Im beginning to like change!

With everything going on to our house I find it hard to keep up with the blog! We both get home from work, eat dinner then spend the rest of our night until we're too exhausted to function working on the various projects. I'm actually kinda surprised with my blogging stamina thus far but that's what you get when you really like doing something, you find time for it. Right?
Do you remember when I promised forever ago that I would show you the progress of our living room? Well it's about time! It's here. The living room has become our refuge, It's where we sleep currently and it's where we eat haha. The other designated eating and sleeping rooms are inhabited by dust and power tools.



I didn't really take many before pictures but here are the listing pictures and a few random shots of the progress we've made along the way. I will in no way say I'm finished in this room but it's coming together nicely!
 The pictures from the listing are a little small, when I made them bigger they got blurry. I figure you can get the jest of it from these though!

The previous owners before:

The view from a certain point in the kitchen.

The previous owner did an interesting thing with the window dressings around the fireplace. It felt odd to me, unfinished almost. 

P.S. The curtains are for sale.. you can call dibs now if you'd like ;)

The corner that juts out is actually part of the bathroom. 

Moving Day:

We have pretty awesome family. I was able to capture their exhaustion.

Paint!:

Everything seemed to be brown in this room, the trim, walls, ceiling fan, fireplace, and mantle, were all brown. It made the space feel super small. So we opted for a cool grey to offset all of the warm colors.  

Mike's brother was planning on spending a few nights over while he was in town, little did either of them know what their weekend was going to consist of! 

Progress after paint:

It looks better with the grey right? the mantle was still chocolate brown, I ended up painting that. I've toyed with the idea of painting the brick but, I think what the fireplace needs is a beefier mantle. 

 Getting closer:

I've usually struggled with choosing the right colors to use in a space, I like a ton of different styles, and just hope when I put it all together it doesn't look like a hot mess. 

Here's a side note, when I was thinking of designing the living room all I could end up thinking about was the guest bedroom and once I had that vision in my head, I tried yet again to focus on the living room and all I could think about was our bedroom. I figured I should start with the spaces we live in daily anyways so focusing on the bedroom was fine, until we decided to open the closet up. (that's a whole nother story!)  It stalled from there since we can't exactly paint when there's plaster to be demo'd and sheet rock to be put up. But at least I have a vision! 

After the bedroom was virtually complete in my head the living room ideas started flowing.

I decided on black, white and green. I've leaned towards the earthier greens  which in-turn plays off the other earthy colors of the trim and fireplace. (once day we'll paint the trim white) It all started with the pillows I already had and the owl pillow I fell in love with instantly. If you've never heard of Society 6 you have to check it out!

My favorite way to figure out a layout for a picture wall is to tape up paper sized replicas of the frames. Mike made me that quilt rack for my birthday a few years ago, once I put the frames up i'll decide on which color to paint the quilt rack. 

I'll stop stalling, let the living room pictures commence!

Isn't he PERFECT!

The mantle needs a little help, The mirror needs to be hung and I need to figure out exactly how I want it to look. Everything in the living room besides "the big stuff" I got on sale or at goodwill. The two tables will eventually be put into the guest bedroom so we'll see how the coffee table situation progresses. 

The TV set up took us roughly 5 trips to Ikea and many late nights. We kept needing to return different pieces. It's all a little bare still.

I have some great plans for the cute pig!
Some people have asked where I got a few things so heres a quick rundown

From Ikea:
Couch
Rug
Curtains
TV console

From Marshalls:
Large Black mirror

Goodwill:
Vases
Candles
Partylite glass cylinders
Pig

Society 6:
Owl pillow

Well, there you have it folks, the living room progress, I'm quite in love so far.

Until next time!

xo Breia

P.s. Good thing my mom n sister are willing to go shopping with me at the drop of a hat. Decisions are easier to make when you have ppl who let you bounce ideas off of.. Can you guess who said I might want to rethink a white rug and who said "get it!!" ;)