Tuesday, January 31, 2012

RE-Modeling: My Living Room Part 3

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, ALMOST ACCOMPLISHED.  7 days ago, I accepted a challenge organized by other bloggers to tackle my biggest project and I decided to tackle my living room which has been a storage room since we bought our house over a year ago.   If you're interested, Part 1 is HERE and Part 2 is HERE.   Above is how my living room looks today.  Confession Time.  I didn't finish painting. I still need to do touch ups every where.  Painting a dark color requires a lot of coverage/painting, but the big set back was a bad paint color match. Originally I was buying the paint at Lowes since they said they had the formulas for Benjamin  Moore's paint.  I thought I'd save myself time by buying the paint there instead of making a special trip to the paint store.  BIG MISTAKE!  I painted most of the room (yes, the second time this week since the first color SW Byzantium was too light) with Lowe's color match for Down Pour Blue and I was very disappointed.  It wasn't nearly as dark or deep as on the color wheel.  My husband agreed, but thought maybe I just needed another coat since we were painting a dark color over a light one.  Also to try to make it work, we decided we'd go darker on the trim and use Benjamin Moore Old Navy to help bring out more of the dark hues in the walls. I went to the Benjamin Moore store to buy the paint this time and OH MY GOSH.  The Down Pour Blue paint color from the BM store was TONS darker. 
CLOSE UP OF PAINT DIFFERENCE.   Sorry, my camera's flash was too harsh and I cannot figure out how to correct for that, but this pic gives you an idea of the color difference between Lowe's color match supposedly with the BM formula and paint bought directly from a Benjamin Moore paint store.   I thought I was saving time by buying my paint at Lowes, but I ended up losing time, because I painted most of the room only to have to paint over it again once I got the right color paint from BM.

HOW THE LIVING ROOM LOOKED WHEN THE PREVIOUS OWNERS LIVED HERE.  The walls were a light blue.  As I said in previous entries, we have been using the room as a storage room until this week when I took up this challenge.

RIGHT NOW.  This is how the living room looks as of this afternoon.  While we still have touch ups to do,  we did a lot in a short period of time considering that we had to work this in around our other activities (school, work, church, parties, home work, etc.).    The gold trumeau mirror over the mantel is new.  I've been watching ebay for one and I was even considering making one when I saw this one listed on Craigslist for $50.  Yes, you read that right.  If you've been in the market for trumeau mirrors then you know what a steal this was.  I pretty much raced over to buy it as fast as I could.  A young woman's grandmother died and she was selling off all her antiques for crazy low prices.  She said they weren't her style and she already had her house furnished.  None of the other things were my style either or I would have bought more. I was very excited about this Craigslist find.  The gilt scones are antiques that Reba had left over from her house remodel and gave me to use in mine.  The fireplace screen is relatively new. We found it at Tuesday Morning.  The framed oil paintings are from the living room in our old house.  The frames on the side wall are a mix of old and new.  Last night, I got into a panic because I knew there was no way I was going to have the living room close to done for the challenge, so my husband swooped in and helped and made me feel so much better. He painted the base boards and crown moldings with a primer and then with Old Navy.  Then, I showed him how I wanted to make a picture wall by re-using some of our old frames and filling them with new stuff like maps, play bills and black and white photographs, but hadn't had time to find something for them.   My husband went to his study and started going through all his old stuff.  He is a serious packrat and normally I give him a VERY hard time about it but it came in handy last night.  He came up with play bills for broadway shows we went to, maps of cities we lived in, old photographs and a bunch of other cool stuff to fill our frames.   He also found his bathroom hall pass from Kindergarten (it is over 30 years old!) that he kept for some reason.  I died laughing.  I am telling you now, it is going up on our wall some place. LOL!  And not only did he come up with the stuff, but HE HUNG IT UP FOR ME.  HE DID THE DESIGN HIMSELF! I was so tired and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the window since it is not in the middle of the room.  We have 87 inches on one side of it and only 70 inches on the other side.  My husband fixed it by making the wall art design asymetrical and going low so the window is just another form on the wall.  He is so BRILLIANT! That is why I love him. :D 
OUR LIVING ROOM 6 DAYS AGO.   As I said in my previous post, this was actually an improvement over how our living room has been for the last year.  We cleared out a lot of boxes to get it to this point. Yes, I know. YIKES! The color on the walls was the Sherwin Williams blue we decided was too light.

