I like color-a lot. At our old house, the living room had red walls, a bedroom had navy and the dining room was a sage color. We loved it all. But we bought a dark navy blue couch when we moved in. And Donald bought red curtains for the windows. Donald made the point that he thought we had enough color going on and didn't need much on the walls. I saw his point and was fine with a neutral color, but I seriously disliked the barely there color in the living room. I would have been ok had it actually been beige. What upset was one of the rooms we spend the most time in was ugly to me. I wasn't completely happy in there. Also, I was so over my "gallery" wall. Stuff basically got hung very quickly and then I grew tired of it. But again, we couldn't decide on what to do so everything remained as it was.
Then while I was pregnant, we ordered two new living room pieces from Target-a red cabinet and TV stand. They were brand new on the website and we thought they would look great in the living room. The TV stand was damaged upon arrival so we had to return it. The only problem was, they were completely out of red but had it in yellow. I wasn't sure about this. A red cabinet on one wall, a yellow (a weird color yellow at that) TV stand on another, then the blue couch and the red curtains. Goodness.
But yellow showed up and it grew on me. So it stayed. So did the walls.
But yellow showed up and it grew on me. So it stayed. So did the walls.
Finally after pouring over pictures on Pinterest, I knew what I wanted. I wanted greige-not beige, not grey, but a mix of the two. I wanted this on three of the walls and I wanted a navy blue accent wall with a complete re-do on the gallergy wall. And I wanted deep yellow/mustard/saffron accents. We went to Home Depot and to Sherwin Williams. We'd heard from several people SW was more expensive, but such a better quality paint. We agreed on a color and Donald painted while I was away at the beach for a girl's trip and Stella was with my parents.
So after nearly eight years, we have a new living room and I LOVE it.
So, without further adieu, the before and afters.
The Window Wall
The most noticeable change here is just the curtain swap.
Everything else went back where it was.
The most noticeable change here is just the curtain swap.
Everything else went back where it was.
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I've probably stated this before somewhere, but we wanted the artwork, pictures and basically the stuff hanging on our walls to have real meaning or attachment to. Yeah, I occasionally see pieces I'd love to have in the house, but I'd probably tire of it before long. There are only a handful of things on our walls that were purchased just for the sake of purchasing them but we do truly love them. The picture above the chair was something either Donald or I (can't remember to save my life) took on our honeymoon. This was the Alley of Oaks at Boone Hall Plantation outside of Charleston.
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I liked the teal/turqoise lamp in the living room, but it no longer went with everything so it found a new home at the beach and fits in perfectly. It took a while, but I finally found a lamp I liked for the space. I knew I wanted a burlap shade which sounds easy enough, but I'd bought the base separately at Goodwill. Finding a shade to fit the base (without having it in hand while shopping) proved difficult. But I like this and think it looks great.
This is the best picture I could get.
During the day there's too much back-light from the sun
out the window so you can't even make out the lamp.
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Couch Wall
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The frame above the three canvases reads "BRYAN". I ordered it off of Groupon Goods for our anniversary or Christmas a few years ago.
Below our surname are canvases of us becoming a family.
The one of the left is from our wedding day and was a gift from The Bratchers. They boughtt us the gift certificate for the canvas and we picked our favorite photo from the day.
The middle is Donald's head on my belly when I was pregnant.
The last one on the right is Stella at four months old.
The last 2 canvases were purchased off of Groupon Goods and
both images were shot by Amanda Gray.
Everything went back up the same with the exception of a swap
between a plate and a picture on the far left side. The plate got moved to new spot in the re-do while the picture is just a cheap re-print (I'm talking super cheap-just a few bucks) that I believe came from Wal-Mart (when I still shopped there). But, here's why it's hanging: It's an exact replica of a wrought-iron chair I had in my room growing up. It's has tons of color in it (which, obviously I love) and I just really love the print. I purchased the frame separately and love it. That's the rule for me-to love all aspects of whatever it is hanging.
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Close-up picture of the bookshelf and Stella's craft cart.
The bookshelf was given to me by my Aunt Ann Marie when we moved into our old house.
