Peaches & Honey: Living Room Re-do

I made a resolution in January that I was going to lighten up and revamp my living room, and I have finally--in July--finished my project. To be fair, it only took me about a week to do 98% of the work. It took the 6 extra months for me to work up the nerve to paint that beast of a piano.

Nothing was wrong with my original decor, per se. It was nice; it just wasn't me. Darks, reds, and mushroom tones are lovely, but a little too serious for my lifestyle. The colors were beginning to not only bore me, but almost feel oppressive. I found myself not particularly wanting to spend much time in the living room, which was unfortunate, since that is where I have to spend a lot of the day refereeing my beasties. So I want the room to be sunny and bright. I want the room to feel like a breath of fresh air and to make me happy when I walk in.

Top: Before; Bottom:After

As a military spouse, I am required to move frequently and into God-only-knows-what-and-where. I like to mix things up a lot, so I have found that the best way to change color schemes easily is to go with neutral furniture (sofas, coffee table, etc). Then you can easily switch out accessories (like throw pillows, blankets, flowers, art work) and slap on a new coat of paint, and it looks like a different room. A couple of other tips I have picked up from growing up inside a furniture store is that every room should have at least one black thing somewhere, and that one good, bright accent piece is a fun way to add in personality.

I came up with a mood board featuring ideas and color schemes that I'd like to use as inspiration for the room. It really is best to begin with some concrete idea of what you'd like (a mood board is best for me, because I am a visual person) so that you don't go completely off the rails. The first thing on my to-do list was to get rid of all the red in the room, so I took out all the pillows/textiles/artwork (don't fear; I relocated it to our guest house!). At that point, I was beginning to have a pretty blank slate. I felt like the mushroom grey color on the backs of the bookcases made the room feel closed-in, so I repainted the bookcases a sky blue color. What a difference a coat of paint makes! The room automatically felt 2x bigger than it did earlier that afternoon.

Top: Before; Bottom:After

I picked up a few inexpensive fun throw pillows at Target and mixed them with a few that I already had, and then I got a couple of black and white striped Ikea pillow covers to add a little black into the mix.

The flower arrangements in the room helped all of the colors feel cohesive, but I needed something else to tie everything together. So I pulled out my crafts and did some finger painting during the Super Bowl. Bobby even helped ;)

It was right around this point that I decided to open up my Etsy shop, and I realized that I needed a work space. I had nowhere to store my supplies, and I was getting tired of finding glitter and pieces of felt in my bed. So I knew that I needed to make the living room much more multifunctional than it was. There is a somewhat awkward space in the front of the living room that we didn't really know what to do with when we moved in, so we initially gated it and made it a play area for Bobby. And that was fine for a while (aside from it being an eyesore), except he no longer played in it. It had become a place to toss toys, but it was essentially useless. I brainstormed over this and finally decided to get rid of the gates, move some furniture around, and re-purpose my childhood bookcase. I use the top half of the bookcase for my Etsy shop supplies, and the lower half is dedicated to toy storage.

Top Two: Before; Bottom Two:After

We also invested in a couple of inexpensive Ikea storage cubes and baskets to store toys. I moved my writer's desk into the guest house and got a cheap white table with a cool lucite ghost chair. I may have previously mentioned my affinity for lucite, no?

Top: Before; Bottom:After

I did an easy revamp of Bobby's Ikea table and chairs. They were previously stained an ugly olive green, which was junking up my vibes. So I spray painted the wood white (with gold-dipped feet) and painted the table top and seats with chalkboard paint. I literally spray painted about half of the entire living room. It's an obsession.

Top: Before; Bottom:After

Then I thought it would be fun to tie in the black and white from the pillows with an Ikea rug. I love this rug for a lot of reasons, but especially because it was $99. That way I don't sweat it being in a child's area, ya know?

And finally, something still just felt off. I finally put my finger on it- that boring, 1990s, cherry wood piano. A perfectly nice, perfectly boring piano from my childhood. I almost didn't have the balls to paint it, and I was a little afraid that my mom would kill me, but once she gave me her blessing, I decided to go for it. My friend and I decided that an emerald green would be sassy and memorable. So I picked up a can of Pantone Emerald, and that baby is now a statement piece.