LIVING ROOM TODAY.   As I mentioned in the other entries, the sofa was in our old house.  It is a really nice quality sofa that we found at an estate sale when we were first married and we had just recovered it before our move so I wanted to keep it.  This decorating direction was directed around keeping it basically.  The gold lamps are new. I got them from Wayfair. They are Minka brand. They just came in today. I am definitely keeping them.  I love how retro they look.  The wall art is a mix of old and new. Some of it hung in our old house, but a lot of it is the result of my husband giving me material to put in frames.   I plan on buying a rug.  I am going to do an entry on that choice soon.  I am sorry to say I found a glass and metal coffee table and end table set on Craigslist that I wanted to buy, but the lady called me yesterday and said that she had listed the tables for too little and she was sorry but she was going to withdraw them.  I was, of course, a bit disappointed to not get the tables, but even more so, I was unhappy because I was hoping to have them by today for pictures.  Hopefully, I'll find some soon.  When I have my rugs, my coffee table and my new chairs in, I will definitely make a post on the living room so you can see the final reveal.  

LIVING ROOM 6 DAYS AGO.   The sofa wasn't really placed anywhere.  We did consider putting it on this wall under the window, but I think my husband and I both were more set on placing the sofa under the window at the end of the room.   However, that meant we had to figure out how to arrange the furniture to handle this weird high window.
PICTURE WALL TODAY.   Please excuse the blanket under the mirrored chest, but it is very heavy and I couldn't remove the blanket without help.  The mirrored chest is new.  It was a great buy at Last Call, the Neiman Marcus outlet here in Austin. This photo is mainly to give you an idea of how we handled the high window that is not centered to the room. The asymmetrical art work placement, especially the long horizontal art piece under the window, help make the window just another shape on the wall which is what I wanted.  Also I am really loving the chest there.  It breaks up the room into 2 distinct areas and that frees us up to do a second seating group in the other area. 
GOT IDEAS?  There isn't tons of space on this side of the room, but I definitely want to place some seating here. We have 2 BIG arm chairs that I thought of placing in front of the fireplace with a cube between them, but now I am not so sure.  I also really want a modern blue velvet arm/lounge chair with chrome legs.  If you see one for a good deal, please let me know. 
WRITTEN BY ELDAROSE

Updated 02/02 MY FEATURE ON THE BEST MOM BLOGS you haven't discovered yet is HERE so go find out what you've been missing out on!

The Challenge link party that got me started on this project:





OTHER LINK PARTIES I WILL JOIN:





































Stuff and Nonsense
;












It's Overflowing







Ivy and Elephants;

vif187



”Blog















Photobucket


Tickled Pink at 504 Main

50 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Rosemary,

      Thank you so much. I am so wiped out from trying to get it done. LOL. My husband said I exhausted him. There is still so much more to do, but I feel really good about getting it to this point. It looks like a living room at last. That is a HUGE improvement.

      Thank you for visiting our blog and leaving a comment.

      Sincerely,
      Eldarose

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  2. Wow! Such a bold color choice and I must say I'm LOVING it!

    Thank you so much for joining our "impossibilities" challenge and link party!

    Linda
    itallstartedwithpaint@gmail.com

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    Replies
    1. Linda,

      Thanks for coming by and leaving a comment. I'm so glad you feel the color is bold. And I'm even more glad you like it. I wanted to go for something new for me and this is about a 180 from the direction (grays and neutrals) that I thought I was going to go in. But, this is really speaking to me.

      Thanks so much for doing the challenge and getting me going!:D

      Eldarose

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  3. I LOVE the color- it's bright and bold and really makes the room! Although it sucks about the paint not matching- I'd be so upset! I'm hosting a Favorite Things linky party and would love it if you stop by and post something!
    -Melissa
    http://serendipityandspice.blogspot.com/2012/01/manic-monday-linky-party-3.html?utm_source=BP_recent

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    Replies
    1. Melissa,

      Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment. I'm so glad you like the color. I wanted to go bold so I'm digging the color, too. If anything, I am tempted to go DARKER which is incredibly bizarre for me bc my whole life I have disliked dark colors. The contrast is fun though so we'll see.

      And I was SUPER upset about the paint color match being so off when I realized the deal. I had painted most of the room so it cost me a lot of time and energy. I am going to go to the paint store from now on when I need a specific color, especially if it is a strong color. Their tints must be much better.

      Thank you for encouraging us to link up to your link party. Since it is late, I think we'll hold off until next Monday to participate.

      Sincerely,
      Eldarose

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  4. I love the color. We used some paint from Lowes and really regretted it! I am Ben Moore for life!

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    Replies
    1. April,

      Thank you for visiting and commenting. I'm glad you like the color. I am really loving it. I wanted to go bold and I think this is a good color for that.

      I'm sorry you had a similar bad experience buying paint at Lowes. I am a BM girl for life now too!

