The living room is FINISHED!!

and by finished, I mean, it will never be painted again(by us at least)!

Everything is still in disarray and hardly anything is back in its place. Except the furniture and the TV. Heaven forbid we not have cable or access to the dang Xbox.  But I have a lot to do. We need window treatments, I'm thinking the desk is clashing with the walls, and I need to figure out how to make slipcovers for our curved-back chairs and I need two matching lamps for either side of the TV.

Anyway, here is the before. It was a yellow-greenish-tan mess. Not a bad color, but not GREAT!

The dresser you see holds our massive flat screen. Not thrilled that it is the focal point of the room, but let's face it, we watch some TV here! Maybe one of these days I can figure out a way to disguise it, like framing it and mounting it...?

After forking out $60+ on Valspar primer and paint in one, I talked to a guy at Sherwin Williams and he told me that Lowe's and HD market their paint to make customers believe that you only need that expensive paint. However, if you want the true color, you need to have a blank slate. In other words, the only way for paint to really show true tones is to prime your walls with white(or slightly gray)primer and then paint. Makes sense to me!  But, I wasn't happy after I paid over $60 then another $15 for a gallon of primer. Next time, I will just prime and buy the regular ol' plain paint and save myself about $20 and some stress! After we painted, we only used about a quarter of the second gallon we bought, anyway.

Here it is primed

And here it is FINISHED!!

We managed to get this painted canvas, that we scored on CL for $30, up above the sofa. This sofa will be the death of me. I.hate.it. It slumps in in the back and is basically impossible to get off of. I have vowed that there will be a new sofa in this room by the beginning of the year. Crossing my fingers!! 

It has taken me a couple of days to get used to the wall color. It wasn't love at first sight like I thought it was going to be. But, it's growing on me.

Look how well the painting blends with the paint color!

On the opposite side of the room is our massive TV and a CL dresser. I hope to find matching lamps to flank either side of the TV or something of the sort.

In the photos, the color looks more sage-y, and it actually is a bit more sage than I expected, but I think I like it.

Here is the desk against the walls

Remember, this was right after painting, so please excuse the disaster area!

The matching slipper chairs were purchased last month at a community yard sale for wait...$35 for the pair!

Can you believe it? They are only about a year old and she decided they didn't work in her bedroom anymore! Absolutely pefect condition! I thought I could live with the fabric, but I'm thinking about reupholstering or slipcovering. I would rather sew a cover, but everytime I think about it, it makes me cringe. How am I going to make it tight around that curve in the back?  Any ideas..or tutorials I should know about?

Check out these stems!!

Gorgeous!

So, the desk drawers are clashing and now I'm contemplating what color to paint them.

White to match the body?
Gray?
Bright color??
Any ideas are welcome!

Sea Salt and Driftwood

After months of staring at our ugly green-yellow-tannish walls, I have finally decided on a paint color for our living room walls. I have been debating and finally narrowed the colors down to three, Contented by SW, Sea Salt by Valspar and Sea Salt by SW. Luckily, a friend I've known my whole life works at the paint center at Lowe's, any stranger would probably dismiss me after pulling all of the paint fans of brands they don't even carry. After having her mix the 3 colors and taking them home and trying the samples out, I chose Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams.

My official inspiration for this room comes from this bedroom at studio ten 25.

Isn't it beautiful??  I absolutely love the colors and love how bright the paint makes the room feel! Our current paint color is drab and uninviting. The paint color in this bedroom is Rainwashed by SW and is currently in my stepdaughter's room. Rainwashed is a little saturated for our living room, but when I saw Sea Salt in this room,  I fell in L O V E!! I had to have it!

So it's official!! I will be painting the living room within the next two weeks! I'm so exciting to have some bright and relaxing color on the walls and get rid of drab and gross green!

The Z Gallerie mirror in the second and third photo was giving me a panic attack. I wanted.it.now. Unfortunately, it's out of our price range. But I did score a gigantic mirror from Hancock Fabrics for only $39! There was no tag and no info on the mirror to indicate any price. It was sitting in front of another gigantic mirror of the same size and that one was currently $250 on sale 30% off. The young salesperson said he figured MY mirror was the same price. After calling around for over 15 minutes, he told me my mirror was only $39! I wanted to kiss him! Not many people will go out of their way to spend that much time on the phone researching prices. I'm grateful he did! It made my day! 

Now if I can only get my living room to look like this....

I picked this up over at a' la mode. Love the drapes!  I'm not sure of the original source, but the young guest blogger from the post has some wonderful design tips! Check out Michaela at Michaela Noelle Designs!

Also, on a recent trip to the in-law's at Pickwick Lake, I collected a ton of driftwood and shells! I can't wait to get to work collaborating a centerpiece of some sort to tie in the Sea Salt paint! Have I mentioned I love beachy stuff?? Here are some ideas with driftwood and shells I love!

PB Teen

 Shells with sand

Which is similar to the centerpiece we created for my wedding here

How about this mantle covered in driftwood and seashells! My kinda art. Actually, check out the whole web page filled with driftwood art! Karen Miller is obviously a talented artist, and the alligator made from driftwood!