had one in the kitchen.

The room is longer than it is wider and one wall is ALL windows. It gets great lighting regardless of the weather - which is good for Seattle people.  The other side is split in half by the hallway to the kitchen. So arranging the furniture is challenging.

I hired a young interior designer to come in and help me figure it out. Her suggestions were simple and easy to execute:

1. Rearrange - giving me specifics
2. Paint the fireplace wall with an accent color
3. Put up curtains

She later came over with paint samples and curtain samples. I followed her lead with the rearranging and paint yet deviated slightly with the curtains.  Her suggestions for the curtains were awesome, but I went the less expensive route.

 

Sadly I didn't take any "before" pictures like an idiot. I had planned to and thought I had, but I sure can't find them.  I have photos of the painting process but that's not very interesting.

All in all I'm extremely happy. I love having curtains - as do the kittens. They both helped tremendously - not. Linus in particular loves the curtains. He likes to hide behind them and then attack sister.  One of the curtain panels sits above the heat register, when the heat goes on it moves the curtain and that's game on for Linus.

My next step is new furniture. I really want a chocolate brown couch and pattern matching chairs.  I don't need new furniture, but really want it.  I figured in a year I'll have new furniture.  It'll take me that long to figure out what exactly I want. 

So I'm done for now. It was quite the learning lesson when it comes to hanging curtains, but it was a relatively inexpensive make over and one that really made it feel more homey in here.

Can't wait for the next Sunday dinner to show it off.