      Eldarose

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  5. It looks great. I would be afraid of such a bold color but it works in that room. I love all the treasures your hubby had to add to the gallery wall. Awesome!
    Ruth

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    Replies
    1. Ruth,

      I was totally afraid of this dark, bold color. I talk about my freak out in Part 1 and 2. But, yeah, I think it works in the room. I hadn't mentioned it, but what drew me into the deep blue color was that it gives me the same vibe as a French salon. I normally go for a French Country look, but I'm feeling a more modern, urban decorating urge in our new house. I am so in love with the gallery wall. It is a very eclectic mix so when you sit in the room, there is a lot to look at. I like the idea of entertaining my company when they are in the room. I like that myself when I am in restaurants and there are cool things on the walls. It is a great conversation starter. My husband did a great job with it. I was so tired by that point and told him what I wanted without any hope of finding the time to do it for the challenge and he did it so relatively quickly. We had the frames, we just needed the stuff for it. What is funny is that he said he saved all that junk (maps, play programs, ticket stubs, etc.) with the idea of using it for a display so it was like he finally got the opportunity he was waiting for. I had the frames and the place for it. He was very happy about it especially since I am constantly getting rid of junk and giving him a hard time about all the stuff he keeps for "some day".

      Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. It is much appreciated.

      Eldarose

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  6. I totally failed on the challenge...didn't even start my project. Yours, however, finished or not, looks great! Love that wall color and love how your husband helped you with the gallery wall. He must be creative in his own right. Thanks for sharing this beautiful room at Show & Tell.

    Sharon

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    Replies
    1. Sharon,

      Is it wrong that your comment made me feel better about not finishing my project? I tried really hard, but it was just too much to do around everything else we were suppose to do. I'm so glad you like what we've done so far. I am digging the wall color a lot. And yes, my husband is very talented visually. I was so relieved when he helped out and then he did a brilliant job handling the funky wall/window layout.

      Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.

      Eldarose

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  7. wow, that's a big change in that space. i love that color blue-it's darker than navy...perfect. i wish i had the nerve to do something like this, but my home is too small for that, i think.

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    Replies
    1. The change in the space is even more dramatic considering it was our storage room up until a month ago. I couldn't put a Xmas tree in it, because we had no place to sit in there. It was too full of boxes and junk. Now, it is a room and it is beginning to look like a living room. I am really excited about this progress and my husband is OVER THE MOON about it.

      I'm glad you liked the color. I think it works in the space. I wanted to go for bold and if anything, I am tempted to go even darker with it. It adds a lot of interest to the room.

      I don't know if this wouldn't work in a dark room. Sometimes a dark color can bring a lot of "presence" to a small room. People use dark, bold colors in bathrooms and dining rooms. I think the big thing is whether or not you want DRAMA. We have a family room where we can live very casually. Even in our old house which was a very small cottage, we had 2 living areas and that worked very well for us. When we got a new house I really wanted 2 living areas again bc we can junk out our family room and leave a clean front/living room if we have company over. In that situation, I feel like it is ok to go bold. Reba has a very strong red in her upstairs reading room and a very strong red and olive green wall paper in her guest bath. The only thing I wanted to avoid was being "girly." When we sold our old house, I saw my stuff as too feminine and frilly and I wanted to update our look.

      This is a very different look for our home, but so far, I am really liking it.

      Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.

      Sincerely,
      Eldarose

      Delete
  8. WOW! I love your paint color on the walls! I am so glad you linked up to our party because I have been thinking about a similar color!

    Thanks for the inspiration!

    blessings,
    karianne

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    Replies
    1. Karianne,

      I love the darker blue on the walls. I didn't think I would, but I really do.

      Thanks for hosting the challenge, for visiting and for leaving a comment.

      All much appreciated.

      Eldarose

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  9. The room is really pretty--what a difference the right paint color makes! Thanks for linking up to Share the Love Wednesday!
    Mary

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    Replies
    1. Mary,

      Thank you for the encouraging comment. So glad you liked it.

      Thanks also for hosting the link party.

      Eldarose

      Delete
  10. Great color .... room looks great!

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    Replies
    1. Ruthie,

      Thanks so much. I have been so anxious about the color change and the direction of the look, so I really needed the validation.

      I visited your blog and it is awesome. We are following it now.

      Eldarose

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  11. Stunning! The room has so much drama and the color really sets off your artwork!
    Thank you for sharing all your lovely new treasures at Potpourri Friday!

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    Replies
    1. Honey,

      Thank you for hosting PotPourri Friday. I am so glad you like the color. I was hoping it would make the art pop on the wall so thank you so much for your comment. It makes me feel like this is the way to go.

