Presenting My New Living Room!

The living room is finally functional! Furniture as been moved into it and the TV is mounted! We have purchased a new entertainment unit, bookcase, lamps and ceiling light. We still have a few things left that we would like to do to finalize it but there is no hurry. My purse can use the break!

As it turns out, the paint we put on the walls is nearly impossible to photograph. The color I chose (sumptuous silk) is a faux technique which employs 2 layers of paint, the topcoat being a metallic glaze. In most pictures it looks too coral, a few it looks too pink, and in a couple it even looks fuchsia. It is not. It is a rich dusty rose color and I love it.

I love the way the fireplace looks now. I am so glad I convinced Gary to paint over the dirty old sooty bricks. He scrubbed it first to try to clean it up, but it still looked like this:

Yuck! Not very pretty at all. But just look at it now! I always wanted a mantle for the fireplace so I could put a vase of flowers on it, and now I can! We have loaded it with pictures of the grandchildren for now.

Isn't that an astonishing before and after? Since the family portrait needs to be re-framed to fit our new decor, I have hung my grandmother's mirror over the fireplace for now. I really love it there, it just may stay!

And here are the flowers for the mantle! The wall color is pretty true in this picture. See that crown moulding? I painted every single one of those roses all the way around the room! No kidding! Want proof? Here you go!I used the wall color for the roses, and the ceiling color for the leaves, so it matches beautifully! I listened to a whole book on my iPod while painting those roses, and it was a long one, too! (It was The Potato Factory, by Bryce Courtenay, 23 hours and 22 minutes!)

The floor was a major pain in the you know where. This is what was beneath the carpet we installed in the early 80's, old pine board painted green in some spots and pink in others! (Should have left it, it matched the room...)

When Gary sat down to put the new cherry Pergo floor on, it was a crooked nightmare. He bought layers of (what's the word? luan?) wood and some floor leveler you kind of "dump" on, it was awful. He really stresses about things being level. Here he is working at it... you can tell he is thinking it is still not right. And here is a picture showing the floor all finished, level and all! With pre-haircut Kaylee in the princess chair. We stained the fireplace mantle cherry to match the floor. The chair was temporarily parked there while the TV was being mounted. (Walls are not that purply.)And mounting that TV on the wall, that was a job. Sure wish he had had someone other than me to hold that thing up for him! You can also see the new clock and the cherry A/V tower we put in. The surround sound speakers are mounted in the corners. And of course the walls are no way near that color.

Here is a picture of the ceiling before renovations. I can't believe those joint compounded ceilings were ever popular, looked like cottage cheese!

And here is a picture of the new light on the new ceiling. The roses carry on the theme started in the crown moulding. I got the light on eBay for a song. Aren't I the best shopper? It was just meant to be...

The Queen's loveseat has new lamps! I found the perfect gold lampshades with beads all around the edges, which give just the right Victorian feel. (At Lowe's!)

Here is the lamp spot-lighting our 4-generation portrait and a new poster I just put up. It declares "You are a rare bird." My son agrees that I am.

Since this husband of mine has not found a new loveseat to put in the bay window, we have hauled out our old recliners for now, and replaced the lampshade on the end table to match the other two lamps. I know they don't match the room, they are just temporary I swear. The new sheer curtains really brighten up the room also.

The most recent acquisition for the room is this cherry bookcase we found at Lowe's. The odd reflection on the wall is from the mirrored picture frame on the bookshelf, and it took us quite a while to figure that out. Duh.

So now all we want to do to finish off the room is to get a gas fireplace log to put inside the fireplace, hopefully one with a remote control, and to get the family portrait re-framed. It will then hang over the loveseat, the mirror is staying where it is!

I hope you enjoyed this trip around the living room! It was a hard spring being down 2 rooms, and just as I start to enjoy my newly spacious home, Gary announces, "So when shall we start the kitchen?" AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!