The A to Z bookends came from an antique store in Powder Springs. They are ceramic, sturdy and the perfect color yellow and I was instantly drawn to them when I saw them. They are one of my favorite things about this bookshelf.
The bookshelf was given to me by my Aunt Ann Marie when we moved into our old house.
The A to Z bookends came from an antique store in Powder Springs. They are ceramic, sturdy and the perfect color yellow and I was instantly drawn to them when I saw them. They are one of my favorite things about this bookshelf.
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In February, I bought the IKEA Raskog cart on sale. I wanted Stella to have her own place for her arts and crafts stuff in the living room without it being a mess and I wanted it close to the kitchen so she could be near me while I washed dishes or fixed a meal.
The top basket is for markers, crayons, stamps & paint.
The middle basket is for play-do & accessories, Crayola Wonder paint & kinetic sand.
The bottom basket is for coloring books, Crayola Wonder paint sheets
and dry erase marker book.
The curtains came from Marshalls and were on clearance.
I wanted something light and airy and these work wonderful.
They are long and bunch at the bottom but I like it actually.
This little "shelf" is really 2 of these wooden cubes stacked on top of one another. I bought three identical cubes from Goodwill for a few bucks each.
The third one is at the beach in a closet holding shoes.
The third one is at the beach in a closet holding shoes.
I put these two in the corner by the couch and wall/window to be a sort of bookshelf to
hold magazines, my kindle, chargers, headphones, etc.
The globe is from Goodwill. It was around $8. The only thing wrong with it was the equator was peeled up about an inch. All it took was a dab of superglue and it looked brand new. I've always wanted a globe and was super excited to find this one.
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I really want a better shelf in this space. This was around $10 from The Home Depot Clearance Center right after we moved in. We bought a few of them and placed them around the house. They have a few I like at Hobby Lobby so I'm hoping to find something that will work. I want to to be more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Or at least mine.
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The plate on the left is of various historical places in Marietta. We just adore this area and want to eventually get back to it. Donald and I did the Marietta Christmas Home Tour for a few years and I got this from the visitor's center.
I don't remember where I got the Georgia plate, but I'm thinking Love Street in Smyrna.
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The plates above the doorway into the kitchen are seasonal plates I got from an estate sale at the end of the street when our neighbor, Mr. Joe Worley died. They are up as Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. I'd like to think of the whole room as seasonal-the seasons of us.
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This picture (You smell better than the biggest tulip in the whole world) hung in my childhood house for years. I used to sit at look at it all the time. It was always one of my favorite pieces at home. That and a Norman Rockwell painting that hangs in our kitchen. When I moved out of my parents house and in with Donald, my mom handed me a box right as I was getting ready to pull out of the driveway.It was this plate. I asked her if she was giving it to me. She told me she'd always had two of them. One for me and one for her. I had no idea all those years that she had two. Now, it's one of my favorites in my own house now.
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The black mirror came from my Mom, but second-hand. She originally gave it to my brother and his girlfriend, but it wasn't their taste.
They asked if I liked it, which I did, so it became mine.
The tree cross section with our initials/wedding date is something I ordered off of Groupon (I love the randomness they have). We did a tree/Fall theme with our wedding and I thought this went great with it. Confession: we've been married over five years, but I just ordered this this year. It's probably supposed to be a Christmas ornament but I love it so much that I just hung it on the doorknob on the mirror to display year-round. It was $5.
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Gallery Wall
So this just kind of got thrown up after we moved. We moved the weekend before the fourth of July and had a joint housewarming/birthday party for me about three weeks later. Some of the pictures have been changed out and a few of the frames have been shifted or swapped, but it's mostly remained the same for about eight years.
And, of course I love the pictures, but I've never been happy with the wall.
And, of course I love the pictures, but I've never been happy with the wall.
Side note: The dark rectangle on the far right is a paint swatch taped to the wall.
Soo.....ready? I'm just so in love with this wall now!!
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The accent wall is essentially the evolution of us-Steph and Donald.
It reads from left to right (hence the arrow).More detail and close-ups on each piece below.
