New Couch!

Oh, the living room.  Perhaps I haven't shown a true before photo, so here you go.  This is the day we painted, so everything is pushed to the centre.  

Aaaand after painting - Network Gray by Sherwin Williams.  I love the colour, and in person it felt more "put together" than this photo really shows.  However, the main issue was seating.  The couch could hold up to 4 people, but in reality who wants to watch a movie shoulder-shoulder?  And those armchairs are beautiful but not those most comfortable for movie-watching either.  And maybe it's a small thing, but I was always annoyed that the outlet under the window could be seen with the cords to the lamp.  But the room is really long, so it's a bit awkward to have the couch pushed all the way against the far wall (plus then where would we put the piano?)  And so we finally took the plunge to....

Sectional-land!

It feels so much better in this space.  The long end under the window, and still space to sit directly facing the TV.  What I love most is that it makes the room so much more comfortable.  I can lay down and stretch out on the long side with inches to spare!  And 3-4 people can easily sit on it and not feel crowded + actually be facing each other.  

One note of caution - we've had issues because the sectional is 2 pieces, and they weren't connected together very well.  Since the short side isn't against a wall, when you sit down on it the couch shifts backwards and pulls away from the other part.  The fastener wasn't well designed and so currently the couch isn't even put together at all.  Still trying to decide what to do about it...so a word of caution to ask about it when you purchase!

Plus a few bonus pictures of some Christmas decor, just because:

(That "Joyous Noel" is actually a box of records on a plate stand!)

(Our Honeymoon Ornament - pics from Greece if you missed them!)

(The 2 front frames are just filled with wrapping paper from Target - and the reindeer I traced from a Google image and cut out myself.)

So that's the new couch!

Pantone Colour of the Year

Pantone chooses a new colour each year - and this year it's Radiant Orchid.  I love how bright and bold it is!  Here are a few ways that people are using it, some bold, some subtle...

PS this art is almost EXACTLY what I'm imagining over the couch upstairs...

For all image links and credits, see my Pinterest board!

New Year, New Room

Happy New Year!

I'm feeling some renewed excitement about this little blog...gonna try to make it last!  Just downloaded Adobe Lightroom for photo editing, plus took some pics of a few house projects we're up to.

We have the coolest "bonus" living space in this house, which I love.  Until recently, it's mostly been the collection place for all the things we didn't have a real spot for.  But we've been working away at it slowly, and it's finally starting to feel useful.

Here are some before shots of the room:

Prepping the room for painting (it was a well-loved playroom before :)

Here's a progress of the colour: Site White by Sherwin Williams

We decided to do an accent wall in here - Loyal Blue by Sherwin Williams.

This is where I start to have doubts...it seemed really overpowering when all the other walls were blank.  Plus, the first few coats were much brighter blue than I was wanting.  But we pressed on, planning to put white bookcases on the lower half of the wall.

Let's just say it took a WHOLE gallon to get it to the right colour!

It's a huge wall!  See what I mean about feeling a bit menacing...

But here it is with the bookcases - much better!  They are actually the Billy bookcases from Ikea.  The 2 on the outside + the 1 in the centre are the single wide size.  Then 2 double wide to each side of the centre (further down you can see them open).  This picture is before we put on the wood top...

Like I said, the collection spot.

We've since bought a new couch (I'll post that soon!) so our old one came upstairs.  I'm planning to paint my own BIG piece of art to go above the couch - I'm thinking some navy, turquoise, gold?  Something abstract.

Here's one going down the stairs - the paint looks great, but the wall is so empty!

Here's an updated view of the blue wall, with the wood on top of the bookcases.  We had a friend find the wood and cut it for us, then we stained and varnished it.  We bought those lamps at a garage sale - they have new shades (from Target), but need to be spray painted.

Here they are open!  So nice to get the books out of boxes and onto shelves.  Also love that the doors close to look less cluttered.

I found this pillow at Chapters and had to bring it home.  Those are the colours I was dreaming about!
Bryce picked up the chairs at the MCC Thrift in Elmira, then we painted them.

We've come a long way from this...

To this...

But still have a long ways to go!  Coming soon I'll share some more pics of that new desk nook!