      Eldarose

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  12. I love the dark blue! It looks so posh! My living room is super dark already so if I went dark, it would always look black...which is a bummer because you're blue room looks so good! I'm doing a boring creamy yellow, which, if you knew me, may as well be beige...

    Congrats on your boldness! Both color and attitude!

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    Replies
    1. Posh? Wow. Thanks so much for saying that. I was trying to figure out how to describe the direction. I thought "adult" "modern" and then I was thinking after someone said it "sophisticated" was nice. But "posh" is like wow! What a huge compliment. Thank you.

      I am loving the dark blue much more than I thought I would. I don't think creamy yellow is boring. I love creamy yellow, it is so warm. I would normally do warm colors, but I was in the mood for a shakeup in my life.

      Thank you for your encouraging comment. It is much appreciated.

      We are following your blog now.

      Eldarose

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  13. This is so gorgeous! Love the color. My dining room is this color except we used a SW paint. I love how artwork and gold frames pop on navy blue walls.
    Happy to follow you!

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    Replies
    1. Tammy,

      Thank you so much. Now, I am fascinated what our SW paint color is. I like the color, but in the light, the blue is a bit too light I think. I am considering going a bit darker. If you would share, would love to know your color.

      Eldarose

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  14. Great team work. Huge job. Looks stunning.

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  15. Such great upgrades! Would you consider splitting up the big arm chairs and just seeing how one looks by the fireplace, maybe a little reading corner or something??

    Thanks so much for joining the challenge!
    Karah @ thespacebetweenblog

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    Replies
    1. Karah,

      Thank you so much for considering my decorating dilemma and giving a thoughtful suggestion. It is sincerely appreciated. I have thought about a reading nook type use, but the space is definitely large enough for 2 chairs and I think I would prefer symmetry if I can accomplish it.

      Thank you for hosting the challenge.

      Eldarose

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  16. What a beautiful wall color! Your living room looks so beautiful!
    Be a sweetie,
    Shelia ;)

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    Replies
    1. Shelia

      Thank you so much for your supportive comment. So glad you like where we are going with it.

      Eldarose

      Delete
  17. I love bold color choices and that blue is fabulous!! So glad you joined our Impossibilities Challenge!
    Kelly

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  18. I love it!! Thanks so much for linking up...Lisa Leonard Designs giveaway just started on my blog!! Stop by if you haven't entered yet...


    XO, Aimee

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  19. This is one of those "Wow" makeovers! Stunning difference and that blue is just fab. Your husband is definitely a keeper too. Am going to show your photos to my spouse because the blue is one of those I think might look good in our bedroom. You've just done a spectacular job (both of you)!

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    Replies
    1. Maggie,

      Thank you so much for visiting and leaving such a nice comment. Yes, my hubby can be pretty darn sweet. If you go blue in your bedroom, PLEASE share pictures. We will begin following you now to make sure to see if you do.

      Thanks again for the encouragement.

      Eldarose

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    2. Awww. We can't follow you. Your name links to yahoo.com. If you happen to get this reply and if you do have a blog, please let us know so we can follow it.

      Eldarose

      Delete
  20. Great makeover, very dramatic and simply stunning. I think I would have thrown a wobbly at the paint colour difference, Maureen

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment. Oh, yes, I was very peeved about the color difference and all that wasted time. But that is how you learn better, right?

      Eldarose

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  21. I took the impossibilities challenge too. It helped me start the year on a roll and got me motivated to take on several more projects as well.

    I am crazy for blue! And I have got to have color, real color. Color that says "I was not afraid to take a chance"! So, I applaud you for your new living room walls!

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    Replies
    1. I agree it was very helpful. I wouldn't have started or done as much as I have if they hadn't put the deadline out there. I resisted doing it because I felt I wasn't ready and then I began and things started to fall in place, but now I have to do a bunch more, but at least a lot has been done.

      I like the dark blue so much more than I would have imagined. But, I am a color person, too. I really wanted to be a white person, and I sorta am in my family room, but I couldn't resist color completely.

      Thank you for your encouraging comment.

      Eldarose

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  22. Looks great so far...can't wait for the finished product!

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  23. Lovely lovely!!! Thanks for linking up at Feathered Nest Friday!

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  24. Gorgeous mirrored chest! And I love the combo of the deep blue color on your walls with the gold frames--very sophisticated.

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  25. Looks great!! I have a huge link party going on with 20 other co-hosts if you want to come join :-)

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  26. LOVE the deep rich color that you chose for the walls. Color always makes art work pop!
    I am a lover of color...No white walls in my house!
    Your Living Room looks very elegant but cozy too!

    Hugs,
    Debbie

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