The brown ottoman is a used leather knock-off from Revive Consignment.
See, that's how I use up my in-store credits.
It's low, so Stella can sit here to put her shoes on.
Underneath it is a large, metal, enamel coated baking pan from Goodwill.
I use it to keep Stella's shoes in, out of the way and dirt up off of the floor.
The highchair was mine as a little girl and used for my dollies. The red bear was at my grandparent's house. I"m pretty sure my Grandpa used it to bribe Stella into hugging him.
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The top picture is a photograph of our initials carved into a tree on Donald's grandparent's land in Worth County. We started dating in December of 2001 and the following year he gave me this framed picture for Christmas. Then he took me down the road to show me where he had carved it. We didn't have much money then and this was such a perfect way for him to show me how much I meant to him. We ended up using this exact picture in our wedding invitations.
The gold mirror came from Goodwill for $4.94.
The hangers pictured on this wall came as a pack from Goodwill. I printed off this map off of Pinterest a while back but I can obviously change this out easily.
I love that I can have seasonal stuff hanging up whenever I want.
Next on the timeline is the white 6-photo frame. These were some of our first engagement photos taken by Donald's cousin, Justin at Cheatam Hill in the Fall.
The "B" is leather or something similar. I don't remember where I purchased it.
The arrow is one of the most recent purchases and it came from Hobby Lobby.
Again, it's showing the directions The Bryan's are going/our future.
The "B" is leather or something similar. I don't remember where I purchased it.
The arrow is one of the most recent purchases and it came from Hobby Lobby.
Again, it's showing the directions The Bryan's are going/our future.
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old apartment in Athens on moving weekend.
This center black/white frame came from Goodwill for less than $10. It's the only "empty" frame. I'd like to get family pictures taken and put one of those in it.
The gold/white plate came from Revive consignment in Smyrna and was $2.99.
The top photo is one of my favorites of me from our wedding day.
I feel like I had pure joy radiating from me.
The "Hello Spring" print in the hanger was a freebie from Pinterest.
It's since been replaced with a different printable.
Again. love the ease of changing these out with the clamp pants hangers.
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The 3-slot frame up top is from all three locations we took photos-
St. Joseph Catholic Church from our morning 11:00 am ceremony,
The Marietta Square (where we considered marrying) and
The Marietta Educational Garden Center
where we had our second afternoon ceremony and reception.
Another wedding day photo-op coming out of the elevator at the hotel.
The silver/pewter-esque frame is pretty old and I think it came from Wal-Mart.
The white frame with the black and white collage is of Stella at two months old.
These were taken in the grass on The Marietta Square. I have another in-color collage of more pictures from that day framed in an identical frame (both from Goodwill) in her room.
So there it is, the new living room.
We still have a few things to do or things I'd like to change.
I'd love to find slip covers for the plaid chair and ottoman, but I hate paying full price for things. And I hate ordering things online only to find they don't fit and then have to return them. At the very least, it needs to be cleaned. We got this chair at a yard sale right after we moved into our rental home in Marietta so it's an older piece. They are both really good, well made pieces though. The chair back reclines and the ottoman has storage. The color doesn't really fit in with the decor, but I'm hoping to find a reasonable solution soon.
Like I said above, I want a new shelf above the TV.
I'd like to find a slip cover for the couch too. I love the color and how it mirrors the color on the opposite wall, but we didn't realize how much the sun was going to bleach the couch. And how easily stains/spots would show up on a solid colored couch. I can assure you our next couch will be patterned. I bought a navy slipcover from BB&B I think but it didn't fit right with the pillows. Plus, it was so scratchy. I had intended to fit it and return it immediately if it didn't fit. Obviously that's the smart thing to do, but this didn't happen. It got piled up in a ball on the rocking chair in our bedroom under a pile of Donald's clothes and forgotten. Then a caramel apple melted on it out of a backpack. Ahh, life.
So it got washed and I wasn't able to bring it back.
Thankfully I never pay full price at BB&B with coupons.
I'm hoping to sell it on the online facebook garage sale sites or at Revive Consignment.
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